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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tejek who wrote (338443)	5/23/2007 4:51:42 PM
From: Road Walker	Respond to of 1578652

Memo urges Sen. Clinton to bypass Iowa By BETH FOUHY and RON FOURNIER, Associated Press Writers 25 minutes ago Hillary Rodham Clinton's deputy campaign manager wrote a memo this week urging the Democratic front-runner to bypass the Iowa caucuses, in order to spend time and resources in New Hampshire, South Carolina and several larger states hosting primaries next Feb. 5. The memo emerged days after a new Des Moines Sunday Register poll of likely caucus goers showed Clinton trailing rivals John Edwards and Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) in Iowa, which is scheduled to hold the first voting contests next January 14. "I believe we need a new approach to winning the Democratic nomination," deputy campaign manager Mike Henry wrote. "This approach involves shifting the focus away from Iowa and running a campaign that is more focused on other early primary states and winning this new national primary." There was no indication Wednesday that Henry's advice would be heeded. Campaign spokesman Howard Wolfson said both the candidate and her top advisers are committed to campaigning in Iowa and that Henry's views were not shared by others in the campaign. "These are Mike's thoughts, the memo was unsolicited, and it does not reflect in any way Sen. Clinton's thinking," Wolfson said. Indeed, Clinton has a full schedule of events in western Iowa this weekend and is scheduled to campaign in state the following two weekends as well. Clinton's campaign in Iowa is headed by veteran strategist JoDee Winterhoff and is opening ten separate offices throughout the state. "We are absolutely, unequivocally committed to Iowa and we are adding staff daily," Winterhoff said, estimating the number of people working on the campaign to be "well north of 50." Clinton has also won the endorsement of former-Gov. Tom Vilsack and his wife Christie, who accompany her on virtually all of her campaign stops. Vilsack sought the Democratic presidential nomination, but dropped out earlier this year when he found it difficult to raise money. He remains very popular with Iowa Democrats and is considered a significant asset to her Iowa campaign. Ever since Jimmy Carter emerged from obscurity to win the Iowa caucuses in 1976, Iowa and its relatively small number of caucus goers have wielded outsized influence over both parties' presidential contests. But candidates who have dared skip the caucuses to focus efforts elsewhere have generally done so at their peril. Sen. Clinton's husband, former President Clinton, did not compete in Iowa during his first election in 1992, primarily because one of his Democratic rivals, Sen. Tom Harkin (news, bio, voting record), was from the state. But in 2004, Democrat Wesley Clark saw his much-hyped candidacy completely unravel after failing to complete in Iowa. John Kerry, the eventual 2004 Democratic nominee, revived his moribund campaign that year on the strength of winning the caucuses. Harold Ickes, a top Clinton strategist, said the campaign had been weighing various options for dealing with the rush of nomination contests in early 2008, including bypassing Iowa. "Every campaign games out different scenarios and this is one scenario," he said. "The campaign is moving in Iowa, is going to stay in Iowa and Mrs. Clinton is very dedicated to winning the state." Henry did not return a telephone message left at his office. He is the former campaign manager of Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, credited with helping the Democrat win exurban counties that had been leaning Republican. ___ Associated Press writer Mike Glover in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed to this report.