Campaign turns strategy on its head

Perhaps Georgia will serve as the foamy tip of a Barack Obama wave on Tuesday. At the risk of injecting more of the Las Vegas-style language that has wearied everyone, odds are higher that the state will remain red.

Regardless of the outcome, the Obama presidential campaign has made its mark in Georgia. Democrats and Republicans agree that the effort here has revolutionized the way politics is played, with its emphasis on new technology, young people and organization.

Mere television will no longer be able to contain this state’s contests for power.

Former Georgia Sen. Sam Nunn, an Obama ally who ran his last race in 1990, was among the first to mark the strategic shift forced by what he called “one of the most competent campaigns that we have seen in the history of this country.”

“The Internet has sent us back to the future,” he said last week. “When I was campaigning, we had to have headquarters in counties all over Georgia. Guess what? We’re back to that day now.”

While it used several dashes of TV advertising, the Obama campaign primarily relied on a small knot of paid staff and whole divisions of volunteers scattered across Georgia —- Twittering, Facebooking and MySpacing their way beyond anyone’s expectations.

An autumn crash on Wall Street obviously helped force a close contest.

By contrast, the Georgia campaign of Republican John McCain operated out of a headquarters in Tallahassee. It chose to piggyback on the strength of U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss’ re-election bid and the state’s Republican reputation.

Strategists across the state, both Republican and Democrat, now wonder which parts of the Obama campaign can be bottled for later use.

The Illinois senator has drawn hundreds of thousands of new Georgians into the discussion, including a record number of black voters. But we can elect the first African-American president only once.

If Tuesday’s U.S. Senate race results in a runoff, the extra-innings contest could be the first test of whether these new voters represent a permanent force in state politics, or a passing flash of emotion.

Obama’s appeal to younger voters likewise will be captured in tomorrow’s exit polls.

Last week, Nunn told of Republican friends who complained of sending money to their college-age children, only to see the cash end up as contributions to the Obama campaign.

Again, years will be required to judge whether this is a generational shift toward the Democratic column, or mere infatuation.

“Much of this is candidate-based and can’t be replicated. Obama’s almost a party unto himself,” theorized Mark Rountree, a Republican strategist.

Technology is another matter. Last Wednesday, Rountree received a mailer at his home, from the state GOP and the Chambliss campaign. With six days to go, it was an invitation to mail an application for an absentee ballot. A stamp was required.

At the same time, the Obama campaign was sending out tens of thousands of e-mails that —- sorted by ZIP code and address —- directed voters to early voting stations within blocks of their homes.

Rountree said the GOP has nothing to compare.

Eric Tanenblatt, another Republican, once served as Gov. Sonny Perdue’s chief of staff. He now leads the government affairs section of the law firm of McKenna, Long & Aldridge.

Tanenblatt is paid to understand the power of grassroots movements, and he was fascinated by the Obama campaign’s offer to e-mail to supporters the first news of the Democratic nominee’s choice for vice president. He signed up and has received at least three e-mails a day from the Democratic campaign ever since.

Some of the last messages, noting his Buckhead residence, urged Tanenblatt to help re-elect U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a Democrat.

Beyond the trick of matching e-mails to geography was the Obama campaign’s mastery of networking, Tanenblatt said —- the ability to assemble and reach out, via the Internet, to the growing number of voters who live outside the reach of mainstream media.

“They’ve used technology better than any campaign I’ve ever seen. They have taken networking to that next level —- to social mobilization,” Tanenblatt said.

He wonders how it can be applied to the next Republican campaign. Or, perhaps, to the next cause that needs a little push in Congress, the Legislature or your nearest county commission.

jgalloway@ajc.com