Obama plans Minnesota visit to boost caucus turnout

Illinois Senator Barack Obama will visit Minnesota Saturday, in hopes of boosting turnout in next Tuesday's DFL precinct caucuses. Although there are six other states with more delegates up for grabs on Super Tuesday, it's clear all the Democratic candidates are taking Minnesota seriously.

"Minnesota for the first time in our memory is going to matter and matter big time in presidential politics," said Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak, the chairman of the Obama campaign in Minnesota, "And Barack Obama we believe is going to make a major impact on Minnesota when he comes here on Saturday."

Rybak couldn't offer specifics yet on the time or location, but said the campaign is working to duplicate the huge Obama surge in Iowa which set caucus turnout records there January 3rd.

"In Des Moines it was a great experience to see those caucuses because it looked like they were planning for a dinner party and they wound up with a kegger," Rybak quipped, "Because people were swarming into these rooms."

The campaign has the endorsements of Congresswoman Betty McCollum and Congressman Keith Ellison, but is expecting to carry the day with an intense grassroots get-out-the-vote effort.

"We're trying to say to people, 'Find that non-voter, not only get your friends but pick up the phone and call your mom, call your aunt, call your cousin' and tell them," Rybak told Capitol reporters.

The Obama campaign also hit the air with two new TV ads in the Twin Cities, one pledging a middle class tax cut and one arguing against tax breaks for corporations that export jobs overseas.

That populist angle isn't new to the John Edwards campaign, which has been focused on defining working class issues from the start. A common strand in Senator Edwards' rhetoric is that unbridled corporate greed is robbing America's youth of a future.

Edwards supporter Ted Mondale called that approach more realistic.

"To raise the minimum wage, make sure you have affordable health care, provide college tuition that's going to be with fights that are hard fought," Mondale told KARE 11 Monday.

"And it's going to be taking stuff away from the well-off to give to those that aren't. And that will take a real fight."

Edwards himself will hold a 6:45pm rally at the Carpenters Union hall at 710 Olive Street in Saint Paul Tuesday. Despite no wins in the first month of the primary season, and no money from Political Action Committees, the Edwards campaign remains upbeat publicly.

His Minnesota supporters, including Congressman Jim Oberstar and House Majority Leader Tony Sertich, expect a good showing next Tuesday based on calls to Democrats who are holding firm.

"I think the other candidates who are spending money like crazy will not have the advantage they've had in the early states," said Mondale, a former chairman of the Metropolitan Council now in private business.

Mondale's own father, former Vice President Walter Mondale, is in the Hillary Clinton camp. In fact he heads a slate of big name DFLers who've endorsed Hillary, including former House Speaker Margaret Anderson Kelliher, Senate Majority Leader Larry Pogemiller, Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman and Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner.

"When you're looking at this you need to look beyond an individual visit and what they're doing on the ground," Clinton Minnesota campaign spokesman Jonathan Beeton told KARE 11, "And we feel very confident about that."

The Clinton camp expects a visit from a big name surrogate between now and next Tuesday, but expects a flurry of phone bank activity in the next eight days.

"We got a good broad operation in the state and we're getting a lot of support, we've got phone banks going every single night making thousands of calls."

Beeton pointed out that Minnesota is not a winner-take-all state. The 72 delegates up for grabs Tuesday will be apportioned by congressional districts, so it's important to be geographically

"We have offices in Moorhead, Duluth, St Cloud, Hibbing, Rochester and Saint Paul. Not just our headquarters in Minneapolis."

Even Mayor Rybak won't go so far as to predict a winner in Minnesota next Tuesday.

"We do believe that the higher the turnout the better it is for Barack, but in this election anybody who says they know what's going on doesn't really know what's going on."

By John Croman, KARE 11 News

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