In a second-floor office on Burlington’s College Street, the campaign of one well-known candidate has been toiling under the radar for months.
Of course Barack Obama won’t have to sweat election-night results in Vermont, where voters in 2008 delivered him a more lopsided victory than in anywhere but his home state of Hawaii. So why is Obama for America pouring precious resources into a paid staffer and office rent here? It’s all about that swing state directly to our east.
“Want to make sure we have an apparatus in place to organize volunteers and get out the vote in places where it’s going to be closer,” says Mike Czin, spokesman for Obama for America.
According to Czin, Obama’s field organization here has nothing to with winning votes in Vermont and everything to do with getting out the vote in New Hampshire. Today, an army of Obama supporters from Vermont will jump the Connecticut River to execute a well-coordinated get-out-the-vote effort in the Granite State.
“We have a robust ground game across the state and what folks are working on in Vermont today, and have been working on for several months, is making sure President Obama gets elected,” Czin said. “And the best way to do that is to help make sure we get out the vote next door in the Granite State.”