The Wall Street Journal today looks at the Democratic campaign in the South and includes a bit about former Tom Daschle campaign manager and current Barack Obama strategist Steve Hildebrand in a piece entitled "In South, Democrats' Tactics May Change Political Game." Excerpt:
Steve Hildebrand, Mr. Obama's chief strategist for early voting states, set out to build an organization that relies heavily on circumventing the established black political gentry in South Carolina. A native of South Dakota, Mr. Hildebrand is not only an outsider, he is also white -- an unusual combination for someone setting out to win the black vote here. Many of the people he has hired have come from out of state or have no presidential-campaign experience, or both.
He says he has largely eschewed the local tradition of giving "walking-around money," or "street money," to political figures who back candidates. Such funds are used to hire van drivers, canvassers and poll watchers who turn out the black vote on election day. It's a practice as old as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Mr. Hildebrand, 45, says he has repeatedly heard from skeptics inside and outside the Obama camp. He says he was lectured just two weeks ago by a state representative about not giving out street money. "He said, 'You people don't know what you're doing -- to organize my district, you need to hire my people,' " says Mr. Hildebrand.
Mr. Hildebrand cheerfully confesses confusion with the folkways of South Carolinians. "Everything is so racial here," he says as an aside, just before ordering a bowl of "sea crab soup" at a Columbia eatery (the low-country delicacy is known as "she-crab soup"). He avoids the beauty parlors and barbershops that have long served as the venue for ground-level political discussions "Barbers make me nervous," the buzzcut Mr. Hildebrand says.
Starting With the Basics
One of Mr. Hildebrand's first hires was Jeremy Bird, another white outsider, as his top campaign coordinator in the state. A 29-year-old Midwestern labor organizer whose divinity degree from Harvard has earned him the title of "reverend" among the locals, Mr. Bird had campaign experience, but it was limited to largely white states such as New Hampshire. Mr. Bird nabbed Ms. Young and three dozen other recruits to build local Obama organizations in seven regions.
When he arrived in the state last spring, Mr. Bird began with the basics in a state where voters had little information on Mr. Obama. At a Fourth of July picnic at a church in rural Orangeburg County, for example, he says he was surprised to learn that many of the elderly parishioners didn't know that Mr. Obama was black. He had to pull out a portable DVD player and a campaign disc to prove it.
The revelation that Mr. Obama was almost a complete unknown led the campaign to retool Mr. Obama's image. Mr. Bird tossed out most of the rainbow-shaped, logo paraphernalia that was ubiquitous in Iowa and other white-dominated states. He opted instead for a new series of campaign buttons, push cards and issues literature, all of which showed photographs of Mr. Obama -- orating at a church pulpit, shaking hands with supporters, with eyes lowered and hands laced below his chin in a pose of deep thought. These images are now stamped on virtually everything the campaign distributes to potential South Carolina supporters.
But it wasn't just letting voters know Mr. Obama was black. In a state where skin tone is seen by many black people as a measure of social standing, the campaign frequently brought out Michelle Obama, whose darker complexion carries a special meaning when contrasted to the lighter skin tone of her husband. "It was important for people to see that Obama wasn't putting on airs by marrying a woman lighter than him," says Anton Gunn, South Carolina political director for the campaign. "You think a thing like that wouldn't matter, but here it does, very much."
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