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Obama Out To Woo Florida

The Associated Press

Joshua Psuik replaces the sign at the Florida delegation's seating position at the convention site in Denver.

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By WILLIAM MARCH

The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 25, 2008

DENVER - A walk through the seating floor of the Pepsi Center at the Democratic National Convention in Denver yields some quick evidence that Sen. Barack Obama intends to make Florida one of the premier battleground states of his presidential campaign.

The seats for the 211 Florida delegates are in the very front and almost in the center of the floor, practically within spitting distance of the podium.

Traditionally, such seating at a political convention is a privilege reserved for states the candidate intends to emphasize. The intent is to inspire and motivate backers in that state, making them feel they're at the center of the action figuratively and literally.

Subtle signals of that kind - floor seating, hotel assignments, speaking slots at the convention and which stars from the campaign speak to the breakfast meetings of the state's delegation - are clues as to where Obama intends to run hard.

But the signals are somewhat mixed.

What is clear is that Obama is taking steps to emphasize and promote Floridians who backed him early in the primary battle, while supporters of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, even if they have since committed to Obama, will be less prominent in Denver.

Here are a few of the clues that Florida delegates are taking careful notice of at the convention - some positive and some negative on Florida's role:

•Sunday morning, at the request of Obama, the national Democratic Party's credentials committee restored full voting power to Florida's delegation, which had been penalized because of Florida's schedule-busting Jan. 29 primary. That won't affect the outcome of the roll call of states on the nomination, though it will give Clinton a few more votes. But for Obama, it's an important, symbolic step in making amends for the boycott and for sanctions against the state over the primary.

•The floor seats are great, but the hotels aren't. The Florida delegation was divided among three hotels, all outside the center of town and none with much pretension to elegance. Party officials say that's only because of the confusion caused by sanctions. Until last month, it wasn't certain Florida would have a delegation or how large it would be.

•The preliminary list of speakers for the Florida delegation's breakfast meetings isn't impressive - but the biggest-name speakers aren't announced in advance.

•Floridians will be visible in the week's events in Denver, but not all of them.

For example, U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler of Boca Raton, the senior elected Democrat in Florida and an early Obama backer, got the signal honor of being named convention co-chairman. Rep. Kathy Castor of Tampa, another early Obama backer, has a podium speech Wednesday night.

But Florida's only two Democrats holding statewide offices so far have been assigned no roles of significance - U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, who backed Clinton in the primary, and Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink, who stayed neutral, saying she wanted to help unite the two sides after the nomination battle was over.

In the final days before the convention, the Obama campaign also acted to replace some Clinton delegates with Obama loyalists. In Florida, delegate dropouts - those who decided at the last minute they could not go - were replaced with Obama backers even if the dropouts were Clinton backers. "In the end there was a compromise reached, but a couple of delegates and an alternate got replaced," said Alan Clendenin, a Clinton delegate from Tampa.

Obama has good reason to want his Florida backers at the peak of their form. It's one state where he can deny Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the presidency.

"It's a state the Republicans absolutely need to win to get up to 270 votes a winning majority in the Electoral College," said Emory University political scientist and veteran political analyst Merle Black. "If Obama takes it, it's hard to see how McCain can make that up."

The nation's two largest states - California with 55 electoral votes and New York with 31 - are usually reliably Democratic-voting. To match those 86 votes, a Republican candidate normally must win the next two largest states - Florida with 27 and Texas with 34 - to build a majority in the 538-vote Electoral College, Black explained.

But even if Obama doesn't win Florida, Black said, "If he can turn it into a race where McCain really has to work to win Florida, it will be to his advantage" because it will force McCain to spend money and time in the state.

With more money than McCain, Obama has been working to "spread the map" to increase the number of states McCain must fight to protect, including traditionally Republican states such as Virginia and GOP-leaning swing states, including Florida.

Obama has been spending more heavily on advertising in Florida than any other state - more than $5 million in June and July, according to the University of Wisconsin Advertising Project that has tracked candidates' media spending since 1998.

Campaign insiders said that was to make up for Obama's absence from the state during the primary campaign, when he and other Democratic contenders boycotted Florida, but McCain was here frequently.

Obama shut down his advertising buys just before the convention, figuring the ads weren't needed because of the heavy coverage he and his newly announced running mate, Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, would get.

Obama has reason to be optimistic about battling McCain in Florida.

McCain has gained on Obama in polls nationwide and in Florida over the last few weeks. But just prior to the convention and his announcement of Biden as his running mate, most polls showed the state in a very close race, and Obama is likely to get "bump" from the convention and Biden, who has strong ties in Florida, particularly to the South Florida Jewish community.

An American Research Group, Inc., poll as of Aug. 18-20 showed a statistical tie: McCain with 47 percent, Obama with 46 percent.

Analyses by the respected Real Clear Politics Web site, Karl Rove's political consulting firm, CNN and the Zogby polling organization all labeled the state a tossup.

Reporter William March can be reached at (813) 259-7761 or wmarch@tampatrib.com

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