LAT: Ickes is Clinton's not-so-secret weapon
The veteran political operative is relentless in his drive for Democratic superdelegates.
By Peter Nicholas
March 31, 2008
....the man in charge of Clinton's feverish effort to lock up superdelegates is (Harold) Ickes, whose enthusiasm for no-holds-barred politics sometimes rattles friends and foes alike. Ickes once got so carried away that he bit another political operative on the leg. Now, some 35 years later, at age 68, he has mellowed so little that it could happen again. "It depends on how heated the circumstances are," he says.
Aggressive, profane, openly scornful of rivals, Ickes rules Clinton's superdelegate operation with an intimidating style and a mythic persona. He is "advisor, consigliere, enforcer and strategist" all rolled into one, says Dick Harpootlian, a former chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party who backs Obama. What's more, Harpootlian says: "He's like a shadow. You hear he's here, you hear he's there, but you never actually see him."
Ickes comes by his temperament and his passion for politics naturally. He is the son and namesake of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's famously irascible Interior secretary. And he has played the role of party maverick for decades....
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Temperament and eccentricities aside, with the importance of the superdelegates increasing Ickes now carries a burden that may be second only to the candidate's own. Clinton is ahead among superdelegates, but the margin has been slipping. In December, she led Obama by 106 superdelegates. In early February, the number was down to 87. Today it is 36, according to Associated Press surveys.
Ickes runs the superdelegate operation from a third-floor war room in this suburb across the Potomac River from the capital. About 20 aides are divided into teams. One woos the uncommitted; another works to prevent defections....
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In courting the uncommitted, "the first order of business" is finding out "Who is this person?" Ickes said recently.... "What is his or her political history? Who does that person associate with or rely on for information they take into account when making political decisions?" To get answers, aides sit at computers ranged along a windowless hallway outside Ickes' office. They sift websites; do Google searches; talk to friends, lobbyists, campaign donors -- tapping into what Ickes calls the sprawling network of "Clinton alumni."
"You establish a relationship and keep going back, and people become friendlier and let down their guard," Ickes said, describing the campaign's methods. "And before you know it, you can pick up useful information. None of this is insidious information; it's information about what makes a person tick politically."...
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-ickes31mar31,0,1327180,full.story
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