I second what Super posted.
The SD Dem party in 04 was almost non-existent. Since 04, supporters of Dean and Clark, many if not most of whom were new to politics, began to build the SD Dem party to a point currently where we have 3 paid staff and active committees for voter registration, GOTV, candidate recruitment, etc.
The GOTV group has recruited and supports a modest number of precinct captains who “work” their precincts year round.
With the enthusiasm of the Obama campaign, we already have many more Obama precinct captains than the SD Dem party GOTV team. Many of these precinct captains are new to politics having been energized by Obama and many if not most would continue to be precinct captains if Obama wins the primary, if for no other reason to win the general election.
If we had such infrastructure in place for the race in 06 for the seat vacated by Duke Cunningham, we would have won that seat. It was very frustrating because the stats showed that if all the Dems who had mail-in ballots on their kitchen counter had voted, Busby would have won easily. With an active precinct captain program, those voters who have not yet voted are identified (it is public information as to who has and has not voted) and called and encouraged to vote.
So one way an Obama win will transform politics is that the Dems will finally have a GOTV organization that will rival the Repubs and will help us win many of the close elections we have lost as a result of the stronger Repub ground game.
P.S. In 1 week at UCSD and 1 day at SDSU, we registered over 1,200 new voters. And last Saturday before the SC results were final, Obama volunteers in CA made 230,000 calls to voters.
