Young Progressives Firing Up Grassroots Campaigns Across the Country

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Young Progressives Firing Up Grassroots Campaigns Across the Country

By Julia Edwards
Updated: April 9, 2012 | 5:55 a.m.
April 8, 2012 | 12:10 a.m.
Richard A. Bloom


The day Carlos Odio walked down the halls of the Executive Office Building next to the White House to tell his boss he was quitting his job, he assumed he’d be delivering a shock.

Odio was deputy associate director of the White House Office of Political Affairs, where he consulted on Latino affairs, all the while knowing, he said, “change doesn’t start in Washington.”

His supervisor was Patrick Gaspard, now executive director of the Democratic National Committee, who said he was saddened to hear that Odio would not be working on President Obama’s reelection campaign.

“But I can’t say that I was surprised,” Gaspard said. “Carlos has an abiding passion for grassroots activism.”

Odio went on to direct the Candidate Project, an arm of the New Organizing Institute that has more than 7,800 pledges from progressives who plan to run for a political office at various levels of government in 2012. His transition from national to local politics is being mimicked by other organizations and activists—mostly young ones—across the Left.


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http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/young-progressives-firing-up-grassroots-campaigns-across-the-country-20120408