Stevo In Nevada

For those of you who don't know, I am in Nevada volunteering for the Obama campaign. I signed up to "Drive-for Change" and travel to Reno to help canvass, but about week ago I received a call from the Nevada headquarters asking if I was willing to travel to Las Vegas because they had a lot of Bay Area volunteers in Reno and 70% of the population is in Las Vegas. If I could get myself there they would provide housing. So, i talked to my Dad and he agreed to finance the flight (Thanks Dad!) and I am putting in the sweat equity. Here is a picture of me "Fired-up" in a shirt I made for the trip.



I flew out from San Francisco on Saturday and after a two hour delay due to rain, I was off to help turn Nevada blue. For those of you who have not flown on Virgin America to Las Vegas before, let me simply say it is basically the "Party Bus" of planes. The interior of the plane is super modern with an uber trendy feel with neon lights and personal interactive entertainment system with video games, movies, you can even track your flight on google maps in flight!

Upon landing, I grabbed a cab to the Imperial Palace. The cabby (who I don't think could vote) was excited about a Obama presidency. As I stood in the check-in line, I noticed the people in front of me had a Berkeley Bowl bag, so I introduced myself. It turned out that they were a group of friends from Berkeley and San Francisco who made the trip to turn Nevada Blue. Later that night I was getting dinner alone, when some Stanford students came in, but there were no more tables available, so I shared my table with them. It seems like there are ton of volunteers here. I have heard that the obama campaign has 8 million volunteers, that is more than 2% of the country working for Obama!

On Sunday morning I met up with my carpool group. Waiting in the lobby it was immediately apparent who was there for the campaign, just from the dress and general appearance of the Obama supports, many of whom who have found the stairs in the hotel/casino (no easy feat.) Below is a picture of my co-canvassers a group of artist friends from SF. I have found people as concerned and fanatical about the election (think checking the polls incessantly). We covered our rental car with Obama schwag.



We are based out of the local Sheetmetal Workers Union Hall.



Here is what were are up against, but I have to say from my canvassing there is very strong support for Obama. We just need people to vote!





The day has gone very well. We have canvassed more territory than hoped for and 50% of the electorate has voted early. The campaign seems very please with the way things are going. After a hard day of canvassing we made our way to Whole Foods, which is an oasis in Las Vegas, to get food that fit our dietary needs (think vegetarian, wheat free, etc...) as we sat there enjoying ourselves we realized what an image we were with organic food checking the poll results on our wireless devices. All we needed was some arugula.

HaHa. I am just watching CNN right now and McCain is imploring his supporters to volunteer for him. I just have to laugh. To bad he wasn't a community organizer, he might have been more on top of things.

This just in!

WOW! Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, the first precinct to vote in the country went for Obama 15 to 6! Dixville Notch has not gone Democratic since 1968. Hopefully it keeps going!


Thanks for reading to the end. Don't forget to vote and remind your friends and family!