East Tennessee Democrats Savor Obama Victory

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Walter Buford will never forget the simple set of instructions he and other black men were given before they marched down the streets of Charlotte, N.C., at the cusp of the civil rights movement.

“Just look forward and march,” he said. Ignore the people in Ku Klux Klan uniforms who lined both sides of the street, the march’s organizers told him. Don’t worry about the fact they outnumbered the police on the street 10-to-1.

“Absolutely not,” Buford said when asked if he thought he’d live long enough to see the United States go from those tense moments to having a black president.

“I had all hopes and aspirations [such a thing would happen],” he said Friday. “But the climate just didn’t appear to be conducive to that.”

But the one thing Buford thought he’d never see happen will happen. When President-elect Barack Obama takes his oath of office about noon Tuesday, he will officially become the first black president of the United States.

Six hours later, Buford and about 600 other people will gather at the Russo’s Orleans restaurant in Johnson City to celebrate the event in style at the Northeast Tennessee Democratic Resource Center’s “Celebration of Hope and Change.”

Resource center staff and volunteers gathered Friday for what they called a “post-election therapy session” to share their feelings about the upcoming inauguration and to tell stories of the work they did to make it happen.

U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., won the state of Tennessee by a 3-to-2 margin Nov. 4 and got 70 percent of the vote in the state’s 11-county 1st Congressional District, an area the Resource Center calls home. To make matters worse, Sullivan County, the district’s largest county, voted out incumbent black state Rep. Nathan Vaughn, D-2, on Election Day and helped to give Tennessee its first Republican-controlled General Assembly since the 1860s.

Fully anticipating this outcome, Obama’s campaign did not assign a single paid staffer to the 1st District nor did it set up an official campaign field office to coordinate the activities of its supporters. Buford and a few other northeast Tennessee Democrats at Friday’s “therapy session” said they understood the campaign’s desire to cut its losses and focus on areas it could win.

The volunteers also knew the decision meant that if they wanted to do anything to help Obama get in the White House, they’d have to do it on their own. None of them had any problems stepping forward.

Alan Howell, who is going to Washington, D.C., for the inauguration, converted his restaurant, the Dixie Pig Barbecue, into an Obama campaign venue. He used the place to sell campaign merchandise, register voters and market his own brand of “Barack Obama 2008 Yes We Can” hot sauce.

Chris Grawe made the 30-mile drive from her Jonesborough, Tenn., home to Obama’s Bristol, Va., field office each day during the election season so she could volunteer. She wasn’t alone in making the trip.

“There were so many of us and we went all the time,” Grawe said.

About 150 to 200 northeast Tennessee volunteers logged in hours at a Virginia field office, she said. Many others worked at offices in western North Carolina.

Shawna Licthenwelner drove even farther, to Union, S.C., after the campaign e-mailed her looking for help on Super Tuesday. By the time the primary and general election cycles were over, Licthenwelner had been to five other states. It was her first foray into politics, she said.

“It was so easy to volunteer because there was just this sense that things were possible,” Lichtenwelner said. She joked with the other volunteers Friday about what the phrase “I’ll do anything I can to help the campaign” really means.

But don’t think anyone at the Northeast Tennessee Democratic Resource Center is going to let Obama’s victory give them a chance to sit on their laurels.

“We’re looking toward 2010,” Nancy Fischman said before laying out her plans for the next statewide election. “It’s time for [Democrats] to take the state back.”

Borrowing a strategy Republicans used when they took over Tennessee, Fischman said the state’s Democrats must refocus their efforts on local offices.

Getting back Vaughn’s seat would be their top priority, she said, as would finding a candidate to run for every other office in the next election.

“That way we can at least show people that Democrats are interested [in the political process] and that we’re here,” she said.

Resource center volunteers also are taking time to celebrate their victory and reflect on what it means. Buford said Tuesday’s event at Russo’s Orleans
restaurant, which is no longer open to the public after it sold 600 tickets, will feature a buffet dinner, two bands, a poet and a hand-picked choir.

“My dream that I did not think would happen in my lifetime has come to pass,” he said. “We will be celebrating [Tuesday night]. We will be enjoying ourselves. At 9 p.m. the balloons will drop from the ceiling and we will dance.”

gmclean@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2518