With 'Super-Duper Tuesday,' Contrasting Views Emerge on Primary Season
The Romney campaign believes it needs some strong early finishes to be seen as viable but has also identified its best opportunities in states that have moved up or are considering moving up their primaries and is hiring staff and building grassroots networks there. Those states include Alabama, California, Florida, Michigan, and Nevada.
On the Democratic ticket, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's fundraising juggernaut is positioning her to compete in many of the February 5 states, while her competitors may find it more difficult to raise enough money to do so. The campaign of former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards is already pledging to focus all but exclusively on the first four primary and caucus states: Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. "I subscribe to the theory that any candidate that wins three or four of the initial states will have such a tailwind that it will be difficult if not impossible to stop that candidate," says Fred Baron, finance director the Edwards campaign.
The campaign of Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, meanwhile, says the new calendar has not been a major consideration so far. "We're not obsessing over February 5," says an Obama aide. "But we're monitoring the situation."
advertisement
