Mr. Obama’s neighborhood

James Clements
Published: August 24, 2008

It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood,
A beautiful day for a neighbor,
Would you be mine? Could you be mine? Won’t you be my neighbor?

Won’t you please, Won’t you please,
Please, Barack Obama, won’t you be my neighbor?

My apologies to Fred Rogers and crew, but it’s a fitting sentiment with the news that the Barack Obama campaign for president has opened a regional office in downtown Culpeper. The office, located on the second floor at 102 N. Main St., will coordinate campaign efforts and volunteers from Culpeper, Orange, Madison, and Rappahannock counties.

Usually a campaign setting up an office isn’t a headline grabber, but Culpeper has a reputation with outsiders (and some insiders) as a Republican stronghold. National Democrats have done little to combat this image and apparently just noticed we’re here.

“I’ve been involved in politics in Culpeper since 1974, and this is the first time that we’ve had a coordinator in Culpeper for a national campaign,” Harold Boyd, campaign manager for Democratic congressional candidate Anita Hartke, told the Star-Exponent.

I’m happy to hear that the Obama campaign can read a map and can see Culpeper for the valuable crossroads it is. Not only do our roads tie together many regions of the state, but we’re also home to a shifting population that has left much of our communal character unsettled. Do any of us really know who lives in Culpeper?

I’m not sure Culpeper’s strong Republican label is as deserved as advertised. It’s easy to look at election results, but more likely these reflect a process where our representatives pick their voters instead of the other way around. If our congressional district didn’t stretch from Richmond to Luray, who knows what kind of poll numbers we’d see. I applaud the Obama campaign for seeing through those numbers.

I have no plans to run down to the office to get a yard sign just yet (though a “Warner for Senate” sign might look nice), but just the idea that I could do so makes me proud of Culpeper. What the Obama campaign has done, by setting up an office downtown, sends the message that our area matters and is worth fighting for (sentiments rarely heard from our own representative during his pre-ordained election tromps).

Last week, it was announced that more than a dozen house parties will be held in the county to watch Sen. Obama accept the Democratic nomination on Thursday night. That’s a sign of energy and enthusiasm from a community that’s been living in the shadows for decades.

In the end, the Obama office may not shift the local outcome. But even if the local GOP steps up its efforts and McCain carries the area in a rout, Culpeper will still have won. It’s always better to feel fought over than to think you’re being taken for granted.

Welcome to the neighborhood, Barack Obama. I hope you enjoy your time here. If you win in November, you won’t be the first president with ties to this region. And even if you lose, you won’t soon be forgotten by local Democrats for bringing their cause out of the realm of make believe and into the world of “What if?”

James Clements is a Culpeper resident and independent columnist who appears each Monday. E-mail