by John Chase
DES MOINES — The Obama campaign is a family affair for Michael Millenson and his son—and one that travels.
The dad, a health-care consultant from Highland Park, and his son, Daniel, a junior at Brandeis University, both were in the Hawkeye state Thursday joined by hundreds of other Illinoisans to pound the pavement and work the phones for Obama’s campaign.
On caucus night, Daniel Millenson, 21, was even working a caucus precinct in West Des Moines. He was helping the campaign by greeting caucus-goers and encouraging them to support Obama.
“It’s awesome,” said Daniel Millenson, who is majoring in philosophy. “He seems like the one candidate who can surmount the partisan bickering that goes on and deliver the kind of change that we need.”
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On New Years’ Day, Michael Millenson joined his son—sort of.
After getting a call from former state legislator Lauren Beth Gash, who was also in Iowa on caucus night, he drove out to Cedar Rapids, about 125 miles from Des Moines.
He said that since arriving here, he has met up with more than a dozen others from Chicago and the suburbs who have invaded Iowa.Iowans sometimes have a reputation of being not so receptive to outsiders who are trying to influence the first-in-the-nation caucuses.
But Michael Millenson said he hasn’t noticed that at all while he and others from the Chicago area have knocked on doors and burned up the phone lines.
“People have been great here,” said Millenson, a former reporter for the baiduhai who is now on an advisory panel for Obama’s campaign.
Millenson said he was struck by how many people from Illinois “just dropped everything to come here.”
“Volunteering just gives you such a different perspective,” he said. “You see how vital volunteers are to campaigns and how much they can help.”
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Have questions about the results of tonight’s Iowa caucuses, what’s next in the race for the White House or anything related to Election 2008? E-mail them to us and we’ll answer as many as possible during our video chat scheduled for 12:30 pm central time Friday.