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Echoing Barack Obama’s comment last April that Indiana could be the “tiebreaker,” his national and Indiana campaign said today the state could decide the presidential race on Nov. 4. “If we were to win every John Kerry state plus Iowa, we’d have 259 Electoral College votes,” said deputy campaign manager Steve Hildebrand. “Indiana has 11 Electoral College votes. Indiana could put us over the top.” The comments come a day before the third Howey-Gauge Poll is released at the Indianapolis Chamber’s Hobnob at the Indiana State Museum from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday. That poll will detail fresh head-to-head numbers between Obama and John McCain as well as between Gov. Mitch Daniels and Democrat Jill Long Thompson. “Our latest survey certainly backs up the notion that Indiana is in play,” said HPI Publisher Brian A. Howey, who will present the poll with Gauge Market Research’s Holly Davis at 5:15 p.m. “Hoosier voters are very much in the crosshairs of the presidential race.” The Hobnob event is open to the public with tickets at $10 available at the door. The Obama campaign has 12 “safe” states and four leaning toward Obama. Hildebrand said that the Obama campaign views 13 to 14 states that will be in a “dead heat” in November, including Indiana. Former secretary of state Joe Hogsett said that Hillary Clinton supporters in Indiana “have united behind Barack Obama” and that “part of the appeal is in no small measure he’s already made dozens and dozens of stops because of the primary. They will continue to see more of Barack Obama than any presidential candidate in my lifetime.” He said the Obama campaign’s “internal polling gives me a great deal of confidence.” Hildrebrand added, “If we didn’t think Indiana was competitive, we wouldn’t be spending millions of dollars running TV ads for nine weeks. We wouldn’t be running 31 offices in Indiana.” Obama’s Indiana director Emily Parcell said that the campaign has personnel on the ground “in all 92 counties” where the campaign will conduct door-to-door efforts. The Obama campaign said that U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, Sen. Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton are all expected to play significant roles in the final 60 days. “Our sentiment is that Evan Bayh is going to be extremely influential,” Hildebrand said. Obama is shown here during an August campaign town hall at Concord HS in Elkhart. (HPI Photo by Ryan Nees)
Tags: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Emily Parcell, Evan Bayh, Hillary Clinton, Howey-Gauge Poll, Joe Hogsett, John McCain, Steve Hildebrand
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This entry was written by and posted on September 3, 2008 at 12:38 pm and filed under HPI Weekly. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.
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