The Barack Obama reelection campaign opened a Charlottesville office on the Downtown Mall Sunday to provide a center for Obama's supporters to congregate and volunteer for the president's 2012 bid.
Charlottesville Vice Mayor Kristin Szakos, a campaign volunteer, said more than 180 people attended the office's opening.
"There is already so much excitement," Szakos said. "Because the Democrats know who our nominee is, it's an advantage that we can start now."
More than 1,000 volunteers have expressed interest in helping the campaign at its new office. Volunteers will make calls from the office's phone bank, help register voters and go door to door to speak with people about Obama's campaign.
"Volunteers who make calls and lick the envelopes and show up on people's door steps and smile and greet folks - that's the backbone of the campaign," Virginia Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Charlottesville, said at the opening event. "It's critical that we provide network for the volunteers."
Deeds said it was "unusual" for a campaign center to open this early in the election season. The Charlottesville office is the seventh campaign center to open in Virginia this season.
"It signals the dedication to ensuring volunteers are engaged as soon as possible," Deeds said. "It also signals the strength and the confidence of the campaign."
Volunteers for the Charlottesville office will put an emphasis on personal communication to rally support for the president's campaign.
"The people make their choices about elections based on who they talk to," Szakos said. "It's more effective than ads, than what they hear on the TV. It's face-to-face and voice-to-voice contact that matters."
Third-year College student James Schwab, the president of the University Democrats, said the Charlottesville office would facilitate the group's involvement with Obama's reelection campaign.
"It's always easier to communicate with an organization when you know where they are based," Schwab said. "It's easier to get and drop off forms, to get and drop off lists, and it will really just serve us going forward"
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