The Obama campaign is taking a wait-and-see approach to Wisconsin after a plethora of polls show the race effectively tied and trending toward Republicans in the wake of native son Paul Ryan’s addition to the national ticket.
A senior campaign official told reporters on Thursday that they feel their superior ground operation, the state’s partisan lean and the president’s auto rescue all give them a natural advantage. But they aren’t ruling out the possibility that Ryan has put the state back in play, potentially requiring them to spend resources defending it (they’ve yet to run an ad in the state).
“Democrats have carried Wisconsin in five consecutive presidential elections,” the official said. “Second of all, let’s get a couple of weeks down past the Ryan pick, past the conventions before we see where Wisconsin is in this whole thing.”
The official said that the campaign will “continue to watch Wisconsin” and that it is prepared to go on the air if things don’t improve.
Benjy Sarlin
Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun.
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