San Fernando Valley supporters of Sen. Barack Obama are wasting little time on congratulatory celebrations and instead have begun firing up a voter-registration drive aimed at increasing the already record numbers backing the presumptive Democratic nominee's historic campaign for the presidency.

And the major weekend voter-registration drive in the San Fernando Valley is a microcosm of what the campaign is doing nationally, according to Obama delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver this August and other supporters.

"I think almost every Democrat is elated over the concept of all the new people that have been brought into the political process," said Erikson Albrecht of North Hollywood, an Obama delegate from the 28th Congressional District.

"It's one of the factors behind Obama winning the nomination, and it will be what elects him in November."

The Valley's Obama supporters say they are also using the fast jump-start to the fall election's voter-registration drive as a way of maintaining momentum that began leading up to the Feb. 5 California presidential primary and continued through the rest of the primary season.

"I think what's so phenomenal about this campaign is that from top to bottom everybody is driven to see this candidate win, and I think it's because he has empowered (them) to take ownership of the campaign," said Pasadena City Councilman Chris Holden, an Obama delegate from the 29th Congressional

District.

Today, members of the Valley for Obama organization will meet at North Hollywood Park in what will be its first voter-registration effort since Obama sewed up the nomination.

It will also come on the heels of Clinton's expected announcement this morning endorsing Obama, and some of Obama's Valley supporters said that having a ready campaign for Clinton backers to join will help ease the long, bitterly divisive Democratic primary season.

"I think they will start migrating into the Obama campaign once (Clinton) makes her statement showing she's 100 percent behind Obama," said Louis Steptor of Porter Ranch, an Obama delegate in the 27th Congressional District.

"I know quite a few Clinton supporters who I'm good friends with. We continued to have a good friendship between us, even though we supported different candidates.

"We are not bitter adversaries. I just don't believe that these people who are Democrats are going to go and vote Republican come November."

Obama volunteers also don't want to let up from the work they did organizing the Valley and other parts of California virtually from scratch in the weeks leading up the California Democratic primary.

Clinton won the Golden State's primary, but Obama still secured a substantial number of delegates in each of the state's 53 congressional districts.

Even after the California primary, the Valley Obama volunteers continued working on campaigns in other states.

Obama supporters said that weekends often were dedicated to meetings at local parks where supporters would set up makeshift phone bank operations, calling thousands of voters in states holding upcoming primaries.

"There's been a feeling that no one has wanted to waste the momentum that was built up before the (California) primary," said Peter Rothenberg of Northridge, an Obama Valley campaign organizer.

Corporate attorney Victoria von Szeliski, an Obama delegate in the 30th Congressional District, said she went to Texas to volunteer in Obama's primary campaign in that state, including doing legal work seeking compliance with federal voting-rights law.

Von Szeliski also did phone-bank duty, calling prospective Obama voters in almost every state that held primaries and caucuses after the California primary.

"The amount of awareness his message of engaging the electorate from bottom up - as opposed from top down - is really empowering, resulting in new people such as myself ... becoming involved in the political process in a bigger way than just voting but in helping run the campaign," von Szeliski said.

Today's voter sign-up in the Valley is part of the campaign Vote for Change National Voter Registration Project that has been set up for the fall campaign.

Obama officials said the North Hollywood Park location will be its base of operations for the day, from which volunteers will spread out to scour local stores and shops for new voters.

On Sunday, the Valley Obama campaign will move to West Hollywood to participate in the annual L.A. Gay Pride celebration, as well as to register new voters.

Rothenberg said the Obama campaign is supporting nationwide Gay Pride festivities taking place throughout the country.

"It is a show of solidarity of the campaign with the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender community," he said.

Obama supporters and delegates also said this weekend's voter registration and march is indicative of the activism they expect to continue through the summer and into the fall.

Buffy Wicks, Obama's California field director, said the campaign will continue - through local efforts like those in the Valley - redefining American national politics.

"We're challenging the status quo not only on politics but on how you campaign," says Wicks. "It's not only about challenging the message and the messenger but on how that message is delivered.

"Our campaign has been designed to create community organizers. It's all part of empowering people to the process of taking back their communities."