Obama field office opens in Greensburg

It's 89 days until the presidential election and supporters of Democratic candidate Barack Obama are working to get the word out about their candidate.

Twenty-nine Obama Campaign for Change field offices opened Thursday across the Commonwealth, including a Westmoreland County office on North Main Street in Greensburg.

"People will be coming in to volunteer for events, to volunteer for voter registration. We're actually going to try to have a presence for Senator Obama throughout the county," said Gary Falatovich, county counsel for the Obama Campaign. "We're also putting together neighborhood teams to go out and work within the various communities and talk to people, knock on doors."

Falatovich said more than 350 volunteers worked for the Obama campaign during the primary election, a number he expects to see increase significantly for November's general election.

"This is the first day the office has been officially opened, but I know these volunteers and the field organizers who are here made over 1,000 phone calls to people who had either signed up on the Web site or whatever to be involved," Falatovich said.

Volunteers include Bob Rendar of Hempfield Township, a volunteer coordinator for Greensburg, Hempfield and Jeannette.

"Whatever they ask me to do, I'll do," Rendar said. "There was a great turnout today, a lot of new faces that we didn't see during the primary. A few people we know were (Hillary) Clinton supporters were here."

The office will be staffed from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week until the election.

Among those who spoke yesterday in Greensburg were county Democratic Chairman Dante Bertani and county commissioners Tom Balya and Tom Ceraso.

"I don't think we've ever been at a crossroads in this country as we are right now," Balya said. "I think our job in this county is to challenge people. ... We've got to push them, we've got to drag them to the polls and convince them Obama is smarter, his plans are better and his intentions are better."

A rally for Obama is scheduled for 6 p.m. Sept. 18 at the Stonehaus Farm in Latrobe.

Westmoreland County GOP Chairman George Dunbar said a campaign office for Sen. John McCain will open soon in Greensburg.