SCDems News
Island native goes to work for Obama
July 7, 2008
Like a carefree twentysomething, Hilton Head Island native Gillian Bergeron has spent the last several months ping-ponging her way across America. But 17-hour workdays and the pressures of leading a grassroots, mostly volunteer effort to get Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama elected president have been anything but carefree.
Like a seasoned veteran of the campaign trail, Gillian, 24, speaks of her job in terms of states visited and battles won. South Carolina was amazing, she says. Pennsylvania was rough. Texas was inspirational.
She started her journey in Charleston, just out of college, working as the Lowcountry Regional Volunteer Coordinator for Obama's campaign. Obama's success in the South Carolina primary got her noticed, and she was sent to do the same thing in Alabama, and then Texas, and then Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania was the toughest assignment, she says. In northeast Pennsylvania, the volunteers -- many of them white, like Gillian -- were met with racial slurs, and Obama's campaign signs were burned during a St. Patrick's Day parade in Scranton.
After Obama won the Democratic presidential nomination, Gillian was given a new assignment, this time promoted to deputy state field director for Colorado, where the Democratic National Convention will be held in August.
I caught up with Gillian (whose very proud mother, islander Terry Bergeron, is a self-titled "Obama Mama") recently to find out about her time on the trail so far.
Question. What's your new position?
Answer. I'm the Colorado deputy field director. Basically the field
director (Kevin Puleo, the same guy I was working for in Charleston) runs the entire state's on-the-ground voter contact effort, and I work directly under him.
Q. What are your day-to-day duties? What are the hours like?
A. I usually travel all over the state -- the conservative parts like Colorado Springs to the liberal spots like Boulder -- to talk to staff and fellows (we have a major fellowship program here made up of roughly 130 volunteers) to see how they're doing, what's working, what needs to be worked on and offer guidance on various aspects of our field program here in Colorado. The hours are as crazy as ever: I'm usually in at 8:30 a.m. and head home around 1 a.m. on a regular day. Just wait until we get closer to Nov. 4.
Q. Where do you live while you're working on-location in different states?
A. I've been put up in hotels, but they get very lonely very quickly. In South Carolina it made sense to rent an apartment because I was there for nine months. But I usually stay with supporters in each state I visit. It's a great way to not only meet our people, but get tapped into the local grassroots movement and learn about where I'm living from a local. Nothing can substitute that kind of knowledge, and while it's been interesting, I've yet to have a negative experience after six states (South Carolina, Alabama, Texas, Pennsylvania, New Mexico and Colorado).
Q. Why was the grassroots effort in South Carolina so successful?
A. It worked because we did something that had never been done before in a presidential race -- at least not anywhere near the level we did it in South Carolina. We combined something amazing and powerful, like community organizing, with something that tends to be ugly and brutal, like politics. We built strong relationships with our volunteers that resulted in what I have to suspect was one of the largest political movements to take place in recent South Carolina history -- and I'm proud to say those relationships still are alive and well, even from all the way across the country. We had seven Lowcountry volunteers fly to Houston to help us for the primary/caucus in March, and then they went to North Carolina to do the same. It was unprecedented.
Q. What part of that is being carried over to the general election?
A. A lot. What we did in South Carolina was incredibly successful and proved that the community organizing formula of politics works when executed well by people that believe in it and in their candidate the way we do. We've been able to engage youth, the politically inactive or disenfranchised, crossed a lot of party lines, crushed a lot of stereotypes, and created a movement that has expanded out to the entire country. All of these factors will play an integral part in the general election.
Q. What did you think of Obama's decision to not accept public campaign finance money for his campaign? Does that make your job harder?
A. The best thing about my job is that I don't deal with money, I only deal with people. While it may have made our finance department's job harder, everyone on this campaign is really dedicated to this "change in Washington" we keep hearing about. I think a lot of people would agree that the first step toward that change is changing the way political campaigns are paid for. On Obama's first day in the White House, he won't owe anything to anyone except the regular people who put him there, as opposed to PACs, lobbyists, and special interest groups. This is why I was drawn to him and his campaign to begin with.
Q. What has been the most exciting part of this adventure so far?
A. It's hard to say. I still remember waking up in Charleston on my first day of work and thinking, "I can't believe I'm working for Barack Obama." Since then, the win in South Carolina was probably not only my most prized moment on the campaign, but in my lifetime thus far. Then, feeling the unmatched enthusiasm of 750 Texans showing up for a Web site training on our first Sunday afternoon in town was incredible. And now, being in a battleground state like Colorado -- every day we work like we're 11 points down with a week to go. It's all exciting.
Q. What about the most difficult?
A. Overcoming the challenges Pennsylvania had to offer was difficult, but good for all of us. For some of my staffers in northeast Pennsylvania, they still say that particular job made them a legitimate organizer and confirmed their commitment and desire to be a part of this.
Q. What's your buddy Patrick Jones, who was working as deputy war room manager for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's campaign, up to these days?
A. He's still living in New York. I'd imagine that much like myself, he needs some recovery time from the campaign lifestyle; it can be brutal.
Q. Have you seen and spoken to Obama since he won the nomination? What are your thoughts on his attitude and his chances?
A. I've had the pleasure of meeting Sen. Obama a few times, but not since the nomination. Honestly, I've been more consumed by the outlook and enthusiasm of the volunteers and staffers who have been working for months to make this happen. As for his chances, we will continue to keep doing what we're doing, talking to people one by one and organizing communities with activism. We still have a lot of work to do, but man, we feel good.
Q. Do you still love what you do?
A. Hands down, more than ever.
The Island Packet
