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Tuesday, Apr. 08, 2008

Obama campaign sets up in Lexington

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's campaign opened its second office in Kentucky Monday with a pep rally at its new Lexington headquarters that drew 400 "fired-up" supporters.

After exchanging various versions of the campaign's theme chant, "Fired up, ready to go" with the crowd at 120 East Reynolds Road, several local officials explained why they are backing the Illinois Senator in the May 20 Kentucky primary.

"It's the real leaders who can get folks to do the right thing," said state Sen. Ernesto Scorsone of Lexington. "That's what Barack Obama can do for this country."

Also there in support of Obama were state Rep. Ruth Ann Palumbo, D-Lexington; Lexington Vice Mayor Jim Gray; state Finance and Administration Cabinet Secretary Jonathan Miller; and former Lexington Mayor Pam Miller.

Carolyn Tandy of Louisville, Obama's statewide director, said that plans are being made for Obama and key surrogates, such as his wife, Michelle, to return to Kentucky for campaign events, but no dates have been set.

Obama most recently held a rally last September in Lexington.

Obama's rival, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, stumped in Kentucky on March 29 and former President Bill Clinton has been in the state on her behalf twice in as many weeks.

But those highlight a difference in campaign philosophy, Tandy said.

"We believe in bottom-up grassroots campaigning. We have to build the infrastructure first," she said. "It's one thing to have the big names and surrogates come in, but you have to have the infrastructure in place to get out the votes."

Obama's campaign is slated to open offices this week in Paducah and Bowling Green and later this month in Covington, Pikeville and Frankfort, Tandy said.

Clinton's campaign hasn't yet established a Kentucky headquarters. It has 14 campaign offices in Indiana, which will hold its primary election two weeks before Kentucky on May 6.

Running Obama's Lexington office will be Anna Humphrey, a 2003 Lexington Catholic High School graduate and 2007 graduate of the University of Dayton.

Humphrey said she joined the Obama campaign nine months ago because she was captivated by his speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention and pegged him early on as her favorite for 2008.

Since joining the campaign, Humphrey has worked for Obama in Iowa, New Mexico and Ohio.

"I was telling people as recently as Ohio that, by the time I got to vote, it would be over," she said. "So this is unbelievable."

Humphrey, whose official title is regional field director, will coordinate voter outreach and phone bank efforts out of the new headquarters.

In an odd coincidence, Republican National Committee Chairman Mike Duncan was in the same Lexington shopping center Monday afternoon. But he wasn't scouting out the potential competition for his presidential candidate -- presumptive GOP nominee John McCain, the Arizona senator.

The Inez banker said he was getting his hair cut at the Barber Stylist shop four doors down from the new Obama office.

Duncan, who just returned from a Republican Party planning meeting in New Mexico, declined to comment on the Democratic presidential race.