DEL.ICIO.USObama campaign shifting some people out of Georgia
Will continue voter-registration drives
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, September 09, 2008
Nearly three weeks after dropping its TV ads, the Democratic presidential campaign of Barack Obama will shift personnel out of Georgia into more competitive states like North Carolina, staffers confirmed Tuesday.
The movement of resources reflects a quickly tightening, state-by-state race for the 270 electoral votes necessary to win the White House.
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Campaign officials declined to specify how many of approximately 75 paid Obama staffers will be redeployed, and denied that the move signaled reduced expectations in the state.
“Even if a huge number of people left, we’d still have the largest presidential campaign staff in the history of the state of Georgia,” said Caroline Adelman, spokeswoman for the Obama campaign in Georgia.
Voter registration drives will continue apace, and two new campaign offices will be opened this week in south DeKalb County and Savannah, Adelman said.
Democrats in Georgia are counting on an Obama-driven surge of voters to halt a six-year decline up and down the ballot.
But Republicans have belittled claims by Obama supporters that Georgia, which hasn’t cast its electoral college votes for a Democrat since 1992, is seriously contested territory.
Since the January primary season, Obama has aired more than $2 million worth of television ads in state. Republican John McCain has spent his money elsewhere, but in statewide polls — the most recent nearly a month old — the Republican maintains an average lead of more than 6 percentage points, according to the web site RealClearPolitics.com, which tracks polling data.
Two weeks ago, Gov. Sonny Perdue, a Republican, issued a mocking invitation to Democrats, advising them to “spend as much money as possible in this state. Millions and millions of dollars.”
On Tuesday, it was the Republican National Committee’s turn to chortle. “After spending over $2 million dollars in ads and investing significant manpower, Barack Obama’s campaign has finally realized that his partisan record is out of step with the values of Georgia voters,” said RNC spokeswoman Katie Wright.
Even last month, at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe declared that Georgia remained one of 18 targeted “battleground” states.
But that was before McCain and Alaskan Gov. Sarah Palin, the GOP pick for vice president, received a substantial bump in national polls from last week’s Republican National Convention in St. Paul.
On Monday, in a Chicago session with journalists traveling with the McCain campaign, Plouffe — while declaring that Obama still has a “terrific ground game” in Georgia — said “some staff” would be shifted out of the state.
“We are leaving all of our leadership there,” Plouffe said. “We are moving some staff into [states] like North Carolina. But we’re keeping most everybody in Georgia…North Carolina is a very real situation, as is Indiana, as is Montana.”
Adelman said the move was not unexpected, and that other areas need the experience in voter registration that the Georgia campaign has developed.
“Only folks who have never run a campaign before see significance in a periodic reshuffling of campaign resources,” said Jane Kidd, chairman of the state Democratic party. “Winners win by knowing how and when to make adjustments.”
But some Democrats were taken aback by the development. Shannon Marietta of Fayetteville, who was a Hillary Clinton delegate in Denver, is concerned the Obama campaign is struggling.
“North Carolina has a much more competitive U.S. Senate race than we do and I’m sure that has something to do with” the campaign’s decision, Marietta said.
It was not a universal worry. Quentin Howell of Milledgeville, an alternate delegate, said it makes sense for Obama to focus elsewhere.
Georgia, Howell said, “is not something he needs to win and it’s not one he probably will win. You can’t make everything in play. It’s good he’s putting resources where he actually needs them.”
Likewise, volunteers at the Obama campaign’s Morris Brown College office said they were neither surprised nor dispirited.
“I would like him [Obama] to spend more money here. But I don’t sense that Georgia has the kind of moderate independence that other states have,” said Bennett Ritvo, 27. “There are places where you could have more impact.”
Two paid campaign staffers worked in the Morris Brown office Tuesday afternoon. Both declined to talk about staffing and referred questions to the campaign spokeswoman.
Ritvo, a former New York investment banker, said she’s considering spending October either in Colorado, her home state, or Virginia, where she said most of her family lives, working for the Obama campaign.
Both states are considered competitive.
Staff writer Ben Smith contributed to this story.
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Comments
By Franc
Sep 13, 2008 9:45 PM | Link to this
Obama was born in Kenya and the HI birth certificate he provided was a crude fake. McCain's father was serving in the military and McCain is a U.S. citizen while Obama is not. Obama can start pulling people out of Florida too because you can stick a fork in him here in the Sunshine State - he is done.
