Obama setting S.C. campaign plans

By JIM DAVENPORT
Associated Press Writer

Published: July 7, 2008

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) _ Two of Barack Obama’s top South Carolina supporters said Monday the Illinois senator will put paid staff on the ground in the Palmetto State.

That’s a break with a recent practice of Democratic presidential hopefuls bypassing the GOP-dominated state in the general election.

“They’re going to have at least a dozen or more paid staffers in South Carolina for the general election,” former state Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian said.

Obama was en route to North Carolina on Monday, but had plane problems and was diverted to St. Louis. His North Carolina trip was postponed until a future date. He had two fundraisers in Atlanta scheduled for Monday evening and a town hall meeting Tuesday in Powder Springs, a Cobb County GOP stronghold.

Obama’s campaign has said for weeks it would run a national campaign. Harpootlian and former Gov. Jim Hodges met with Obama’s campaign in Chicago last week and were told of the plans. Obama’s campaign didn’t immediately respond to questions for this story.

That staffing work already has begun and should be completed next month, Harpootlian said.

The move stands out because Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and former Vice President Al Gore’s presidential campaign wrote off South Carolina to focus on other states with more winnable electoral votes.

Obama is “not going to make the mistakes of the Gore and Kerry campaigns of putting money into 14 states,” Harpootlian said.

“I think Obama is really going to surprise people here and other states in the South,” Hodges said. “I think he’s a very competitive candidate and that you’ll find in October or so, John McCain will have to commit resources and money to Southern states that he did not think he would have to.”

Obama already has to buy television time in South Carolina to reach into some North Carolina markets where Obama and the Arizona senator are battling. Meanwhile, television ads from North Carolina and Georgia will be seen in some of South Carolina’s largest media markets, making the campaign far more visible than South Carolinians are accustomed to seeing.

That elevates Obama’s prospects, Hodges said. “I think Obama can win South Carolina.”

If he does, he’d be the first Democrat to win there since Jimmy Carter beat Gerald Ford with 56 percent of the vote in 1976. Since 1980, Democrats have hardly come close to carrying the state.

“We’ll be prepared with a ground game and a victory program,” state GOP Chairman Katon Dawson said.

He called the Democrat’s decision to spend money staffing a South Carolina campaign a “poor business decision” and was “gratified that Barack Obama is going to spend some of his financial resources here on what will be a failed effort.”

Democrats have been hoping for an active Obama campaign here to energize down-ticket races.

“It’s a heck of an opportunity,” said Lachlan McIntosh, who is managing Rob Miller’s campaign for the 2nd District U.S. House seat now held by U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, a Republican. “An excited Democratic base can mean 2 or 3 extra (percentage) points for every Democrat running on the ballot.”

And Obama may break another tradition: state Democrats distancing themselves from their party’s presidential nominee. “The party’s nominee hasn’t always been that helpful in the past,” McIntosh said.