Obama Plans 50-State Drive

VOTER REGISTRATION

Obama Plans 50-State Drive

Pivoting to general-election mode, Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) campaign announced yesterday a 50-state voter registration drive that will kick off four days after the May 6 primaries in North Carolina and Indiana.

"Vote for Change" will summon the volunteer army that Obama has amassed in the 47 states and territories that have already held primaries or caucuses this year, along with the nine yet to come. Deputy campaign manager Steve Hildebrand described the effort as a "sustained six-month campaign" aimed at driving up turnout for all Democratic candidates in November.

Obama's campaign already has waged aggressive turnout drives in individual states, including Pennsylvania, where nearly 230,000 Democrats registered before the April 22 primary, many of them Obama supporters; North Carolina, where 165,000 new voters of varying candidate preferences have registered; and Indiana, where the voter rolls have swelled by more than 150,000.

The program's other aim is to signal to Democratic leaders and, in particular, uncommitted superdelegates that Obama is the stronger general-election candidate. His 50-state strategy may have cost him votes in big states such as California, but Hildebrand and others have long argued that the result of having campaigned everywhere is a nationwide grass-roots organization unlike any ever created by a presidential candidate.

Hildebrand cited Wyoming as an example. The March 8 caucus state got little attention from Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, and it's a long shot as a Democratic pickup in the presidential election. But Obama, who beat Clinton in Wyoming easily, built a volunteer team there that can now be dispatched to aid Gary Trauner, who lost a 2006 race for the state's at-large House seat by 1,000 votes. Trauner has a better shot this year: The GOP incumbent who beat him, Rep. Barbara Cubin, is retiring. "We're looking for opportunities beyond the presidential campaign," Hildebrand said.

He confirmed that the campaign also is close to cutting a deal with the Democratic National Committee to conduct joint fundraising, an effort initiated by the DNC, which is seeking a similar deal with Clinton's campaign. "It is something that we're moving forward with," Hildebrand said.

-- Shailagh Murray

STAYING IN? OR NOT?

Clinton Sidesteps Questions

GARY, Ind. -- Hillary Clinton, who vowed earlier this month to stay in the race until Democratic officials figured out a way to seat the delegations of Michigan and Florida at the party's national convention in August, hinted yesterday that she might reconsider the state of her campaign if she loses in Indiana.