The Hill, 12 August 2015 

 The White House and its allies are redoubling their efforts to win support for the Iran nuclear deal during President Obama’s two-week vacation at Martha’s Vineyard.

Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), the only Senate Democrat to announce his opposition so far, has called on the administration to negotiate a better deal.
“It is absolutely mistaken for somebody to assert that ‘Oh, we’ll get a better deal,’” US Secretary of State John Kerry said, according to the Buffalo News.
Opponents of the deal believe the recess is an opportunity. They argue the August break is muffling the White House’s sales pitch.
“For a campaign like this, in August, it’s a district-by-district focus and the president can’t be in 40 districts at once, even if he was at home instead of Martha’s Vineyard,” said Omri Ceren, managing director at The Israel Project, which is opposed to the deal.
“It’s not so much that he’s off the field but you’ve got to go where the lawmakers are.”
Citizens for a Nuclear Free Iran has reportedly spent more than $11 million on TV advertisements in recent weeks, warning that the agreement is a “bad deal.”
On Monday, United Against Nuclear Iran — another organization that opposes the agreement — unveiled a new 30-second ad accusing the Obama administration of abandoning four Americans stuck in Iran. The ad will be played on national and regional TV networks, the organization said.
Separately, an organization of Iraq war veterans going by Veterans Against the Deal also began a national ad campaign this week. Videos featuring veterans who were “blown up by an Iranian bomb” are being run in the home states of on-the-fence Democrats including Sens. Jon Tester (Mont.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.) and Joe Manchin (W.Va.).
The August recess also provides a new venue for advocacy groups on both sides of the issue: town halls.
Critics of the agreement have pledged to seize on town halls, meet-and-greets and other opportunities to get face time with members of Congress who may not yet be fully decided.
“There are calls and e-mails to the office and calls personally from people who just want to know where I am,” Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) — one of the few undecided Republicans — told the Arizona Republic.
The frantic lobbying is a sign of the importance of the deal, which can be legacy-defining both for Obama and for individual members of Congress.
“The typical sanctity of August recess has been not something that anyone’s focusing on at the moment,” joked one congressional aide.