US presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders is drawing bigger crowds than any other presidential candidate: 10,000 people in Madison, Wisconsin. More than 2,500 in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Another 7,500 in Portland, Maine.
The trick for the independent senator from Vermont and self-described democratic socialist who aims to run on the Democratic Party ticket is to turn all that excitement into something more than a summer fling. Will those supporters caucus for him on a cold winter night in Iowa or help him get out the vote for the primary a week later in snowy New Hampshire — two states that play a key role by holding the first nominating contests in the US primary campaign?
“We have only been a declared candidate for two months,” Sanders said recently in tiny Storm Lake, Iowa. “In a certain sense, our momentum is outpacing our infrastructure.”
Photo: AP
In presidential politics, infrastructure matters. For Sanders to turn his campaign into an honest challenge against former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton, he will need to convert rally attendees into volunteers, donors and voters next year.
For all the crowds that Sanders attracts, he remains far behind Clinton in the work of building a campaign organization. He has a few more than 50 paid staffers in all. Clinton has nearly 50 in Iowa alone, as well as at least one in every other state.
“The grassroots movement behind this campaign has been much faster than I think anyone could have anticipated,” Sanders’ campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, said. “The organization is trying to catch up to where the people are.”
More than 100 people crowded into the Better Day Cafe in Storm Lake to hear Sanders. A table at the front of the restaurant held clipboards with sign-up sheets, where people could fill in their name, e-mail address and telephone number — as well as a box to check if they planned to caucus for Sanders.
By the end of the event, many had signed up, but few had checked a box for how they plan to vote.
Weaver said the infrastructure needed to turn out supporters for the caucuses is coming. Sanders has more than 20 workers in Iowa, with more scheduled to join next month. In New Hampshire, he has four, but the state will get a “big jump soon,” Weaver said.
At every event, Sanders’ campaign collects e-mail addresses and cellphone numbers. The audience is asked to send a text message to a number operated by the campaign, another way to connect with supporters.
These are campaign practices perfected by US President Barack Obama’s campaigns in 2008 and 2012, and ones that Clinton’s campaign — led by campaign manager Robby Mook, a Vermont native very familiar with Sanders’ appeal — is deploying on a scale that far exceeds what Sanders has done so far.
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