Flaunting her new hairdo, Michelle Obama announced in a video a new venture of Obama’s campaign operation called Organizing For Action, a social welfare nonprofit group to give power to local organizers to forward the president’s second term agenda.
“Organizing for Action will support the legislative agenda we voted on, train the next generation of grassroots organizers and leaders, and organize around local issues in our communities,” according to the president’s webpage.
Obama’s 2012 campaign manager and the chair of Organizing for Action, Jim Messina, stated in an email that the group, “will be a supporter-driven organization, as we’ve always been, staying true to our core principles: respect, empower, include… We’ll work on the key battles of our generation, train the next generation of grassroots organizers and leaders, and organize around local issues in our own communities. We’ll continue to support the President in creating jobs and growing the economy from the middle out, and in fighting for issues like immigration reform, climate change, balanced deficit reduction, and reducing gun violence.”
The initiative is a relaunch of a similar effort from Obama’s last term. The group drew some controversy last term among Democrats who were upset by the out pour of suggestions and donations on controversial issues like health care reform.
This time, however, by remaining separate from the DNC, the organization will be able to accept unlimited funds for grassroots organizers. All names of the donors, it was announced, will also be disclosed.
The first lady says in the video that, “Winning an election won’t bring about the change we see. It’s the simply the chance to make that change. I hope you join Organizing for Action to seize that chance.”
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