Hill's Group: Hillary Clinton's Campaign Organization Could Overshadow Enthusiasm For Bernie Sanders [View all]

[BlueMTexpat]

The stakes are high for the Vermont senator to perform well in early March caucus states.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-midwest_us_56d08e1ce4b03260bf76a0a1

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Sanders’ losses in both Nevada and Iowa increase the value of states like Missouri and Kansas, where he seeks to run up his delegate totals. Missouri will hold its primary on March 15, while Kansas holds its caucuses, which require a major investment in time and resources, on March 5. Both Democratic campaigns are operating in high gear to turn out as many voters as possible in a short time frame.

“As organizers, you feel nervous to enter a state with 15 days left to identify support,” said Shelby Iseler, who is Sanders’ Kansas state director and previously served as a deputy field director in Iowa. Iseler, along with six other paid staffers in Iowa, were redeployed to the Great Plains the day after the first-in-the nation caucus.
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Clinton’s team seems to be using a different strategy in Kansas this cycle, vowing not to repeat the mistakes of 2008, when the former secretary of state suffered a devastating loss to Barack Obama in Kansas and other caucus states.

While there has been grassroots organizing throughout the state as well, the Clinton campaign began deploying paid staff in November 2015, two months before Sanders’ campaign staff were on the ground. Former Clinton staffer Pat Rynard said that could make a difference.

“The campaign strategy is night and day,” said Rynard, who organized for Clinton in Iowa and Kansas in 2008 and has witnessed both campaign operations on the ground in several Midwestern caucus states this cycle. “They are investing the staff that they need in order to win delegates or mitigate delegate losses in states that Sanders might win.”