Obama Tries New Tactics To Get Out Vote in Iowa

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Obama's Closing Argument

The Post's Shailagh Murray assesses the closing days of Barack Obama's Iowa campaign, noting that the senator is going 'a little soft, a little hard.'

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"We don't think we could be any more different than the Dean campaign," said Hildebrand, a veteran political strategist. "We get everyone who signs up with us online to get involved in person. It's not just a computer-to-computer relationship -- it's a person-to-person relationship. This is Iowa, after all."

Unions have their own 2004 precedent to avoid. That year, then-Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.), who won the caucus in 1988, was considered a favorite because of his strong union backing. Instead, he finished behind Dean and his candidacy was also ended.

Chuck Rocha, national political director of the United Steelworkers of America, has spent much of the past six months in Iowa, directing labor volunteers for the Edwards campaign. Over the weekend, about 130 steelworkers were in Iowa, spending eight hours a day on union time, then working the rest of their long days directly for the Edwards staff.

This time, Rocha said, his members are targeting union members more, engaging them on their doorsteps and at the gates of 21 Iowa factories instead of just passing out leaflets. The outsiders concentrate on identifying Edwards supporters and urging undecideds to see him in action. "What they're saying to our members is, 'You have a voice that I don't have. Use it,' " said Edwards precinct captain John Campbell, a steelworker and an Iowan. "We learned from our mistakes that a caucus is a different critter."

Clinton's campaign has its own target group: female voters, including many who have never caucused. In one ambitious effort to expand her base, Clinton launched an effort to reach women -- especially over 65, under 30 or single -- registered as independents or as Democrats considered unlikely to caucus. She taped a call to them and told them to expect an envelope in the mail.

The packet, less political than other Clinton mail, included a card that said, "If you're itching for change, scratch here to win." Those who sent it back received a blue travel mug that said "I'm standing with Hillary." The campaign collected the names of thousands of potential supporters -- so many that it needed a tractor-trailer to haul all the mugs.

"This is a huge experiment," said Karen Hicks, a senior campaign adviser. "We have no idea if this will work or not."

For weeks, the Clinton campaign has been doing much hand-holding of its newest recruits, pairing them with experienced caucusgoers to boost their confidence and inspire them to show up.

Along the way, the campaign has had considerable help from its union supporters. Emily's List, the women's political fundraising group, spent more than $400,000 to design an elaborate marketing program aimed at Iowa women. Strategists identified a large subset who described themselves as predisposed to support Clinton and having a six in 10 chance of caucusing.

"We realized it wasn't that we needed to spend our time building the support in Iowa for Hillary -- we just needed to turn out the support that she had," said Emily's List spokeswoman Ramona Oliver. "We looked at why they wouldn't go -- what were the barriers?"

The strategists found that many women simply found the caucuses confusing and intimidating, so they took several steps to counter that. At the same time, Emily's List designed an online advertising strategy that popped up a link to its Web site every time a computer in Iowa searched Google or Yahoo using specific terms. Some of the search terms were politically oriented, such as "2008 caucuses." Others aimed at the presumed interests of Iowa women, such as "recipe," "stocking stuffer" and "post-Thanksgiving sales."

By the end of the week, about 20,000 visitors from 613 Iowa towns had clicked on the ads.