Obama's seemingly sound ground strategy

[Ethelk2044]

LAS VEGAS -- Susan Gray and Tom Harper, momentarily lost amid a labyrinth of desert-hued apartment buildings, attract curious stares from tenants as they scurry along snaking sidewalks until they finally find the address on their list: a second-floor unit at the top of a flight of stairs.

Harper knocks on the door as Gray adjusts her armload of Barack Obama 2008 Nevada caucus pledge cards. Neither notices the retirement-age man on the sidewalk below, hands held loosely at his sides, his upturned face suspicious over an untucked blue shirt.

"Can I help you?" the man demands. No, Harper says, peering over the rail, they're just looking for the apartment dweller. "I see his car," the man offers, nodding toward the parking lot, and suggests his neighbor might be sleeping because he works odd hours. "Can I help you?" he demands again, more sharply this time.

Harper looks down at him and after a pause explains that they're working for the Obama campaign and the person at the address is listed as a supporter. "Good," the man says, touching his right hand to the small of his back, " 'cause I got my .44 back here."

Encountering gun-toting Nevadans wasn't on Gray's list of expectations when she left her Mission Viejo, Calif ., home to spend last weekend pounding the Las Vegas pavement for Obama. Gray, a political novice, and four other Orange County volunteers, came to pair up with local residents such as Harper ahead of the Jan. 19 caucuses. They also figured on a crash course in street-level politics.

This morning's lesson: Expect the unexpected.

Over the past couple of months, 164 Obama volunteers from neighboring states have made similar trips to Las Vegas, Reno and Elko as part of the Obama campaign's Drive for Change program. Local observers say it's the only Democratic presidential campaign using the tactic .

The idea is to help augment work done by the Nevada volunteers while learning how to engage in such campaign basics as phone-banking, door-knocking and data-collecting. The campaign is putting forth similar efforts in the other early primary and caucus states: South Carolina, New Hampshire and Iowa .

But the Nevada program carries an added dimension because four of the five bordering states -- California, Arizona, Idaho and Utah -- have primaries scheduled for Feb. 5. That makes Nevada a prime training ground for the other states' volunteers.

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-obama25sep25,0,5510812.story?coll=la-home-center

[illinoisprogressive]

1. My group in rockford is paired with sister city in Iowa to do door to door