Gov. Romney held a town hall meeting in Nashua to finish up Labor Day campaigning in the Granite State. A group of ONE members, including Keith Spano, Elizabeth Laws, and ONE’s Marine Michael, all decked out in ONE Vote ’08 shirts, attended to make sure that the bottom billion people in the world were represented.
Although we did not get a chance to ask a questions, we made sure that the crowd was well aware of the ONE Campaign by passing out ONE bands and ONE Vote ’08 literature. Many of the Romney staffers are very supportive of the ONE Campaign and wore their white ONE bands throughout the event.
After Gov. Romney’s speech, we all made our way to the Governor to thank him for talking about the need to reach out to Africa through medical diplomacy and technology. We thanked him for his ideas and he told us that it was good to see us again.
Michael was able to give a ONE band to Ann Romney which she immediately put on, having seen them many times before all across the nation.
It was a long day for many ONE members seeing Sen. Dodd, Sen. Obama, and Gov. Romney at many different settings. But rarely do you get to speak with so many of our nation’s leaders, and potentially the next president of the United States, and we were going to make sure that they heard from the ONE Campaign!
Last night all of the major republican candidates were in New Hampshire for the FOX News and NH GOP “First in the Fall” Debate. ONE Vote’08 was there and we were joined with many ONE members and dedicated volunteers as we rallied outside the Whittemore Center before the debate.
ONE Vote ’08 had the privilege of being a co-sponsor of the debate which included a pre- debate reception that many of our NH ONE Ambassadors and special ONE guests attended. We mingled with some of New Hampshire’s biggest names in politics with a conveniently located ONE banner in the background. We were excited to see Republican Leader Senator Ted Gatsas, State Senator Robert Clegg, and NH ONE Vote 08 ambassadors Jeff Rose, as well as our NH ONE VOTE ’08 co-chair Rich Ashooh.
Thousands of people filed into the Whittemore Center and were handed sponsorship bags that included pamphlets on ONE Vote ’08. 75 of our ONE members and volunteers were able to go inside the debate, all sporting ONE bands, pins, and stickers.
After the debate, one of our staffers joined some of the nation’s most notable reporters and press in the spin room. He had the opportunity to speak with a top adviser to Governor Romney, and speak directly with Senator Brownback and Governor Huckabee. He even saw McCain advisor and special advisor to ONE, Mark McKinnon, who was proudly sporting his ONE band and very interested in ONE VOTE ’08’s on the ground activity.
Michael Castaldo, one of our super volunteers chatted with Soren Dayton a blogger from Eyeon08.org.
I just received the results of a survey of 500 likely Republican Iowans caucus goers. Read through the full findings at one.org/polls.
Some highlights:
* Three in four voters (77%) agree that the Unites States has a moral obligation to address problems like disease, hunger and lack of economic opportunity in the poorest countries because it was built on a solid foundation of faith that teaches us to help others. When millions
of children around the world are dying from preventable diseases and hunger, 79% of Republicans agree that we have a moral obligation to do what we can to help.
* Eight in ten Republicans (80%) agree that the next President should keep the commitments made by President Bush to prevent and fight the spread of AIDS in Africa.
* The poll found that Mitt Romney leads among the Republican Presidential candidates with 35% of the vote, followed by Rudy Giuliani (12%), Fred Thompson (11%) and Mike Huckabee (11%). Another 10% of voters are undecided.
Saturday morning was beautiful in Concord, NH so ONE member Todd – who attended our ONE Vote ’08 office opening – and I went to a local diner to see Gov. Romney’s son, Craig, and the Mitt Mobile.
Craig Romney and his wife Mary spoke with a few NH voters and I was able to talk with them while they ate breakfast with a few staffers and their son Parker Mitt. I thanked Craig for his dad’s recent comments about reaching out to Africa with medical diplomacy and technology. Craig immediately recognized the ONE Campaign and told me about the ONE tent that was at the Iowa state fair.
I am sure the Mitt Mobile will be back in New Hampshire and will undoubtedly see many more ONE members out on the trail who believe we can beat global poverty and preventable disease.
Gov. Romney held a town hall meeting in Londonderry, New Hampshire, the other day. Like many candidate events in New Hampshire, there were ONE bands everywhere you looked.
Here in New Hampshire, a lot of people from both parties are turning to ONE, and turning out to the candidate events to make sure each and every person running for president, knows that as Americas, we want our nation to be a leader in the fight against global poverty and AIDS in Africa.
This was Gov. Romney’s only public event in New Hampshire that day and after the event there was not much time to talk with him so I snuck around the back of the location to where some of the press had gathered around his vehicle.
After a few questions from the press, Gov. Romney’s campaign officials said that he had to leave, but as he turned around I was able to thank him for talking about the need to reach out to impoverished countries in Africa and fight AIDS and poverty through medical diplomacy and technology.
I also handed him a copy of the New Hampshire Union Leader Op-Ed that had just been published that day by our ONE Vote ’08 New Hampshire co-chairs, Joe Keefe and Rich Ashooh.
No matter the event, ONE members are finding ways to make our collective voices heard. Each time a ONE member takes an email action, writes a letter to a newspaper, or phones their elected leaders in Congress, they are acting on behalf of the more than 2.4 million Americans and the bottom billion people in the world that live in extreme poverty. We are being heard across the country and we are stronger, when we act as ONE.
-Matthew Bartlett, ONE Regional Organizer
The Iowa ONE team headed up to Ames in the early morning on the 11th for one of the biggest Republican sponsored events of the year. The Ames Straw Poll is an all day event that brings together Republican presidential campaigns and the states most active voters face to face. The ONE campaign was a major sponsor of the event and had a booth alongside the presidential campaigns outside of Hilton Coliseum on the Iowa State University Campus. Throughout the day country music artist Rockie Lynne performed on behalf of ONE and talked to the crowd about the importance of the campaign.
ONE members had many interesting conversations with people who had done work through their church in places as diverse as western Africa or Brazil. One theme continually came up, while we champion countries that improve their economies those living in poverty are often forgotten.
Tens of thousands were on hand for the event but that didn’t stop Senator Sam Brownback from stopping by the ONE booth. He gave us a strong endorsement and talked about how helping people living in poverty is a moral issue for America. The senator gave us our first video clip which can be seen on YouTube.
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney also stopped by and thanked the volunteers for their hard work and dozens of campaign staff and volunteers came by to get bands, tote bags and water bottles.
The event was one of our most successful so far as we signed up almost 700 new supporters and educated thousands more.
On Monday, Mitt Romney was in Elko, Nevada and our ONE members had yet another chance to show a presidential hopeful that the issues of extreme global poverty and disease are very important to many Americans.
ONE members Hannah, Joe, and I attended Mitt Romney’s early-morning campaign stop. I was given the opportunity to stand, as a representative of ONE, and ask Governor Romney what he would do as president to combat global poverty. Romney stressed the importance of developing relationships with other nations that could help to facilitate a reduction in the problems that many third-world nations face. He even mentioned a meeting he had with Bono.
It is clear that other ONE members are doing their job, because upon being handed the ONE band and Bono’s “On the Move” book, Governor Romney made the statement that he had received the book at just about every campaign stop thus far. Another success for the ONE Vote ’08 initiative!
Let’s continue to show all of our presidential candidates that their voting public believes in the perspectives and goals of the ONE campaign, and that they should too!
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