Inside Obama's Iowa Ground Game, "most extensive effort to reach out to new constituents...ever"

[jefferson_dem]

:patriot:



Inside Obama's Iowa Ground Game
Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2007 By JAY NEWTON-SMALL/DES MOINES

At just 25 years old, Michael Blake may have more to do with Barack Obama's chances of becoming President than anyone besides the candidate himself. That may sound like a stretch, but Blake has the all-important job of bringing in new Iowa voters to caucus for the Illinois senator. And while some campaigns may focus most of their efforts on one or two constituencies — the way John Kerry so successfully courted military veterans in 2004 — Obama is spending an unprecedented amount of money and effort to turn out a wide cross-section of new caucus-goers.

"This is the most extensive effort to reach out to new constituencies in the Iowa caucuses, I think, ever," says Blake, who comes from the Bronx and was in the first class of "Yes, We Can!" a program Obama started soon after he was elected to the Senate to train minorities to more effectively use the political system. "Campaigns here have traditionally gotten attention for going after one or two groups. We're applying that principle and hopefully will enjoy similar success with multiple groups."

Over the last eight months Blake, with the help of his staff of about 25, has been developing what he calls peer-to-peer contacts. Veterans call veterans, high school students call high school students and so forth. Seven staffers reach out to black voters, for example, and three handle Latino voters — even though Latinos comprise only 3% of Iowa's population of three million and there are only 67,000 blacks in the whole state, according to the 2006 census. " is exactly why it's a problem for the Clinton campaign to bring in 100 new staffers in the last month," said Tommy Vietor, Obama's spokesman in Iowa. "We've been working and developing personal relationships and a network of Iowans for months."

While the results have yet to be proven, most observers agree Obama has made the biggest bet on reaching out to different groups of voters. "I do think he's got a more legitimate claim to bringing in new people: younger voters, college voters, bringing in a new audiences," said Iowa State Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal, a Democrat who isn't endorsing a candidate this cycle. "If he brings in enough, that's the advantage; if not, then Senator Clinton's old line of establishment Democrats becomes telling." In past election years, many candidates that bet the farm on getting new faces to sacrifice an hour and a half of their time to argue politics with their neighbors have more often seen their campaign hopes stay home. While Jimmy Carter and Gary Hart both brought in significant numbers of new faces, many more candidates, such as Howard Dean, have failed in spectacular fashion.

<SNIP>

http://www.time.com/time/politics/article/0,8599,1693771,00.html

[Colobo]

1. It's called the "Obama Playbook".

Setting a new trend in politics.

[jefferson_dem]

2. What makes me most proud is that he's making real inroads here in extending the Democratic base...

If we can lock in these young voters now, many will stay with politics and the Party...well beyond Obama's two terms. This...is inspiring!

[Cha]

3. You gotta try new

ways to bring in the votes and it must be working because a certain "inevitable" campaign smells desperate as they should be.

[killbotfactory]

4. That's not fair. You're supposed to write people off completely

not get new voters. how do you accurately poll what new voters want?!