Issue #330
Inside the Democrats’ plan to save Arkansas—and the Senate
No sign announces the purpose of this little storefront, squeezed between a Bestway Rent to Own and a Rent-a-Center in a dilapidated Pine Bluff shopping center. But the words hand-lettered in black and red marker on three pieces of paper taped to the window—”Register to Vote Here”—and a cluster of placards for candidates give it away: It is a Democratic Party field office. Democrats aren’t advertising this office and 39 others like it that are scattered around Arkansas—in fact, their locations are a closely guarded secret. When I visited last week, having tracked it down through creative public-records sleuthing, I took Chita Collins, the field organizer on duty there, by surprise. But I wanted to see the evidence of what Democrats have been claiming they’re building in states like this one, and what could be crucial to their uphill quest to keep the Senate: an Obama-style community-organizing effort of unprecedented scale for a non-presidential election. Molly Ball, The Atlantic, 8-24-14.