Iowa: Dems’ Coordinated Campaign Largely Disbanded, Replaced by Obama Staff
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.
By June 27, news had trickled down to the field staff and Democratic county chairs that plans had changed, but the details of the changes were left unclear. According to sources within the party, several regional field directors accepted lesser positions or resigned outright, and field organizers were fired with the opportunity to reapply for similar jobs on the Obama campaign’s payroll rather than the state party’s. Summer canvassers, who have been knocking on doors since the first week of June, were left in place, but some were unsure whom they would report to following the shakeup.
Details of the new plan remain compartmentalized and, in some cases, unfinished, but the biggest impact could be on state legislative candidates, who depend on the pooled resources of the coordinated campaign for much of their volunteer coordination and get-out-the-vote programs. Candidates in close races had already paid the initial fee to join the coordinated campaign — up to about $10,000 each — before word leaked out that the Obama campaign would not participate in the joint effort. Money that was paid into the coordinated campaign by candidates will be used to fund the summer canvass and, if financially possible, to extend the canvass through November.
This looks bad. Really bad.
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