Clinton team made millions of cell phone calls in CA, contacted every identififed Clinton voter

[Herman Munster]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/07/MNC8UT9LM.DTL

02-06) 21:48 PST San Francisco -- Last Sunday, on the same day Sen. Barack Obama marshaled glitzy supporters like Oprah Winfrey, Maria Shriver and Caroline Kennedy to rev up a UCLA crowd for a surge to victory in California, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton quietly enlisted a far less glamorous team to reach voters in the nation's most populous state.

Averell "Ace" Smith, Clinton's California campaign manager, directed a statewide army of volunteers with cell phones dialing furiously for voters. The team made 2 million calls over the final weekend of the campaign - and a million more from 5 to 8 p.m. on Super Tuesday alone - to reach the absentee voters, women and Latinos who had been identified as likely Clinton supporters in the Democratic primary.

"We did something that, to my knowledge, no one has ever done," Smith said Wednesday. "We talked to every one of those people we knew were Hillary supporters - and we made sure they cast their ballot."

The unprecedented scope of the effort blunted Obama's surge and brought Clinton a 10-point win in California.

"California is too big, too expensive and too unwieldy to run a 'movement campaign,' " such as Obama was mounting, said Dan Newman, a Democratic strategist not affiliated with either campaign. "You need something that's efficient, surgical and targeted - and that's the stuff that Ace perfected."

The precision of Clinton's effort, and its unusual emphasis on the increasing number of mail-in voters, suggests a potential model for what successful presidential efforts will look like in diverse, voter-rich states holding primaries over the next two-plus months.

"California is a template for what the campaign can do in the big three states on the horizon - Texas, Pennsylvania and Ohio," said Democratic strategist Chris Lehane, a former spokesman in the Bill Clinton White House. "If you can put together that coalition - working class, Latinos and women - that is a winning hand in all three states. That is a coalition that cannot be beaten."

[Levgreee]

1. "California is too big, too expensive and too unwieldy to run a 'movement campaign,'

" such as Obama was mounting, said Dan Newman, a Democratic strategist not affiliated with either campaign. "You need something that's efficient, surgical and targeted - and that's the stuff that Ace perfected."

Yes, Obama did poorly, only gaining about 10-15% over those two weeks.

[Apollo11]

2. What!? You mean Democrats don't follow Maria Shriver's lead?

How can anyone doubt Maria Shriver's good judgement on "Super 2sdaÿ: Judgement Day"? :eyes:

I love listening to Maria Shriver's voice. Such a warm tone, dontcha think? ;-)

[AGirl]

3. wow inspiring!

[robbedvoter]

4. Work horse vs show horse!

[Apollo11]

5. Great meme!

I love that meme. I wonder if Bill came up with it? ;-)

[Raffi Ella]

6. Very cool.

"If you can put together that coalition - working class, Latinos and women - that is a winning hand in all three states. That is a coalition that cannot be beaten."

That part especially makes me proud.



Hillary Clinton for The People.