Progress Illinois

Obama's ground game kicked up another notch over the weekend with the launch of his Organizing Fellows Program. According to The Washington Post, the campaign deployed 3,600 volunteers in 17 states, each committed to six consecutive weeks of full-time political work. To be sure, these gigs aren't a walk in the park:

Supporters were required to answer essay questions, supply references and go through a telephone interview with campaign staff members.

In return for a promise to give the campaign at least six weeks of their lives, they were promised training in community organizing techniques ... More than 10,000 people applied, said Obama strategist Jon Carson.

You can read about the 17 states the Obama campaign chose on OpenLeft. Three of the four Illinois border states (Missouri, Iowa, and Wisconsin) made the cut. That the campaign decided not to aggressively target Indiana was somewhat surprising. And their decision to make a play for Georgia is particularly interesting. Clearly, they're going to try to register and turn out an unprecedented number of African-Americans in that state. According to Nate Silver's latest version of the youth and minority turnout model, if all other demographics turned out at the 2004 level, it would take a 50 percent increase in black participation for Obama to win Georgia.

For more on Obama's field work, check out our posts here, here and here.