Published: September 06, 2008 10:21 pm         

Obama backers working to get message out

TERRE HAUTE — The race for president will be close in Indiana, and Democrat Barack Obama made an appeal to his supporters at the Wabash Valley Fairgrounds to get involved.

“We can use volunteers,” he said. “Sign up today, and we’ll put you to work.”

After the event, his campaign supporters signed up new volunteers to canvass neighborhoods or make telephone calls.

“We are taking Indiana very seriously,” Lauren Kelly told the crowd before Obama spoke. She is a field organizer working out of Obama’s Terre Haute campaign headquarters.

Some volunteers left the event and immediately went to neighborhoods to spread the word about their candidate.

Among those who went canvassing Saturday was Andrew Matherly, 48, of Terre Haute, who volunteered to work on Obama’s campaign several weeks ago.

He planned to canvass at a neighborhood near Fort Harrison Road on Terre Haute’s north side. He wore an Obama hat and shirt and carried Obama literature.

The last time he did something similar, he was in high school.

Matherly is unemployed and understands the importance of jump-starting the economy.

“I think this presidential election is very, very important and Indiana will be pivotal in the outcome,” Matherly said. “We need a change in this country.”

The country can’t afford four more years of George Bush policies “and that’s basically what you will get with John McCain,” he said.

The current administration has failed in such areas as foreign policy and the economy, Matherly said.

“American workers are hurting … and we are in debt to countries we shouldn’t be in debt to,” he said. “Our jobs are going overseas.”

There has to be a new way to look at things and do things, Matherly said.

His canvassing was reflective of the very close election. Of the first six residents he visited, three were for Obama, two for McCain and one was undecided.

Jonathan Swain, Obama’s Indiana campaign spokesman, said the election is down to the final two months, and there will be a big push to make sure people are registered to vote and understand how to register.

Also, volunteers will be canvassing and doing telephone banks to spread the word about Obama and his agenda for change.

This coming week, a group called Women United for Change will be doing phone banks around the state and calling 100,000 undecided voters to talk about Obama.

The latest Howey-Gauge poll shows McCain with a 45-43 percent lead over Obama.

Obama addressed that in his speech Saturday. “It is going to be a close election here in Indiana. It is tight,” Obama told the crowd of more than 900.

Historically, Indiana tends to vote Republican in presidential elections. The closeness of this year’s race “shows this is a change election,” Obama said. “Remember what’s at stake.”

Sue Loughlin can be reached at (812) 231-4235 or sue.loughlin@tribstar.com.