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C. Fraser Smith: Gibson occupied by getting out vote
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Larry Gibson, 70, stands on the sidewalk a few steps away from his “Occupy the Vote — Re-Elect Obama” placards.
A steady stream of interested passersby shout hello. They’re all in favor of a second term for Obama.
But they’re all from Italy, Belgium, France and New Zealand. Not a registered U.S. voter in the lot.
Gibson laughs. “We’re kicking butt in Europe!” he says.
He loads his red, white and blue Obama material back into his dark blue BMW and heads north along Third Street in the shadow of the luminous Pennsylvania state capitol building.
“I came up here to put down some signs, and that’s what I’m going to do,” he says.
A law professor, veteran of history-making, breakthrough political campaigns in Maryland, Gibson is also the author of a book due out in December on the Baltimore years of Thurgood Marshall, the late Supreme Court justice and chief architect of Brown v. Board of Education, the national school desegregation case. Marshall was a native Baltimorean.
An organizer
But Gibson’s signature work has always been political organizing. There were many successes, but he’s best known for his work on behalf of Kurt L. Schmoke, the first elected black mayor of Baltimore.
Gibson has called himself the priest of sign-tology — name recognition and visibility via bumper stickers and lawn signs. Such an effort in southern Pennsylvania could be the difference in a close election, he says.
With Maryland safely in the blue Obama column, Gibson is free — compelled actually — to find some action elsewhere. The political version of the fire bell has sounded. Gibson is out doing what he does.
“I think just about all the pundits are pretty comfortable that if Obama carries Pennsylvania and Virginia, he will carry the election,” he says. For political purposes, he’s annexed five southern-tier Pennsylvania counties.
The comments of people on the street in Harrisburg illustrate the importance of re-energizing the base of Democratic support.
Asked how she feels about the president, Zandra Shoffner, who is African-American, says: “He did the best he could do. He had a tough time.” It seems a less-than-ringing endorsement.
Her friend, Lavelle Sweet, explains.
“We need to have jobs,” he says. “All over the United States, people need jobs. That’s the main concern. Too many unemployed young people.”
A few doors down, the reception for Gibson is way less polite.
The proprietor of Gifted Hands Barber Shop says he’s not going to vote.
Obama, he says, has been captured by the forces of evil.
Gibson responds by quickly leaving. No use wasting time on people who say they won’t vote. Not voting is a sacrilege.
Which brings up a question about his campaign. He calls it “Occupy the Vote.” In Baltimore, Occupy veterans are furious with Gibson for expropriating their brand.
“We absolutely have nothing to do with ‘Occupy the Vote,’” Beth Emmerling says. “It is a co-option of our name. … We do not support a candidate. We do not support voting.”
‘A time for voting’
Gibson can’t be bothered with this thinking either.
“People understand there’s a time for activism and a time for voting,” he says.
He actually has high regard for Occupy’s success, something many Americans applaud – hence the Occupy motif on his Obama signs.
“I think a lot of people understood that the movement performed a very important service of highlighting the income disparity, the resource disparity, the tax disparity, the 1 [percent] vs. the 99 percent, and now many people understand that the same kind of energy should be going into consolidating this into political power and results, which means ‘Occupy the Vote,’” he says.
Hairdresser Deb Cunningham says customers in her largely black neighborhood have only one name on their minds.
“Obama, Obama, Obama. He ran into something that was already there. He’s just trying to clean it up. And we want him back,” she says.
Assuming nothing, Gibson put an Occupy sign in the salon’s front window.
C. Fraser Smith is senior news analyst for WYPR-FM. His column appears Fridays in The Daily Record. His email address is fsmith@wypr.org.
