Trump's Florida Ground Game Lags as GOP Rides to His Rescue
How many of the 24 field offices that Team Trump said in early August they’d open this month in Florida are now up and running?
None yet, according to Republican officials in the state.
The Republican presidential nominee has one of his campaign's weakest ground games in his most crucial swing state, several political insiders and donors told Bloomberg Politics.
Now, some Republicans are worried it's getting too late to recover, with vote-by-mail ballots going out starting in late September and Democrats pledging a big push in early voting.
“It’s troubling,” said David Johnson, a GOP political consultant and a former executive director of the Republican Party of Florida. “We hear the same thing from county party leaders – ‘Where are they? Where are they?’ We remain hopeful.”
Karen Giorno, a senior Trump advisor who oversees Florida operations, said the promised 24 offices are coming. “We are going to be opening them shortly. The leases are being signed,” she said.
Giorno said the campaign is empowering GOP chairs in Florida’s 67 counties as “CEOs of their counties,” adapting Trump’s spirit of entrepreneurship for the grassroots community. Giorno cautioned political pundits and strategists not to judge Trump’s campaign against metrics of previous cycles and previous candidates’ strategies.
Republican National Committee officials told Bloomberg they’re on a hiring spree with a slew of office openings in the works nationwide. They have the approvals to bring on 400 new staffers, and to bring the number of field offices to just over 100, said Rick Gorka, a spokesman for the RNC.
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2016-08-31/trump-s-florida-ground-game-lags-as-gop-rides-to-his-rescue