California Politics

I'm not going to try predicting Super-duper Tuesday results except for my home state, there are too many variables. Absentee voting favors Clinton; momentum favors Obama. The balance between the two will dictate the results.

In California, the habit of campaign organizers is to push your supporters to vote by mail - lock in their votes before they change their minds. Clinton's campaign people are experienced enough to know this. It is possible that Obama may win among those voting on Tuesday and still lose the state by a significant margin.

One thing that struck me is that I haven't heard squat from the Clinton campaign. No phone calls (not even a robo-call), not a stitch of mail. As a Democrat, over 50, and a consistent voter, you would think I'd be on some contact list. If their database is extra detailed they would know I belong to the Sierra Club and ACLU, and am a man. Either Clinton is not operating a phone outreach effort (most likely) or they have tagged me as an undesirable voter because of my gender.

Obama's campaign is a different story. I received several fund raising calls from them last year that didn't squeeze any money out of me. This week, I have been called twice. The first was to identify potential supporters; the second was to lock down my vote. It is a very efficient and effective strategy. These last two callers were, in my opinion, volunteers. (I've worked with both. Vols tend to be intelligent, cheerful, and personable - the pros stiff and scripted. If you are smart and personable you can usually find a better job than being a phone bank temp.) And not one single robo-call from the Obama team, bless 'em.

I have been very impressed with the Obama campaign effort in California, their personal outreach and the efficiency of that outreach. Win or lose, this has been a well run operation.