Early Support of Barack Obama's Presidential Campaign
On June 9, 2012 Cohen was elected an At-Large Delegate from Pennsylvania for the 2012 Democratic National Convention by the members of the Pennsylvania Democratic State Committee. At the convention, he praised the strong support given to President Barack Obama by Bill Clinton, saying "Clinton brings very strong credibility as a spokesman for the Average American and for people who need their problems solved." After the convention, he joined other elected officials and Democratic Party officials in rallying for President Obama's re-election. He previously had been elected by the Democratic voters of Pennsylvania's 1st congressional district (parts of Philadelphia and Delaware County, Pennsylvania) as a pledged delegate for Howard Dean in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2008. Obama was the Keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
His initial support for Obama's 2008 nomination at the 2008 Democratic National Convention was rare for a Pennsylvania elected official: Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell would write in his memoirs that "I also made sure that we (the Pennsylvania campaign of Hillary Clinton) had the support of virtually every elected official in the state." But, having contributed $1000 to Obama's campaign on March 17, 2007 Cohen hosted the Philadelphia Obama Regional Meeting held at 2:00 pm on December 15, 2007 at the First Unitarian Church of Philadelphia, 2125 Chestnut Street. The agenda of the meeting was to meet other Pennsylvania Obama supporters, to meet members of the Obama field team, to discuss New Hampshire canvassing options, to review the PA Delegate Selection Plan, to discuss Congressional District Organizing, and to review the required petition drive to place Senator Obama on PA election ballots.
Cohen worked with Obama's chief delegate recruiter Jeffrey Berman on the slating of Pennsylvania Obama delegates, and praised him for being "extraordinarily thorough" and responsible for the fact that Obama, unlike rival Hillary Clinton, had a full slate of delegates. Cohen described the work of Pennsylvania delegate recruitment as seeing "that each Congressional District had a delegate slate that balanced the goals of rewarding Obama workers, getting 'name' people to the degree possible, having a slate demographically appealing to the district, securing loyal people, and meeting the various requirements in the Democratic Party rules for representation of women and minorities. The thoroughness continued with constant monitoring of whether or not approved delegates were getting the required signatures, back-up candidates approved to take their place if necessary, organized help to get the signatures, careful monitoring of the nominating petitions before they were turned in, and full compliance with all of Pennsylvania's detailed requirements....The Obama campaign has set new standards for ethical and effective professionalism, and Berman is certainly one of the reasons why."
In his campaign memoir, Berman makes various references to his work in Pennsylvania. He writes that "Sometimes it seems nearly the entire Democratic machinery is working for Hillary as a result of her endorsement by Governor Ed Rendell." He noted that "When I begin laying the groundwork for our petition drive, we have zero paid staffers in the state. I have to build our statewide petition organization from scratch....In Philadelphia, Obama supporters come together from all walks of life, representing the great and varied culture of the city. It's a boisterous group, shouting information and suggesting all kinds of approaches to tackling the task before us....(W)e devise detailed plans to collect the signatures required during the 21 day blitz mandated by law. The detailed procedures for handling the petitions can trip up even the most dedicated circulators, especially in the frigid weather and sometimes blizzard conditions of deep winter in Pennsylvania....We have no problems submitting our petitions on time and file a 100% complete set of delegates for Obama." He credits "a small group of Pennsylvania House members and election attorneys" for helping devise a strategy to gain the Obama campaign its fair share of at-large delegates without alienating Governor Ed Rendell.
Read more about this topic: Mark B. Cohen
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