Obama volunteers show organizing muscle in Silver Spring

SILVER SPRING - In what is usually identified as the classic afternoon lull period of Election Day, another cluster of Obama volunteers blew in off the sleet-hammered Silver Spring streets and made their way over to Dallas Lipp, whose prominently displayed red button, "Republicans for Obama,’ produced some wary double takes.

"I was one - all my life," said Lipp, juggling a clipboard crammed with names and absorbing this next wave. "I switched my party affiliation and became a Democrat in November of last year."

Lately he’s felt as though he’s switching careers, too, as he says he seems to be putting as much time into electing Obama as his work as a Montgomery County firefighter.

The Gaithersburg resident volunteered for the Democratic presidential candidate in Iowa, and for weeks has been organizing out of Silver Spring, a suburb of Washington that in the last ten years has gone from sleepy 1950s retro-metro stop to a hipsters’ and shoppers’ paradise of neon lined stores undergirded by the older alternative vibe.

The Obama campaign stood up this Silver Spring office about a week ago, and it’s one of three in Montgomery County (Bethesda and Gaithersburg are the others), and 10 in the state. As the volunteers came and went, across the street, three volunteers from the other side waved Sen. Hillary Clinton signs at the passing cars.

Clinton supporters Michael Raia, Ana Curtis and Pete Warren in Silver Spring.

"We came out here," said Michael Raia, deputy press secretary for Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown. "and we didn’t know the Obama headquarters was right across the street."

"Don’t worry," his fellow volunteer Ana Curtis told a passerby, "We’re going to win Texas and Ohio even if don’t win here today."

Back inside Obama HQ, Lipp kept processing.

"We’ve had about 400-500 people all over the county working for Obama over the last couple of days," said the head organizer, as he prepared to give yet another cluster of volunteers a crash GOTV course. "We’ve had 100 people going door-to-door today alone."

He passed out sheets of addresses and names.

"Check off the names of those voting for Barack Obama, and those committed to voting for Hillary Clinton," said Lipp. "Get the names of the undecided voters. We’ll send other teams out later tonight before the polls close to check on those Obama voters to make sure they’ve voted."

Part of the team he was addressing at that moment included three Russian immigrants.

"We’ve got everything here in Montgomery County, and in this campaign," said Lipp. "Do you realize that there are 168 languages spoken here? Montgomery County is the most diverse county in Maryland. When I went out to Iowa I almost felt lost because I wasn’t hearing all of the foreign languages I’m used to hearing at home here."

He dispatched that group with marching orders and turned around just as two more volunteers were coming in - young men, hands thrust in coat pockets - veterans of the campaign already, they said, and ready to do more..

"If you haven’t been out today, let me just brush you up on some things," said Lipp, and then did.