Obama-Richardson Deal Goes Both Ways in Certain Precincts and Counties

No deal, seconded I second the above. I was likewise a Richardson precinct captain. The first I heard of a "deal" was from the Obama captain during realignment: "What about the deal? Richardson told all of you guys to come over to us. Kuchinich did that, too." I replied that I'd read about the Kuchinich deal, but had heard nothing about Obama. I asked at the Richardson office after the caucus, and they said there was never any such deal.

My suspicion is that the rumor was intentionally planted by the Obama campaign. I wonder if part of his strategy on Thursday night was to derail Richardson, and try to ensure that it was not a four-way race in New Hampshire. As I understand it, our strategy was to gain viability and at least one delegate in as many precincts as possible, and that we were in good shape, given anticipated turnout. But with the large number of brand new "democrats" that the Obama camp turned out, the viability threshhold was higher, and in most places, we didn't make it.

Having a better idea of their likely turnout, the Obama people might have started the rumor to quash efforts by the Richardson groups to pick up enough supporters to become viable. I have heard and read of a number of places where it worked out that way, and the Richardson people mostly went over to Obama.

On the subject of the high turnout, I would estimate that nearly half of the total Obama count in our precinct were new registrations. As people arrived, I was helping with the new voter registration, and virtually all of them headed straight for the Obama corner. Many had pre-printed registration forms, all filled out except for the signature.

In our precinct, had there been a genuine deal, the Obama people could have easily "given" us enough people to be viable without affecting their delegate count: the effect would have been to prevent Edwards (also non-viable, but with a larger group than we had for Richardson) from getting a delegate. But despite their captain's talk of a "deal," so far as he was concerned it was strictly a one-way deal: Richardson supporters going to Obama.

NO DEALS I was a precinct captain for Richardson. Three days before the caucus an Obama volunteer called my home to invite me to an event. I said I was supporting Richardson. The Obama volunteer told me my co-precinct captain had said he would support Obama if Richardson were not viable. That did not square with information I had. I called him and he said he heard that was the position of the campaign (Richardson). I personally checked with campaign headquarters and found out that it was not true. There were no deals. Richardson supporters were not urged to go with Obama.  Yet when I was registering participants, one told me she was going from Richardson to Obama because Richardson was swinging his support to Obama. She said she heard it on NPR. I called the campaign headquarters again and was again informed that was no such deal. I later heard again -- when the re-alignment process was going on -- that an Obama supporter had stated that he believed that Richardson supporters were to go to Obama.  The bottom line is that the sources for such a claim -- as far as my own personal experience is concerned emanated from those who where Obama supporters. I also spoker with Biden supporters who had been informed by Obama people that Biden was sending his supporters to Biden -- again not true. We did the best we could to get the truth to the Richardson and Biden supporters that there were no such deals. I am aware that of some that went to Obama on the erroneous belief that such a deal had been made. I wonder how many others were influenced to go to Obama based on misinformation and where that misinformation was initiated. Richardson and Biden had nothing to win from such a strategy.

True in Iowa City In my Iowa City precinct, the local Obama campaign official said there was a deal between Richardson and Obama, and that since Richardson was not viable in our precinct, his supporters would come to Obama.  The stated purpose was to take an extra delegate from Clinton, thus keeping Clinton's numbers down.  My impression was that they did not want Clinton to get good numbers, which would keep the race going and allow Richardson to stay in the race a while longer.

The one concession asked from the Obama camp was that the Richardson people would be allowed to choose the delegates for the convention, which all of the Obama group was okay with.

DSM I actually ended up caucusing for Richardson instead of Obama to take an extra delegate away from the Hillary folks.  It was an organized effort.  The Obama precinct captains were really on the ball.

That was how things worked out in Iowa City Biden and Richardson were about half of viability for a delegate and so things moved on to obama in quantity.

ITS A RUMOR, THATS ALL! It just not true!  Richardson supporters at our caucus did not go to Obama, necessarily. Some went to Clinton, some to Edwards, some to Obama. Neither, Richardson, Biden or Kucinich were viable at our caucus. And even though Kucinich told his supporters to go to Obama, at our caucus only half went to Obama.

Edwards benefitted the most on second alignment. He was barely liable on first alignment.

Obama/Richardson deal I just heard the Richardson caucus goers at a high school in Des Moines announce on C-Span that they were going to Obama in the second round of voting, so it appears your exclusive was correct. Congratulations!

grassroots devolution to precinct captains From the NY Times:

http://thecaucus.blo...

QUOTE

David Plouffe, Obama campaign manager, responding to the report that Mr. Obama had reached an agreement for reciprocal support with Bill Richardson's campaign, insisted the campaign had reached "no formal arrangements" with any of his rivals. But he said that "there are certainly places where our precinct captains want to work with Richardson" supporters - to gain second-choice support in cases where Mr. Richardson doesn't reach the threshold to compete, or to lend Mr. Richardson surplus backers in instances where they can't yield any additional Obama delegates.

"We're giving our precinct captains a lot of latitude to work this out," Mr. Plouffe said. "We're going to fight as hard as we can for every one" of Mr. Richardson's available supporters, and "It comes down to how well our precinct captains do."

ENDQUOTE

How interesting Chase, many thanks for keeping us up to date here in upstate, Ny. Very eagerly awaiting results!