As the Senate takes up healthcare reform, phones will be ringing in Long Beach.
Volunteers for Organizing for America plan to call active Democrats -- the kind who write letters, make phone calls to members of Congress and stump for and donate to candidates -- and ask them to show their support for a debate on the Senate floor.
Senators are to vote today on whether to formally debate health-care reform. Democrats expect to get the 60 necessary votes to overcome a Republican block.
Callers, who are working Long Beach's 37th and 46th Congressional districts, are asking supporters to contact state Sen. Diane Feinstein and show their support.
"We're asking true believers to call and make a case," said Chris Robson, 64, a Rose Park resident who is leading the cell bank effort in the 37th Congressional District. "We're trying to maintain a presence in all kinds of actions and activities.
"Now that things are focused on the Senate, (that is where) we have focused a lot of our efforts."
Robson said the phone effort has been moving along since House approval of the reforms but will intensify after Thanksgiving and into the home stretch, possibly at the end of the year.
"We have these teams set up to respond when we know when a vote is coming up," said Emily Dulcan, spokeswoman at Organizing for America's Los Angeles-area headquarters in Culver City.
Organizing for America started as Obama for America, which campaigned for Barack Obama and switched gears to support his agenda after he became president.
On the national level, the group has some detractors. A Fox News blogger called Organizing for America videos "propaganda." And the group's efforts to raise money in response to Sarah Palin's book tour and label her as "dangerous" was called opportunistic by the right since she is no longer in office.
In Long Beach, however, efforts are focused on the phone banks. Members make calls on Sundays and Wednesdays. Volunteers also work the farmers markets along the Alamitos Bay Marina and in the East Village Arts District.
When healthcare reform was in the House of Representatives, members called Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Long Beach, who represents the 37th District.
"Even though Richardson is already on board, our calls amplified and thanked her for taking the position that she took," Robson said.
The 46th Congressional District is represented by a Republican, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach. Targeting only Democrats, the group did not call his office.
Outside of town, Long Beach volunteers have met with Feinstein's staff in West L.A. to urge her support for the package, as well as provisions dear to Democrats.
And members from Long Beach have also gone to demonstrations to counter conservative protests.
"We've got people on the ground doing the work," Robson said.
