Obama campaign continues expansion across Commonwealth

The Kentucky campaign of Sen. Barack Obama will expand to include seven offices across the Commonwealth by next week. Two new campaign offices are set to open this afternoon in Bowling Green and Paducah. An eastern Kentucky headquarters in Pikeville is slated to open Thursday, while an Owensboro headquarters will open its doors on Sunday. The campaign expects to have a facility in northern Kentucky next week.

Obama headquarters are already open in Louisville and Lexington. “Our momentum is being built by building infrastructure,” said Carolyn Tandy, Obama’s statewide director.

“When we move into an area, we tie volunteers who have already been active into our organization. That is why we are so active in getting headquarters open…It is important to bring staff in on the ground and tie into our operations.”

Asked if the campaign’s Kentucky strategy would focus on accumulating delegates in certain areas, Tandy responded “all areas are important to us.” Congressman John Yarmuth previously told PolitickerKY.com Obama may fare better in certain Congressional Districts.

“I think in the 3rd District Senator Obama is going to do extremely well. He is very popular here. Obviously, we have a large African-American population that is excited about his candidacy and we have a lot of young voters that are excited,” Yarmuth said. “It is a little bit of a steeper climb for him elsewhere in Kentucky. They don’t know him as well and there is still a lot of residual good will for the Clintons, which is understandable among Democrats.”

Statewide primary preference polls show Obama’s climb in the Commonwealth may be very steep, as he lags nearly 30 percent behind Senator Hillary Clinton. Today, Tandy said the past weekend’s county and legislative district conventions offered good signs for the Obama campaign. These conventions elect county executive committees and delegates to the state Democratic convention.

“We’ve seen a real surge of our supporters coming out to precinct, county, and legislative district conventions across the state,” said Tandy. “Obama people are turning out in droves everywhere.”

Tandy said the focus of the Kentucky campaign this week is voter registration, in advance of the April 21 deadline. Tandy noted the campaign has registration efforts active at “almost every college campus around the state.”

Registration efforts are expected to be most concentrated on Thursday. The efforts of the Clinton campaign are gearing up in Kentucky as well. After a stop from the Senator herself and several visits from surrogates, a Louisville Clinton headquarters will open tomorrow.