By Arthur Foulkes
TERRE HAUTE — Union-affiliated political activists have been walking door-to-door across Terre Haute the past few days attempting to garner support for President Barack Obama’s proposed budget and to put pressure on Hoosier lawmakers.
About a half-dozen members of Working America, a group affiliated with the AFL-CIO, arrived in Terre Haute on Friday and were still canvassing the city Monday. They urged people to write letters to 8th District Congressman Brad Ellsworth or Sen. Evan Bayh, both seen as possible no-votes on the Obama multitrillion-dollar budget.
“We have a lot of confidence in both [Ellsworth and Bayh],” said Dan O’Malley, assistant director of Working America, which sent seven professional canvassers — mostly from Ohio — to Terre Haute on behalf of the Obama budget. Both lawmakers have “been outstanding for working family issues.”
Earlier this month, Bayh wrote an op-ed article published in the Wall Street Journal questioning the spending in the Obama plan.
He also organized a group of 16 Senate Democrats to call for less spending in the proposed budget, the Senate version of which totals around $3.5 trillion.
Republican opponents of the plan say it spends too much, taxes too much and borrows too much.
The Obama budget “could create a lot more jobs here in our area,” O’Malley told Elizabeth Erwin, 22, and Regina Engle, 21, Indiana State University students who came to the door of a home on South 10th Street where two Working America representatives were canvassing Monday afternoon. “We are an organization that works to save jobs,” he told the ISU students.
Erwin and Engle both took information and blank paper from O’Malley and agreed to write letters to Sen. Bayh urging him to back the Obama budget. They were not going to write to Ellsworth because both women are from Plainfield, not part of Ellsworth’s district.
“I’m having an issue trying to find a job,” Erwin said, explaining her support for the Obama budget. The president’s plan will provide more money for businesses, which, in turn, will encourage them to hire more, she said. “It will just overall help everybody.”
The letters collected by Working America will either be mailed or hand-delivered to Ellsworth and Bayh, O’Malley said. A vote on the budget could come in a matter of days, he said.
Since Friday, Working America canvassers had collected more than 500 letters directed to Ellsworth and up to 800 for Bayh, O’Malley said. They also have worked to collect letters in Bloomington directed to Rep. Baron Hill. The left-of-center group MoveOn.org lists Hill as one of the Democrats in the House of Representatives who may vote against the Obama budget.
“This bill really hits to the heart of what our organization is all about,” O’Malley said of the Obama spending plan. The president’s plan is a “really ambitious agenda” for health care reform, renewable energy and creating jobs, he said.
O’Malley said most people he has spoken with while going door-to-door seem well-informed about the Obama budget and only rarely express any concern about its cost. “We really don’t get that response,” he said.
The letters being written are not pre-printed but are actually written by the residents, O’Malley said. Many people are experiencing bankruptcy from medical bills or having other financial problems, he said. “These are real letters that come from the heart … That’s what these letters are all about.”
Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.
