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Obama's campaign opens shop to woo Minnesota voters

Barack Obama's campaign thinks local staffing may help it win the state's precinct caucuses; Clinton has a similar plan.

By Bob Von Sternberg, Star Tribune

Last update: October 3, 2007 - 7:50 PM

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With polls showing him lagging as far behind Hillary Clinton in Minnesota as he is nationally, Barack Obama became Wednesday the first Democratic presidential candidate to announce state staffing and a campaign organization.

In another sign the Democrats' race toward the Feb. 5 precinct caucuses is heating up, Clinton's Minnesota supporters have announced five organizational meetings are to be held today across the Twin Cities.

"We'll have organizations in all eight congressional districts -- not just in the Twin Cities," said Steve Hildebrand, a past executive director of the DFL Party who is Obama's deputy campaign manager. "We're beginning to build the foundation of a grass-roots organization."

The first step toward creating such a structure, which Obama's strategists hope to parlay into a victory at the party's precinct caucuses Feb. 5, will come Saturday when the campaign holds a "caucus convention" from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at St. Paul's Central High School.

In a conference call to reporters, campaign manager David Plouffe said Obama's organization has gathered the names of 10,000 Minnesotans who either contributed to the campaign or offered to volunteer for it.

The Minnesota campaign will be headed by Chris Miller, who headed former Vice President Al Gore's 2000 campaign in Iowa, and Tina Smith, a DFL veteran who is chief of staff for Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak, one of Obama's earliest prominent Minnesota supporters.

Plouffe dismissed a flurry of recent national polls that show Clinton, the New York senator, is solidifying her massive lead nationally, as well as a new Star Tribune Minnesota Poll that shows her leading in the state 47 percent to 22 percent.

"Almost all states outside of Iowa behave a lot like the national polls," he said. "And the polls don't measure organizational intensity. We've got a good foundation to build on here."

Obama's longstanding strategy has been to concentrate on the first four states that vote next year -- Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina -- where he has been running stronger than he has nationally.

Although some supporters have begun quietly grumbling about that approach, Plouffe said the campaign will continue its "sequential approach that begins in Iowa."

In the next few weeks, Obama's campaign will announce its Minnesota campaign chairs, and Hildebrand said the candidate will campaign in the state "definitely before the end of the year."

High-profile DFLers support both camps. Clinton has won the support of publisher Vance Opperman, health care executive Lois Quam and her husband, former House DFL leader Matt Entenza and former Secretary of State Joan Growe. In addition to Rybak, Obama is being backed by Rep. Keith Ellison and party activists Sam and Sylvia Kaplan.

To date, the candidates haven't campaigned much in Minnesota, the exception being Obama's appearance in Minneapolis in late July, which drew thousands.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, is the only other candidate in either party who has so far created a visible organization in the state.

Bob von Sternberg • 612-673-7184

Bob Von Sternberg • vonste@startribune.com

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