DES MOINES - In the squat former ice rink that houses Sen. Barack Obama's Iowa headquarters, progress is measured in ones and twos. It's an old-fashioned counting system redolent of yesteryear's precinct walks that rates voters based on personal contact, usually face-to-face meetings or one-on-one conversations over the telephone.
The "ones" are the candidate's strongest supporters—by Iowa tradition, those who have signed cards pledging to show up on caucus night and back the candidate. The "twos" are supporters who have declared their backing less formally. Count correctly. Keep adding. If the number rises high enough, the outcome is victory.
That is, if the same army of campaign workers and volunteers that has called, coaxed and cajoled for months also can get those supporters to turn out on a bitter-cold January evening at 1,784 precincts across the state. And if those supporters will stay in place for two hours, standing their ground in front of friends, neighbors and business acquaintances. More than any other political contest, the idiosyncratic Iowa presidential caucuses require an exceptional organization on the ground.
While Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) leads in national polls—recently she has pulled ahead in Iowa too—her two main rivals have established deep-rooted field operations here, with former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina building on a network of supporters that goes back to his second-place finish in the 2004 caucuses.
Obama, in particular, has invested heavily in a ground campaign in Iowa and other early voting states.
The senator from Illinois has opened 31 field offices across the state, more than any other candidate, establishing local headquarters everywhere from Des Moines to tiny Elkader, population 1,374. Recent campaign filings showed Obama outspending Clinton in Iowa by 20 percent, and by larger margins in the early primary states of New Hampshire and South Carolina.
In an organizational feat that required busing in supporters from across the state, the Obama campaign says it drew 3,000 supporters to rally at Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin's annual steak fry last month, an event that traditionally serves as the informal kickoff to the campaign here. And while the campaign would not disclose the size of its paid staff in Iowa, Democratic activists unaffiliated with any candidate said it is clear Obama has by far the largest number of employees in-state.
Campaign officials say Obama's emphasis on ground organization reflects the nature of a presidential campaign that styles itself a popular movement and the preferences of a man whose early adulthood was spent as a street-level community organizer.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-field_dorningoct13,1,498321.story
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