By XIAYLEIN
Sep 11, 2008 11:25 PM | Link to this
I LIKE Barack Obama
By Debbie
Sep 11, 2008 7:24 PM | Link to this
Dear Mr. Obama,
I am, and will be a strong supporter of yours as long as Joe Biden is and will be your running mate. Joe Biden is a very smart choice, not Hillary. We had 8 years of the Clintons in the White House, I think that is enough. The lies and manipulations from the Clintons seem to have a big empact with the voters here in Gloucester, Massachusetts. I am with you, your beatiful wife and Joe Biden. Stay strong.
Thank you...Debbie
By If McCain Wins We Must Revolt
Sep 11, 2008 10:26 AM | Link to this
John McCain was born in Panama. Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. This is public record, you moron.
By If McCain Wins We Must Revolt
Sep 11, 2008 10:25 AM | Link to this
John McCain was born in Panama. Barack Obama was born in Hawaii. This is public record, you moron.
By is it true
Sep 10, 2008 7:38 PM | Link to this
Berg vs. Obama, Civil Action No. 08-cv-4083, in Federal Court
What is going on here! Is it true that Obama was born in Kenya Africa. Is it true that there are no records of his mother giving birth to him at any hospital in Hawaii.
What Hospital in Hawaii was Obama born at?
Who was the Doctor that delivered him?
Who was the Nurse that cared for him at his mothers delivery?
What are their names?
Is it true that his Grandmother, and half-sister have said he was in fact born in Kenya.
Is it true that Republicans have records to prove Obama was born in Kenya.
And is it true that he was registered as a citizen of Indonesia as a Muslim.
Is there any truth to any of this. Where is the major media on this story. Have they investigated this. Has any of the above been proved untrue.
If any of the above is true this is very serious.
What's up!
By Spreadknowledge.net
Sep 10, 2008 6:06 PM | Link to this
While everyone is making a fuss about what the PRESIDENT will fix or NOT fix...WHAT WILL you FIX, What have you volunteered to do for your community, When was the last time you volunteered to tutor, mentor, or visit the sick at the hospital, do you have a spiritual relationship with the lord, what does your church contribute to the community...or does it only support its members (that pay tithes) SO WHEN ITS ALL SAID AND DONE...WE MUST VOTE FOR THE BOTTOM UP, STARTING WITH OUR CITY COUNSEL, MAYORS, GOVERNORS, STATE REPRESENTATIVES, SENATORS, AND LAST THE PRESIDENT!
BUT WHEREVER YOU START...START WITH YOURSELF...AND VOTE!
By tired
Sep 10, 2008 4:24 PM | Link to this
look try as you may all of this stupid talk is not impressing anyone. No one is going to fix this country, Thay are just a bunch of liars. Wanting to be the leader of the best country in the world. I say we take back our country the way it was intended.
By talk2much
Sep 10, 2008 3:28 PM | Link to this
Thanks, Bob. I'll be looking for you; and kristin and td, GIVE IT UP; we should have never gotten hit in the first place and there's no way Republicans deserve another 2 minutes, let alone 4 years; Republicans have failed miserably in the last 8 years; if it was your personal company, would you hire them back? No. If you said yes, then I'd call you liars because what would be your point. You republicans are looking for monarchs and kings, but this is a two party system, where EVERYONE gets a chance to govern, not just republicans. Hit the Showers, Republicans. You've overstayed your welcome and what with stealing the election from Gore, the war, the end of the surplus Clinton left, record home foreclosures and record job losses, how DARE you ask for another 4. We have presidents with terms in this country, not monarchies as the Republicans have tried. Let the door knob hit ya and we'll take our chances, thank ya muchly! That's the problem with Republicans, too much pride they follow the packs as if no one has their own mind; you are only interested in staying in power, no matter who and what you destroy. PROUD DEMOCRAT! but firmly entrenched in REALITY!!!
By talk2much
Sep 10, 2008 3:26 PM | Link to this
Thanks, Bob. I'll be looking for you; and kristin and td, GIVE IT UP; we should have never gotten hit in the first place and there's no way Republicans deserve another 2 minutes, let alone 4 years; Republicans have failed miserably in the last 8 years; if it was your personal company, would you hire them back? No. If you said yes, then I'd call you liars because what would be your point. You republicans are looking for monarchs and kings, but this is a two party system, where EVERYONE gets a chance to govern, not just republicans. Hit the Showers, Republicans. You've overstayed your welcome and what with stealing the election from Gore, the war, the end of the surplus Clinton left, record home foreclosures and record job losses, how DARE you ask for another 4. We have presidents with terms in this country, not monarchies as the Republicans have tried. Let the door knob hit ya and we'll take our chances, thank ya muchly!
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