IA Independent - EXCLUSIVE: Dems' Coordinated Campaign Largely Disbanded, Replaced by Obama Staff

[Debi]

http://www.iowaindependent.com/showDiary.do;jsessionid=3405D0531D0BEBAE87C5522B2FABFD11?diaryId=2556

[pstans]

1. Another link

http://www.iowaindependent.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2556

Several sources familiar with the plan told the Iowa Independent that Iowa's Democratic elected officials -- from Sen. Tom Harkin to the leaders of the Iowa House and Senate -- had signed off and paid fees to participate in the coordinated campaign, which is a method by which Democrats pool their resources and avoid certain campaign redundancies. By June 1, Democratic Party employees had been deployed across the state to work on the coordinated effort. According to filings with the Federal Election Commission, by June 20, the Iowa Democratic Party had 28 salaried employees working in its Des Moines headquarters and in the field.

By mid-June the Obama campaign had deployed its own staff to Iowa to lead its general election campaign here, a move that is typical for a presidential nominee. But Obama's campaign began to assign organizers to parts of the state where the coordinated campaign already had a presence, and insiders began to wonder why. In the past week and a half, the answer to that question has been slowly revealed.

Obama's campaign demanded that its own staff replace existing staff in places where there was overlap and cast aside several opportunities to cooperate with down-ticket candidates between now and November, another source familiar with the negotiations said. Essentially, the state coordinated campaign was disbanded and replaced by the Obama campaign organization.

[Debi]

2. Thanks, Pstans - is my link broken?

Happy Fourth!! Hope you and the fam have a fun time!!

[Hardrada]

3. They bring in a lot of East Coast types who do not understand

our basically northern European culture and religion (Christian) and how we think and feel. Instead they start ordering us about. I've seen this in every campaign since 2000. It is counterproductive to say the least. Amazing the democrats win anything (well, I guess they don't).

[rurallib]

4. wuh-woh I have concerns.

[Debi]

5. Do we know WHO they've brought in, though?

It may just be Obama staffers from all around (not professional political muckety-mucks <-- yes, an official term). Maybe they didn't want stalwart Clinton/Edwards staffers in the positions that they felt Obama staff should be? I don't know. I just hope that it doesn't end up like 2004.

[Hardrada]

6. I hope it is only volunteer staffers. The ones we have had in the

past were some really irritable political professionals who treated us (or tried to treat us) like serfs and vagabonds who had to be brought into line before they could thankfully return East to a cushy DC position they earned with our sweat and shoeleather. I'm not going to work with those people again. In fact, my radar detected them and I never ever have worked for them. What was your 2004 experience, Debi, if I might ask?

[walk softly]

7. Who's on First?

Sounds like little will be known until Tues or Wed after staff meetings in Des Moines and a conference call Monday night.

In 2004 I volunteered at least 8 hours a day for the Kerry/Coordinated campaign. In that race, our Dubuque office was led by IDP staff, while our State House and Senate candidates had their own IDP staff person. Bill Gluba also ran for Congress that year. Bill Gluba was completely ignored during that campaign. Most volunteers didn't know his name or what office he was running for much less include him in calls. Near the end of the campaign, the Kerry professionals came into town, reorganized things, and on election day we weren't even sure our walking sheets were even for Dubuque.

2006 could only be better, right? WRONG! IDP staffers shut down any efforts to implement our local precinct strategy - precinct captains and team responsible for calling and door knocking their own precinct. So mismanaged that volunteers stopped showing.

If we really want to elect Obama, we need to utilize the organization now known as the best this country has ever witnessed. For sure his campaign is putting staffers and volunteers from the caucuses back into cities and counties across the country. How many more they will bring in will be gaged by the volunteer turnout. For sure the IDP staff (Now Obama) that are in Dubuque are superior to anything we've seen in the past.

[progressoid]

8. One can assume that some variation of this is happening in all 50 states

Hopefully, we don't get rid of valuable local assets or overlook local races in an effort to coordinate election resources.

[Hardrada]

9. We need more info on DU about all this. We can't assume the

repug brand is so bad that Dems can coast on some campaigns or blow them off. I read here somehere that the GOP tactic is to grab the lower offices, become somehow fated for greater things and tenaciously move upward to higher offices. You know, with the climate going south and new war in the offing, I don't think they'll have time for that anymore. Sadly, neither will the Dems.