News Articles Describe New Obama Offices

Philadelphia Inquirer:

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/16376921.html

Excerpts:

"Over the weekend, Obama campaign staffers trained 2,000 Pennsylvania volunteers to help in telephone fund-raising and voter registration, which Smith said was where the campaign was now focusing its efforts. Smith said that 47,000 Pennsylvanians had switched parties to register as Democrats and that he believed the "vast majority" of them did so to vote for Obama.

Pennsylvania's voter rolls show 984,349 independents and other-party voters. It is this latter group, Smith said, that Obama's volunteers will be pursuing over the next two weeks.

Smith noted that even before Obama began establishing his formal campaign organization here this week, volunteers had already achieved much. He said Obama's volunteers, including 25 Pennsylvania college campus chapters, had helped the candidate obtain 21,000 valid signatures in three weeks ...a steady parade of citizens who came in to volunteer. "I like his ideas," said Robert Gales, 80, of Fairmount, as he leaned on a cane near a lobby table where Obama volunteers directed people arriving to the elevator to the fourth floor. "I think, frankly, that he's a little more open to ideas and a lot more open-thinking."

Beyond the campaign, grassroots groups have also sprouted, including Obama Works, which last Saturday sponsored a street cleanup of Point Breeze and the neighborhood around Graduate Hospital. The group, which also registers voters, will return to Philadelphia at noon tomorrow to clean up the Chew Playground at 19th Street and Washington Avenue in South Philadelphia."

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Pittsburgh:
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_555130.html

"A campaign office for presidential candidate Barack Obama was opened Saturday at 208 N. Highland Ave. in East Liberty.
Several hundred volunteers gathered at the office before fanning out to canvass door-to-door on behalf of the Illinois senator.

The Obama campaign and the Hillary Clinton campaign have said they hope to persuade some of the state's independent voters to register as Democrats so they can vote in the primary.

The Obama campaign also conducted organizing events yesterday in Penn Hills, Wilkinsburg and in Washington, Butler, Beaver and Westmoreland counties."

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Morning Call in the Lehigh Valley:

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_4obama.6301634mar08,0,5814230.story

"The people crowding Barack Obama's new Bethlehem campaign office Friday reflected the message his campaign is trying to get out: The Illinois senator's supporters are more than the young, black or college-educated professionals noted in the polls.

Among the crowd of 70 were a stay-at-home mom, a marathon champion, a Vietnam veteran, a pastor, teachers, small business owners, Hispanics, middle-age women and, yes, quite a few college students.

The office on historic Main Street will be the Lehigh Valley headquarters for voter registration drives and information about the candidate. The office is 4,000 square feet and is adorned with Obama signs from contests in other states.

Its grand opening Friday kicked off the local effort to sway Pennsylvania voters to Obama's side in his battle with New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination. The state's April 22 primary will help determine who will face Republican John McCain in November."