WP: For Some, Negative Turn is a Turn-Off (Clinton co-chair switches to Obama)

[Pirate Smile]

For Some, Negative Turn is a Turn-Off

DES MOINES -- Once, Garry Thomas counted himself a Hillary Clinton supporter -- even signing up to be one of her 25 co-chairs in Iowa alongside with former Iowa First Lady Christie Vilsack.

But Thomas now says he felt obliged to switch sides in recent weeks. "I think the Clinton campaign went negative," Thomas said in a telephone interview on Thursday. He attributed his defection to the new tone Clinton took last weekend, describing it as divisive. Obama officials said Thomas committed to them this week.

Clinton officials said they lost touch with Thomas in October, and are skeptical of his claim that he left them because of her tone (she did not launch her offensive until this past Sunday).

But either way, Thomas is now with Sen. Barack Obama, putting him on a growing list of Iowans who have switched from one candidate to another heading toward the caucuses.

Thomas said he informed Harry Baxter, the former Des Moines County Democratic Party chairman and a Clinton coordinator, of his decision to defect -- and no one from the Clinton campaign tried to talk him out of it.
"I didn't get any calls," Thomas said.

The switch by one man -- even someone in elected office, as Thomas, a Burlington city council member is -- may mean little in the end. But Baxter's eagerness to speak out -- against Clinton and now, on behalf of Obama -- comes as the campaigns are trying to assess the impact of a sharper tone by Clinton that began last weekend.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2007/12/06/clinton_losing_some_support_wi.html#more