ORLANDO, Fla. (MCT) — While Republican presidential candidates dig in for what has become a long, bitter fight for the GOP nomination, Barack Obama’s re-election campaign is quietly trying to take control in Florida.
In Florida, the biggest swing state in the nation, Obama for America now has 16 campaign offices, lists of thousands of volunteers that grow daily and at least seven paid staff members. It’s spending more than $300,000 a month in Florida — months before a Republican nominee is likely to begin reorganizing a campaign here.
Democratic operative Steve Schale, who headed Obama’s Florida campaign in 2008 but is not involved this year, said this year’s effort is starting months before Version 2008, which did not hit its full stride until late summer. Obama carried the Sunshine State by 3 percentage points that year.
Yet some political observers, such as Rollins College political scientist Donald Davison, don’t think the activity gives Obama much of an advantage. With the national GOP convention in Tampa in August, Republicans likely will dominate the news in Florida for several weeks next summer.
What’s more, the president’s approval ratings in Florida are in the 40s — and every poll shows him basically neck-and-neck with any Republican challenger.
The Republican Party of Florida has its own entrenched networks of activists, strengthened by the party’s decade-long domination of state politics.
It’s also highly effective at mobilizing early voters.
