The political machine vs. the grass roots: Clinton and Obama in California

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: The political machine vs. the grass roots
In California, a test of Democratic campaign tactics: Clinton chases big-name endorsements; Obama zeroes in on the little guy
By Scott Martelle, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
September 4, 2007

....The two sessions illuminate key differences between the Clinton and Obama campaigns as they fight for preeminence in California. Clinton has been wrapping up the high-profile endorsements -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa -- and building a traditional, centralized campaign organization. Obama has been trying to harness the energy that has brought thousands of people to his campaign rallies.

The Clinton campaign has established two state headquarters, one in San Francisco and the other in L.A., and has hired seven full-time staffers. Obama has an L.A. office and four paid staffers, with another likely to be added soon. Both have fleshed out the staffs at their headquarters with a raft of volunteers. The Clinton campaign has focused on high-density Democratic regions such as L.A. and the Bay Area. The Obama campaign is trying to build networks in each congressional district; most state Democratic delegates are awarded to candidates based on how well they do in each district, not statewide. So far Obama has committees in 40 of the 53 districts.

Yet the overriding question for both campaigns is not where to find Democrats but how to motivate them....

***

Although the Democratic field remains crowded, recent state polls found the campaign apparently distilling into a two-person race, with about two-thirds of likely Democratic voters supporting either Clinton or Obama. Clinton enjoys the clear advantage, with 49% support in an early-August Field Poll, compared with 19% for Obama and 10% for former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

Clinton's strategy is to consolidate and extend that lead. A major component will be the HillStars program, under which the campaign hopes to train 1,000 unpaid leaders statewide to oversee groups of 20 local volunteers -- the "Hillary Corps" -- to use their personal networks of relatives, friends and co-workers to identify Clinton supporters....

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Marshall Ganz, who began his organizing career in the civil rights era and is now helping the Obama campaign create its grass-roots structure, also believes the effort must be built person-to-person. The campaign has begun a series of intensive "Camp Obama" weekend courses in which professional organizers like Ganz teach the novices how it's done, then send them home to build their own Obama organizations that report to, but are not controlled by, Obama staffers....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-caldems4sep04,0,723603.story?coll=la-home-nation

[wyldwolf]

1. Clinton's CA campaign is anything but "traditional."

[msongs]

2. OPrah and George Soros are hardly grassroots - strip mining the extemely wealthy nt