Obama's campaign confirmed Thursday it is seeking office space in Salt Lake City and will hire a full-time staff person to help coordinate a stable of volunteers enthused about the Illinois senator's chances for the White House. He would be the first presidential candidate to set up a field office in the state.
"We have a huge grassroots group here in Utah," said Raul Alvillar, Obama's state director for Arizona who was hunting for office space Thursday in Utah. "Just because the state is red, doesn't mean there aren't Democrats there."
While other campaigns have volunteer state directors, Obama is the first major presidential candidate to marshal a paid, on-the-ground effort in Utah this cycle. It's not unheard of for candidates to set up field offices in the state. Former presidential contender Al Gore had one in 2000 and Sen. John Kerry flew in paid staffers right before the 2004 Democratic primary.
Obama already has field offices in several other Mountain West states, including Idaho, Colorado, Arizona and Nevada.
Quin Monson, associate director of the Center for the Study of Elections and Democracy at Brigham Young University, says Obama's move signals that the decision to schedule Utah's primary election on Feb. 5 has proven successful. Utah has 23 pledged delegates up for grabs on that day, now being called Super-Duper Tuesday for the fact that some 22 states are planning primaries at the same time.
"There are delegates to be had and he wants them," Monson said.
The Utah Democratic Party is excited to see Obama's campaign spend money in the state, which is almost always a flyover region in the presidential race because of the small population and Republican dominance.
Wayne Holland, the state Democratic chairman, says the rally Obama held in August drawing hundreds of participants showed the Obama camp "the depth of his support in areas you wouldn't expect."
"The exciting thing for me is that if he's going to do it, you'll probably see others do it too," Holland says.
