With 115 pledged delegates, North Carolina is the biggest state remaining on the Democratic primary calendar.  A strong victory there on Tuesday, May 6, would virtually guarantee Sen. Obama a pledged delegate lead at the end of the primary season, not to mention erase any gains made by Sen. Clinton in Pennsylvania.

Polling has consistently shown Sen. Obama in the lead, but with aggressive campaigning in the final days, the gap is closing and Sen. Clinton will continue to do everything she can to remain in this race.  As in so many other states, this one is going to come down to the organization and ground game, and our folks need your help!  Sign up today to volunteer in North Carolina!

Visit http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/cometonc to provide your information to the campaign, and a local organizer in NC will get in touch with you on details, including transportation and housing.

If you can’t make it to North Carolina in person, your help is still needed to phone bank from home.  The North Carolina team has set up a great online tool to let you call from home at http://my.barackobama.com/ncvols. By making just 50 calls (takes about 2 hours), we can give the team on the ground a huge boost before election day on May 6.  Let’s get out there and win this one for Obama, and then on to victory in November!

Today, April 29, is the last day to register to vote (or change your party affiliation to Democrat) in order to be eligible to participate in the Oregon Democratic primary on May 20.

Anyone who is a resident of Oregon and will be 18 years old on or before May 20, 2008, can register for the primary.  Remember, Oregon is a completely vote by mail system, so you must re-register if your permanent or mailing address has changed since you last registered.  You should also re-register if you have not voted for the last five years or more.  Oregon is a CLOSED primary, meaning that only people registered as Democrats can vote in the Democratic primary, so voters should also check to make sure they have the correct party registration by today.

For more information, visit the Oregon Secretary of State’s website or your local Oregon for Obama field office.

If you’re already registered, you can help make sure others are registered by the deadline today by helping to call Oregon residents using the campaign’s online Oregon phone banking tool.

From Grande Lum and Nan Santiago:

We are phone banking for next primary - Guam!

We’re working with the Obama Guam Coordinator Ria Baldevia and calling people in Guam right now. Ria has created a great script for the calls, so it is very easy to make the calls. If you have AT&T or Sprint wireless, nationwide plans include Guam. AT&T and other landline nationwide plans include Guam as well.  Guam is 18 hours ahead of the pacific time zone, so best times to call will be between 3 pm -3 am pacific daylight time (9am-9pm Guam time).   

If you are interested in helping out, please let Grande know at grande@accordence.com or 650-340-9150. We basically need volunteer callers between now and Friday May 2 (which is May 3 in Guam). Please do forward this to others who may be interested as well.

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Big props to Ria Baldevia for helping the campaign open and run the Guam office so let’s all wish her the best leading up to May 3rd. In the meantime, please check out "U.S. Presidential Battle For Guam Heats Up" and listen to Maya Soetoro-Ng on News Talk K57!

3 millions votes have already been cast for an upcoming Moveon.org Obama ad. If you’ve got lots of free time, why not take a look?

http://www.obamain30seconds.org/vote/?t=3&id=12485-4226858-7BxBjy

Update: Over 4 and a half million votes have been cast.You may have to sign in your name and email, but it’s a one-time deal. Then, sit back, admire the creativity, and vote.

Some exciting events coming up in the Bay Area …

1) May 1st: AAPIs, South Asians, & Latinos for Obama Co-Host a Grassroots Party featuring close friend of Barack’s mother Georgia McCauley

2) May 3rd and 4th: San Francisco Phonebank to Indiana

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Senator Obama reaffirmed his support for the rights of Filipino veterans and all veterans today, following the historic Senate passage of the Veterans’ Benefits Enhancement Act (S.1315): 


"This legislation … makes good on our promises to Filipino veterans who served bravely alongside American service members during World War II. Nearly 250,000 Filipinos assisted Americans during the war, but for far too long, these heroes have been denied benefits they are owed. This bill will finally provide surviving veterans and their survivors with the benefits they were promised so many years ago."

This is a historic victory in a long fought struggle. Our country owes a great debt to the Filipino veterans who fought alongside American soldiers during World War II. There’s still work to do to get the House on board. Some of the fiercest advocates are the veterans themselves, like Mr. Antonin Taperla (pictured above with Candida Idolor) who I met at the California Democratic Convention. For more information, about their struggle to win the benefits that were promised to them when they took up arms for our country, please visit the National Alliance for Filipino Veterans Equity.

Read Obama’s complete statement here.

Today, U.S. Congressman David Wu of Oregon, whose primary is Tuesday, May 20th, endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for president.  Congressman Wu is one of six members of the House of Representatives of Asian American descent.

Oregonians have until Tuesday, April 29th, to register to vote in the primary.  If you and anyone you know has not yet registered or needs to update their registration, visit this link.

The press release:

PORTLAND, OR — Today U.S. Congressman David Wu from Oregon
announced his support for Senator Barack Obama for president, citing
his ability to make real change:

"I
think we are blessed to have two strong candidates for president,"
Congressman David Wu said.  "I am endorsing Barack Obama for president
today because I believe that he is best suited to turn the page on this
sorry episode in American history.  He and I both had the judgment to
oppose the Iraq War from the very beginning. 

"Every dollar
that we have spent in Iraq—which adds up to over $500 billion so far—is
a dollar not spent at home, a school not built, a bridge not repaired,"
continued Wu.  "We need new policies both at home and abroad.  Like
Americans, the international community wants to see real change in
America and I believe that Senator Obama embodies that change."

“I
thank Congressman Wu for his support, and look forward to working with
him to bring this war in Iraq to an end, strengthening our economy and
addressing the issue of climate change,” said Senator Barack Obama.   

Congressman Wu is in his fifth term representing Oregon’s First Congressional District.

Wu is Senator Obama’s 240th  Superdelegate endorsement. Senator Obama
is now 291 delegates away from winning the Democratic Party’s
presidential nomination.

Hillary Clinton won Pennsylvania and now all the pundits ponder the meaning of 10 points–the new numerology for the new millennium.  Some try to read the minds of the "bitter" white working class.  Some conclude that there is a winning magic in the dark arts of negative campaigning.  Some dismiss Clinton’s victory as an illusion and others praise
her miraculous comeback onto the stage. Frankly, after spending last week away
from the elections and marching 28 miles with thousands of different workers in  Los Angeles, I
find this whole show to be really ridiculous. It is too easy to be caught up in this superbowl of elections and its
recent devolution to “kitchen-throwing” game play and forget what this race is
really about. For some of us, this
election is not about whose more electable but something deeper.

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Pennsylvania predictably went with its native daughter tonight, but based on early returns, the win was not enough to catch up to Barack Obama, who continues to lead the race in delegates, the popular vote and number of states won.

One analyst did the math factoring in the delegates won tonight and said “it now appears that it’s going to be impossible for Obama to lose his lead” among pledged delegates.

Anna Perng, Matthew, Nina Ahmad, Van Tamom and the entire Pennsylvania Asian Americans for Obama team did an outstanding job against incredible odds. And based on early ward breakdowns in Philadelphia, we’ll see their impact on helping win the vote for Obama in entire sections of the city.

Sen. Obama continued to inspire thousands of new voters in Pennsylvania to participate in the political process — new voters who will be crucial allies for change in the general election when the electorate will be faced with choosing the Republican flag bearer of the old Washington and Barack Obama, who represents a new and better path towards moving our country forward.