Presidential camps all but gone after primary

It was interesting while it lasted. For several weeks before Kentucky's May 20 primary, it seemed that a day did not pass without news of another presidential campaign office opening at some locale in the state. Now, with just over a week passed since Senator Hillary Clinton's (D-N.Y.) overwhelming victory in Kentucky, there is utter silence on the presidential front.

As is the case in many of the states graced by the unexpected significance of their presidential primaries, the national campaigns have now come and gone from Kentucky, and only lingering yard signs and in-state volunteers remain.

Spokespersons from the national campaigns of both Clinton and Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) have confirmed that all field offices opened in conjunction with their Kentucky efforts are now shuttered and all national staff have been pulled from the state.

"Since the primary is over, we've shut our offices and redeployed our organizers," said Shannon Gilson, of the Obama campaign.

A spokesperson for Hillary Clinton's campaign said campaign resources had been reallocated to Clinton's national headquarters.

The campaigns offered a small real-estate boom to the rental markets in Kentucky, if nothing else. The now-vacated properties included sixteen offices across the state for the Obama campaign and eight for Clinton. Each campaign also enlisted a team of paid staff throughout the state.

For both campaigns, the networks of campaign offices were a point of pride for much of the primary race in the Commonwealth. This was especially true for the Obama campaign, which relied on the extensive statewide infrastructure for much of its efforts in Kentucky.

Obama's campaign opened offices in locales such as Paducah, Pikeville, and Owensboro, in addition to larger cities such as Louisville and Lexington.

"The Obama campaign is opening headquarters in places that have not seen a presidential campaign come through in a long, long, long time," said Louisville Metro Council member David Tandy, a principal Kentucky supporter of Senator Obama, in late April.

It was the assertion of many in the Obama campaign that Kentucky would move towards Obama once the state "got to know" the Senator, though Obama only paid one visit to the state in the months leading up to the primary. Thus, ground troops were left to spread the campaign's message via phonebanks and neighborhood canvasses.

Senator Clinton's camp used similar tactics, though their candidate also spent a significant amount of time in Kentucky leading up to the May 20 primary, including an election night celebration in Louisville.

The removal of campaign infrastructure should not be surprising, given the immediacy of a continued competitive primary for Clinton and Obama. However, there was some speculation that an established, continued presence in Kentucky could help support a Democratic candidate in a state even presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), acknowledged could be a "swing state" in November.

Kentucky voted Republican for President in 2000 and 2004, but selected Democrat Bill Clinton in 1992 and 1996.

With the Democratic nomination still technically in question, however, the 2008 campaigns appear less likely to store precious resources in Kentucky this far in advance of the general election.

This sentiment may especially be the case for Obama, who may be ahead in the race for the Democratic nomination, but still lost last Tuesday's primary here to Clinton by 35 points - a bad sign for future electoral success in the state.

While some Kentucky Obama supporters - such as U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth (D-Louisville) - initially held that the Illinois Senator can play in Kentucky in November, the fight looks to be an uphill one.

In recent match-up polls pitting McCain against either Clinton or Obama in Kentucky, it is Clinton who appears the favorite against the Republican candidate. A Rasmussen Reports survey conducted shortly after the May 20 primary showed Clinton over McCain by 51 to 42 percent. Obama trailed McCain 32 to 57 percent.