Obama ramps up field operation in Iowa

Barack Obama's campaign held kickoff events in 15 Iowa field offices yesterday, coinciding with the first statewide canvass of the general election campaign. In addition, the Obama campaign plans to open at least two more field offices in Iowa.

The Des Moines Register published an alphabetical list of cities and towns with Obama field offices. In this diary, I group the offices according to Congressional district.

If 17 field offices sounds like a lot for a medium-sized state like Iowa, keep in mind that Obama had at least 40 field offices here before the caucuses in January.

Also, the Iowa Democratic Party has in effect shut down its "coordinated campaign" for getting out the vote, which means that Obama's field offices will coordinate GOTV for all Democratic candidates in the state.

The details are after the jump.

Obama's state director in Iowa is Jackie Norris, who was a key early supporter of Obama here. Other senior Iowa staffers are named in this post.

First Congressional district (D+5)
12 counties
represented by Bruce Braley (D)

Field offices are open in:

Davenport (Scott County), which is part of the Quad Cities along the Mississippi River.
Dubuque (Dubuque County), which is also along the Mississippi to the north of Davenport.
Waterloo (Black Hawk County), which is right next to Cedar Falls, a college town. Waterloo-Cedar Falls is the largest metropolitan area in northeast Iowa.
Independence (Buchanan County), a small town a little east of Waterloo.

Second Congressional district (D+7)
15 counties
represented by Dave Loebsack (D)

Field offices are open in:

Burlington (Des Moines County), along the Mississippi in the southeast part of the state.
Iowa City (Johnson County), a Democratic stronghold where the University of Iowa is located.
Ottumwa (Wapello County), a union stronghold that was one of only five Iowa counties to vote for John F. Kennedy in 1960 and one of only four Iowa counties to vote for Bonnie Campbell for governor in 1994.

A field office will open in Cedar Rapids (Linn County) later this year. Cedar Rapids is Iowa's second-largest city, and the city center suffered massive damage in last month's flooding.

Third Congressional district (D+1)
12 counties
represented by Leonard Boswell (D)

Field offices are open in:

Des Moines (Polk County), the largest city in a county that has about 15 percent of Iowa's population.
Oskaloosa (Mahaska County), a small town between Des Moines and Ottumwa.

Fourth Congressional district (D+0)
28 counties
represented by Tom Latham (R)

Field offices are open in:

Ames (Story County), where Iowa State University is located and about 40 miles north of Des Moines.
Marshalltown, (Marshall County), to the east of Ames.
Fort Dodge (Webster County), to the northwest of Ames.
Mason City (Cerro Gordo County), in the far north-central part of the state.

An office in Iowa Falls (Hardin County), north of Ames and Marshalltown but south of Mason City, will open later this year.

Fifth Congressional district (R+8)
32 counties
represented by Steve King (R)

Field offices are open in:

Council Bluffs (Pottawattamie County), on the Missouri River just opposite Omaha, Nebraska.
Sioux City (Woodbury County), the largest city in northwest Iowa, also along the Missouri River.

A few thoughts before I end this diary:

John McCain has opened a state headquarters in Urbandale (a suburb of Des Moines), but I haven't found any information about how many field offices he plans to open in Iowa.

Many progressive activists in Iowa share my concerns about the demise of the Iowa Democratic Party's coordinated campaign. It's worth noting that not every state party has ceded control over GOTV to the Obama campaign. See this post by Chris Bowers and the comment thread below it.

Obama is opening more offices in the eastern Iowa Congressional districts, where more Democrats live. But some counties in the fourth and fifth Congressional districts might be covered by field offices in other districts. For instance, the Des Moines office may handle GOTV in some counties to the south and west, which are part of the fourth or fifth districts.

It is too early to tell how much effort the Obama campaign will put into state legislative races. Many competitive Iowa House and Senate districts are in counties where Obama has field offices, but it's not clear whether the GOTV push will emphasize heavily Democratic areas of those counties, or areas where our House and Senate candidates need the most help.

I hope the Obama campaign will focus attention on the battleground districts for the Iowa House and Senate. He has never trailed McCain in a head-to-head poll in Iowa. The Democratic voter registration edge has increased substantially here during the past year. Also, McCain has never built a strong Iowa organization and barely campaigned here before the 2000 or 2008 caucuses. Which is to say that I think McCain has little chance of winning Iowa's electoral votes.

I encourage bloggers in other states to publish diaries about Obama's field operation. If that information has already been announced in your state, please put up a link or a comment about where Obama's field offices are.


Poll
For whom will you spend the most time volunteering this year?
Barack Obama
A Democratic candidate for the U.S. House or Senate
A Democratic candidate for governor or other statewide office
A Democratic candidate for the state legislature
A local candidate (mayor, city council, school board, etc.)
I don't plan to volunteer for any candidate

Votes: 24
Results : Vote Link : Polls

Display:


Why doesn't Obama have (none / 0)

as many offices in the GE as in the primary?

According to Joe Trippi, Obama spent 38 million in Iowa, so I am not surprised there are fewer offices in the GE than in the primary.  


by fladem on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 09:31:35 AM EST

whatever he spent (none / 0)

he certainly got his money's worth.

I've never seen solid numbers for what Obama or Clinton spent in Iowa. I don't know where Trippi got that number, but it doesn't seem out of the ballpark by any means. The tv ads in Iowa alone cost something like $8-10 million.


John McCain: 100 years in Iraq "would be fine with me."
by desmoinesdem on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 10:26:15 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Clinton (none / 0)

spent 28 million, and Edwards around 8 according to Trippi.  


by fladem on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 08:26:19 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Why doesn't Obama have (none / 0)

He definitely doesn't need as many.  McCain showed his disdain to Iowa voters in both 2000 and 2008 when he skipped the Caucuses.  I frankly don't even see how Iowa is considered a battleground at this point, but I think Obama's field operation (and McCain's lack of one) can only serve to help Democratic chances in the state.

That he has as many offices in Latham's district as Braley and Loebsack's tells me he's trying to help Democrats take that district.


The sharpest criticism often goes hand in hand with the deepest idealism and love of country. ~RFK
by Vox Populi on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 11:42:28 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Obama ramps up field operation in Iowa (none / 0)

I am still interested in how the IDP/Obama relationship finishes in the end, especially on IDs.


by danIA on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 12:09:17 PM EST

Re: Obama ramps up field operation in Iowa (none / 0)

Do you know why the locals folded in Iowa but not Ohio?  Did they get pushed or was it a mutual decision?

I find it strange that Obama and local groups couldn't work in tandem to get more done.


McCain = bad Obama = good
by CAchemist on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 02:24:28 PM EST

I don't know the backstory (none / 0)

but trying to look at it from Obama's perspective, the Iowa Democratic Party's coordinated campaign failed to deliver for Kerry in 2004 and failed to flip the Iowa House and Senate in 2000 or 2004 (we won back both chambers in 2006).

I don't think the Ohio Democratic Party infrastructure is any stronger than the IDP's, though--if anything Ohio has a reputation for having one of the most dysfunctional state parties.

Maybe Obama just had a deep talent pool in Iowa because of all the work they did leading up to the caucuses, and he wanted his campaign to be in control for that reason. I can only speculate.


John McCain: 100 years in Iraq "would be fine with me."
by desmoinesdem on Sun Jul 13, 2008 at 08:51:20 PM EST
[ Parent ]


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