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Obama for America hires field director
YOUNGSTOWN
The Obama for America campaign hired a former Wisconsin Federation of College Republicans chairwoman as its Mahoning Valley field director.
“It is a very strange situation,” said Kenneth A. Carano, Mahoning County Democratic Party executive vice chairman, a former Ohio House member and ex-Gov. Ted Strickland’s Valley regional director. “There are a lot of college kids who are Democrats their whole lives who’d like that position.”
Carano said Jaladah Aslam, the party’s vice chairwoman of labor relations, is “the most concerned” about the hire. Aslam couldn’t be reached Tuesday by The Vindicator.
Despite describing the hire as a “very strange situation,” Carano said he isn’t questioning President Barack Obama’s campaign committee’s decision to select Lora Rae Anderson as the new field director for Mahoning, Trumbull, Columbiana and Ashtabula counties. She’s been a Democrat since May 2010.
Mahoning County Democratic Party Chairman David Betras said Democrats are “a big-tent party” that welcome everyone, including former Republican leaders.
When asked about having any concerns about Anderson, Betras said, “The Obama campaign doesn’t and I don’t either. I’ve worked closely with her and I’m satisfied with her. She does a good job.”
As field director, Anderson helps organize volunteers for the Obama re-election campaign and is assisting local Democrats with issues such as collecting signatures for a November ballot initiative to overturn an election reform bill approved by the Republican-led state Legislature.
In a prepared statement sent to The Vindicator by the Obama for America’s Ohio office, Anderson wrote: “I’m honored to work for President Obama and his re-election campaign because he stands up for young people like me and working families in the Mahoning Valley, and all across the country. I am proud to work for him in the great state of Ohio.”
The campaign had Anderson speak on its behalf. The prepared statement didn’t address her reason for switching parties or the Obama campaign’s decision to hire her.
When Anderson became a Democrat last year, she said Republicans alienated younger people by being too conservative.
William Adams — who formed Mahoning Valley for Obama in early 2008 before the then-Democratic presidential candidate’s professional staff came to the area — questions why the president’s re-election campaign hired Anderson for this area.
With Ohio once again a presidential battleground state, Adams said Obama’s campaign needs to be strong in Democratic-heavy counties such as Mahoning and Trumbull.
“That’s why bringing in a young ex-Republican to head the effort makes no sense,” he said.
If the Obama campaign believes they can persuade young people in the Valley to vote Democratic because of Anderson, who switched from Republican to Democrat on May 21, 2010, that plan is “doomed to failure. OFA should go out and look for a qualified, longtime Democratic Party worker to represent the president in this area.”