Smaller primary states not so secondary: The campaign in Vermont

[DeepModem Mom]

USA Today: Smaller primary states not so secondary
By Erin Kelly, Gannett News Service


(AP file photo)
Anti-war activist in front of the statehouse in Montpelier, Vt. The strong anti-war sentiment in the state is expected to help Sen. Barack Obama in the state's Democratic primary.

When Vermonters trudge through the snow Tuesday to vote in their presidential primary, there will be no big-name candidates waiting to shake their hands nor throngs of reporters jostling to ask their opinions. The press and politicians are scurrying around the delegate-rich states of Ohio and Texas, largely ignoring little Vermont and Rhode Island, all of which hold primaries the same day.

Paying closer attention to New England are the campaigns of Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton. Obama has opened seven campaign offices in Vermont, while Clinton has two. Vermonters could end up playing a far more important role than anyone guessed a few weeks ago, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe said. "It's about amassing the most delegates and, to do that, you've got to campaign hard everywhere," he said.

Obama has followed that strategy earnestly, racking up delegates in small states from Idaho to Maine while Clinton largely has followed a big-state strategy. On Super Tuesday, Obama won a bigger share of delegates by winning Idaho than Clinton did by winning New Jersey, Plouffe said.

The Illinois senator's campaign organizing, combined with Vermont's stance against the Iraq war and a dearth of blue-collar manufacturing workers who typically favor Clinton, have helped make Obama the favorite to win Vermont's Democratic primary, said Eric Davis, a political scientist at Middlebury College in Vermont. "Vermont has been strongly anti-war for the last five years," Davis said. He added that every time Obama says Clinton voted in 2002 to give President Bush the authority to use military force in Iraq "it causes her problems in Vermont."

Clinton's campaign is not conceding the state and plans to bring in Chelsea Clinton for a rally in Burlington today to try to boost her mother's chances....

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politics/election2008/2008-02-28-Vermont_N.htm

[madfloridian]

1. One VT superdelegate will be staying neutral.

He is chairman, and must be neutral.

Most of them have endorsed Obama.