WASHINGTON — One of the biggest and best-organized campaigns in Iowa doesn’t belong to any of the Republican presidential hopefuls — it’s President Obama’s.
While the fight among Republican candidates has received all the attention, Obama’s re-election campaign has quietly put together a massive operation geared toward winning the Hawkeye State in the November general election.
Obama also is running in the state’s Democratic caucus Tuesday night, the same night as the Republican contest, and the president will beam a live address to every caucus site.
His campaign, Obama for America, has eight offices in Iowa, has made 350,000 phone calls to potential supporters, and staged 1,280 events to recruit and train volunteers.
The political landscape in Iowa is vastly altered from 2008, when Obama began a long march to the White House by beating Hillary Rodham Clinton and John Edwards in the Democratic caucus.
This time, he has a clear path to the nomination, but Iowa remains a general-election swing state.