One child's curiosity fueled Obama machine
John Nichols
February 19, 2008
If Barack Obama scores a major victory in Wisconsin tonight, he might want to thank Cory Mason's niece. After Mason was elected to the state Assembly in November 2006, the 35-year-old Racine Democrat -- who is, along with Kenosha state Sen. Bob Wirch, one of the most serious readers in the Legislature -- picked up Obama's book "The Audacity of Hope." Mason was reading the Illinois senator's agenda-setting text during the Thanksgiving break, and his 6-year-old niece asked him about the man on the cover. "He might run for president," Mason told her. "Can he do that?" asked the girl, who like Obama enjoys a biracial heritage. "I was already sold on Obama," Mason explained in a recent conversation about his unique role in Obama's Wisconsin primary run. "The way he was framing politics was so new, so powerful. He was talking in a way I've always wanted to hear a presidential candidate talk -- about organizing people into a movement for change, not just a campaign. But then I knew I had to make a real commitment to get this man elected." A commitment from Mason means something. He's one of the most conscientious members of the Legislature -- and, arguably, the most determined booster Racine has in a Capitol where the southeastern Wisconsin city's representatives are not shy about demanding that the state respond to needs created by rapid de-industrialization. And he's also a savvy political organizer. Before he was elected to the Assembly, Mason was the political director for the American Federation of Teachers-Wisconsin union. Few people know the politics of the state -- and especially Racine, where he is a fifth-generation native -- as well as he does. Over the course of a full year -- he endorsed Obama last February -- Mason personally recruited many of the 17 legislators who endorsed Obama, with an early assist from another Democratic freshman, Oshkosh's Gordon Hintz. And long before Obama was being treated all that seriously nationally, Mason was organizing for him in Racine, an old-school Democratic community that might once have been thought of as solid Hillary Clinton turf. In fact, when Obama appeared in Racine last week, he drew an overflow crowd of more than 3,500 people to Memorial Hall, a lakefront auditorium that for decades has hosted the city's largest political events, including a 1968 campaign visit by former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, whose reactionary politics of something other than hope once stirred a good deal of support in southeastern Wisconsin. Classically, Mason eschewed the limelight and spent most of his time making sure that Obama met with members of the diverse community he represents. But the Illinois senator, himself a former organizer, noticed and made no secret of his appreciation for Mason. There is no question that, if Obama wins the Democratic nomination and goes to the White House, he will have many Wisconsinites to thank -- from Gov. Jim Doyle to Congressman Dave Obey and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. But the senator knows he owes a unique debt to a young legislator who was with him from the start -- and to a 6-year-old girl who helped convince Cory Mason that this had to be more than just another campaign. John Nichols is associate editor of The Capital Times.
|