The battle for Pennsylvania
Posted: Friday, April 11, 2008 9:38 AM by Mark Murray
The Los Angeles Times: "Flush with payments from well-funded campaigns, the ward leaders and Democratic Party bosses typically spread out the cash in the days before the election, handing $10, $20 and $50 bills to the foot soldiers and loyalists who make up the party's workforce. It is all legal -- but Obama's people are telling the local bosses he won't pay. That sets up a culture clash, pitting a candidate who promises to transform American politics against the realities of a local political system important to his presidential hopes.”
“Obama's posture confounds neighborhood political leaders sympathetic to his cause. They caution that if the senator from Illinois withholds money that gubernatorial, mayoral and presidential candidates have willingly paid out for decades, there could be defections to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. And the Clinton campaign, in contrast, will oblige in forking over the money, these ward leaders predict."
More: "Neither the Clinton nor the Obama campaign would say publicly whether it would comply with Philadelphia's street money customs. But an Obama aide said Thursday that it had never been the campaign's practice to make such payments. Rather, the campaign's focus is to recruit new people drawn to Obama's message, the aide said.”
This Philly Inquirer story notes how Philly and Pittsburgh are divided between Obama (Eagles) and Clinton (Steelers).
Memories of Ohio? USA Today notes how some national indie groups (including EMILY's List for Clinton and SEIU for Obama) are flooding the Keystone State.
Salon's Walter Schapiro checks in on how Obama's playing in blue collar PA, particularly Altoona. "With its population dwindling to under 50,000 in recent years, Altoona should by all demographic factors be Hillary country in the primary. In this old railroad city in the mountains of central Pennsylvania, family incomes, housing prices, educational levels and racial diversity are all well below the state average. (In past general elections, this area has been reliably Republican. But the final pre-primary figures for Blair County, in which Altoona is the largest city, show that Democratic enrollment has increased by more than 2,000 voters since November 2007, while GOP support has dropped by more than 600 registrants.)”
“There is a danger in political reporting in placing too much stock in street-corner and restaurant-booth interviews. (The risks of worshipping at the shrine of polls are perhaps even greater.) But still, there are hints that Obama, who is narrowing the gap against Clinton in recent statewide polls, may be tapping into something even here in Altoona, where the 19th century offered more promise than the current one."
