The latest on the Obama Campaign in Arizona from Politico:
Barack Obama campaign manager David Plouffe announced Friday that the campaign will be airing ads in John McCain's home state of Arizona for the first time this election cycle."We think things are tightening in Arizona," Plouffe said. "Things are going very well, and we have a great organization in Arizona."
"If someone else had been the nominee I think Arizona would have been a core battleground."
Democrats in the state have been energized by recent polls showing Barack Obama closing on McCain, as a series of recent polls in the state have shown the Illinois senator running strong in the state.
A poll released Tuesday by Arizona State University and the local PBS affiliate showed the Arizona senator leading McCain by 2 percent, 46-44. The poll of 1,019 registered voters was conducted over the weekend. The same poll showed McCain up 7 percent a month ago.
Much more if you read the whole post.
Then there is this salient Huff Post on Arizonans who will not vote for McCain and why.
A sad reality for John McCain in his home state. One reason the state's conservatives do not like him is the Lou Dobbs reason. McCain's position on immigration is sane. This accounts partially for the lackluster campaign McCain is running around the state.
In happy contrast, the Obama effort in Arizona is hopping.
The contrast is striking. The McCain campaign office is devoid of people, but its walls are lined with stacks of unsold yard signs. Meanwhile, the Obama office is filled with volunteers, but signs fly out of the door almost as fast as they arrive. Obama's Phoenix office was able to fill their waiting list for yard signs and had some leftover stock. Cieslak says, though, that the signs are a high-demand item. They are selling them for $8 on a "first come, first serve basis," and they expect them to be gone by the time this article is published.
This pattern is true throughout the state. Although Tucson is a blue dot in a sea of Arizona red, we expected the McCain office to be full of home state volunteers working for Arizona's favorite son, but the McCain office in Tucson has also been empty.
The Tucson Democratic office, on the other hand, is filled with bustling volunteers chatting on the phone with voters, inputting data, making coffee and snacks in the kitchen area, and organizing campaign literature in the back of the office. The phone rings non-stop. Because the office is located on a busy corner, there is also a constant stream of walk-in visitors purchasing campaign materials or volunteering for the campaign. SOURCE
Myers Research (D) and Grove Insight (D) for Project New West
10/23-25/08, 600 likely voters, MoE +/- 4
Arizona
McCain 44, Obama 40, Nader 3, Barr 2
Next:
AZ: McCain 44, Obama 42 (Zimmerman & Associates)
Zimmerman & Associates
Survey dates and sample size unknown.
The Arizona Daily Star reports today:
A statewide poll taken by Tucson-based Democratic pollsters Carol and Pete Zimmerman two weeks out from the election suggests McCain's lead over Obama falls within the margin of error: 43.5 percent to 41.5 percent, with 10 percent of likely Arizona voters undecided.
My closing thought is that McCain should have gone civil from the start, thumbed his nose at the GOP and been a true Maverick, before capitulating to the Crystal City Bund.