With less than a month to go until the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, you’d probably think the candidate with the most offices and the the biggest operation in the Hawkeye State would be a Republican.
You’d be wrong.
The Obama campaign is touting what it says is already a superior ground operation in Iowa, saying the offices and thousands of volunteer hours it already has up and running in the state are a sign that it’s better prepared for the general election than the other side.
The numbers are indeed stark. While no Republican candidate has more than one campaign office in Iowa, the Obama campaign has eight offices open across the state.
What has all that manpower done since April, when the reelect kicked off? Some stats from the Obama campaign in Iowa:
• Held over 1,000 trainings, planning sessions, house parties, and phone banks.
• Made over 250,000 calls to supporters.
• Held over 2,500 one-on-one conversations.
• Opened eight campaign offices across the state for the November 2012 election- Cedar Rapids, Sioux City, Des Moines, Waterloo, Davenport, Iowa City, Dubuque and Council Bluffs.
When TPM visited Obama HQ in October, the team there talked about its advanced field and turnout operations. The Iowa operation is a real-world example of what that looks like this far out from the general election. And it’s not just Iowa — this sort of commitment to the ground operation already is a key part of Obama’s win strategy, and the campaign says it’s working.
At a briefing with reporters Tuesday morning in Washington, top strategists for the president touted their organization in Iowa and the rest of the nation.
“I think we have more staffers on the ground in Iowa than any of the other campaigns do right now,” Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said. “We have structure on the ground in all the key states — I don’t think any of [the Republicans] do.”
“In the general election, that’s of course going to be an advantage for us when we have to turn folks out,” Messina said.
Obama strategist David Axelrod noted that the Iowa campaign for Republicans looks very different than the one that propelled Obama to an unlikely victory in the 2008 caucuses.
“We spent 83 days in Iowa in 2007,” Axelrod said. “There’s nothing like that going on there now.”
Evan McMorris-Santoro
Evan McMorris-Santoro has covered politics for TPM since 2009. Before that, he was a reporter at National Journal’s Hotline covering election 2008. He started his career covering local politics at newspapers in TN and his native NC.
Facebook Conversations