RSS Feed of the blog

Contributors:

Reporter William March has covered state and national politics since 1994. Email

Reporter Mike Salinero has covered Hillsborough County government for The Tampa Tribune since 2007. Email

Reporter Lindsay Peterson has been a general assignment reporter at the Tampa Tribune since 2005, focusing on higher education since 2009. Email

TBO RNC 2012 Section

Florida Political Blogs:

• State Of Sunshine
• Pushing Rope
• Interstate4Jamming
• News Service of Florida
• FLA Politics
• Sayfie Review/

News Blog Search

Advanced Search

Most Recent Entries

• Memorial Day weekend deals to honor military, vets
• How come the poll results don’t match?
• Q Poll: Mack has long lead in primary, ties Nelson in general matchup
• Mack campaign retracts Fortuno endorsement quotes
• Coburn backs LeMieux, answering Mack’s Fortuno
• Q Poll: Romney has significant lead in Florida
• Storm The Swarm: SOCCENT deputy chief asks for technology to stop threat of Iranian small boats
• Nelson disses Obama on Castro daughter
• Hoyer to campaign with Ehrlich
• Mack dumbest speaker in Congress?  It’s complicated
• Guetzloe sentenced for not filing tax returns
• Mack asks feds to investigate LeMieux appointment
• Pentagon Reports Deaths of 7 Troops This Week in Support of Operation Enduring Freedom
• Mack demands investigation of LeMieux appointment
• Ross backs Mack

More

• Breaking News
• Command Post Tampa
• Fact Finders - Databay Blog
• Guestbook: Remembering The Fallen Soldiers
• Fresh Squeezed Politics
• RNC 2012: The Road to Tampa
• Political Safari

Monthly Archives

• May 2012
• April 2012
• March 2012
• February 2012
• January 2012
• December 2011

Top Obama Strategists Move Into Florida

Posted Oct 8, 2008 by William March

Updated Oct 9, 2008 at 12:01 AM

As Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden was speaking in Tampa today, the Obama campaign leaked word that two top campaign strategists will move from the Chicago headquarters to Florida—an indication of how seriously Obama is taking his attempt to win the Sunshine State.

Deputy campaign manager Steve Hildebrand and chief general election strategist Paul Tewes have been dispatched to Florida, Hildebrand to Miami and Tewes to Obama’s state headquarters in Ybor City.

The two are expected to continue doing their normal jobs, but to intensify the Obama campaign effort here.

Obama has already advertised more heavily in Florida than any other state and hired an unprecedented Florida staff of nearly 300, in an attempt to put Florida in the Democratic column in a presidential race for the first time since 1996.

Polls in Florida show a tight race – a Mason-Dixon poll for the Tribune this week gave Obama a two-point edge, but with a four-point error margin. That could be unnerving for McCain, because, as we’ve said maybe a million times, nobody thinks McCain can win the presidency without winning Florida.

Read about the rally here.