CALIFORNIA: Campaigns eye state prize

Sacramento Bee ^ | 1/5/7 | Dan Smith and Peter Hecht

[SmithL]

Presidential candidates start final push, or gear up for run at California's delegate treasure trove.

Even before the Iowa caucus results came in late Thursday, the four best-funded presidential campaigns were making an aggressive push to recruit California voters, while upstarts were hoping to last long enough to compete here on Feb. 5.

The campaigns of Republican Rudy Giuliani and Democrat Hillary Clinton, working to reach permanent absentee voters across the state, were hoping to hold on to leads in the polls in California. The goal was to create firewalls to protect their campaigns against break-through candidates, such as Iowa caucus winners former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.

Republican analyst Dan Schnur said Giuliani and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney have the most expansive California operations, while Arizona Sen. John McCain's significant base of support here has gone largely untended because of money problems. Huckabee's campaign organization has been far less visible in California, he said.

"The best thing to come out of Iowa for California voters is that there will be a contested primary for the Republican nomination here," Schnur said.

He said the GOP candidates don't have the money, however, to ramp up campaigning in California until more primaries are decided.

Democratic consultant Bill Carrick said the three top Democratic candidates have different organizational strengths in California.

Clinton, he said, "has the bulk of the top-of-the-tier endorsements," including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, while Obama "has the edge in raw energy" and volunteers.

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, meanwhile, can count on strong support from key Democratic constituencies – organized labor and trial lawyers – should his campaign survive the January primaries.

"Obama and Clinton have made the commitment to basic infrastructure here. Edwards hasn't made that yet," Carrick said.

[SmithL]

Libbie Coleman, left, and Ash Roughani are among those in Obama's Sacramento office calling to round up support for the Illinois senator's presidential bid.

[americanophile]

Having to fight it out here in California is the worst nightmare for all these candidates...no one has the money it takes to campaign here, it’s prohibitively expensive to try and reach 30 million people, and no one here agrees on anything...its a microcosm of this country (and Mexico).

[Mariner]

Those who think Iowa, NH and SC actually matter, will be much chagrinned come Feb 5th.

24 states, to include NY and CA will choose their delegates.

The election dynamic has changed. Hillary and Rudy are STILL the forces to contend with...Funding...Recognition...Organization. Those campaign basics are bigger than ever.

You can't play in 24 states if you're a rookie. The primaries are now the big leagues. IA and NH are the minor leagues.

[GOP Poet]

Mitt Romney will have my vote. So there is 1 for Mitt in LA.