Parties Target Campaigns for Secretary of State

[ProSense]

Parties Target Campaigns for Secretary of State

Campaigns for secretary of state, often relegated to the back burner of American politics, are drawing increasing attention from Democratic and Republican groups that hope to influence how elections are overseen in a number of presidential battleground states.

Democratic strategists who have advised the presidential campaigns of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton were launching a political action committee called iVote on Thursday, vowing to back Democrats running for secretary of state in Iowa, Colorado, Nevada and Ohio.

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In many states, the secretary of state's office typically oversees election laws, ballot measures and the recount process, a role that received widespread attention during the Florida recount after the 2000 presidential election. Yet in the states where the job is an elected position, the campaigns tend to be sleepy affairs overshadowed by more prominent races for governor and attorney general.

That is beginning to change.

Last year, a group of Democrats formed SOS for Democracy, which aims to support secretary of state candidates in about six or seven states. A kickoff lunch included labor unions, environmental groups and EMILY's List, a Democratic group that supports female candidates who back abortion rights.

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http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/parties-target-campaigns-secretary-state-22293960

[okaawhatever]

1. Awesome. Good to hear. nt

[ProSense]

2. Kick! n/t