Iowa Insiders: Ron Paul is Only One with Ground Game

Texas Congressman Ron Paul seems to have the best organization. While others have their motors running, they’ve mostly been spinning their wheels.

Ron Paul Revolution’s Got Game Image source

Todd Richissin and B.A. Morelli
Urbandale Patch

In Iowa, professional campaign watchers and a snapshot-audit of organizational efforts conducted by Patch indicate that Texas Congressman Ron Paul has the strongest political ground game in the state.

This is not a scientific investigation: The effectiveness of candidates’ ground games — organizational efforts that are not typically detected on the political media radar — are difficult to fully quantify, and often purposefully masked.

As an example: Texas Gov. Rick Perry, whose fifth-place finish in August’s Iowa Straw Poll was deemed strong because he had not yet announced his candidacy when voting took place, had campaign workers tucked in a campaign office in the state weeks before the event.

So, in addition to checking in with influential Republicans in the state who have experience herding campaign volunteers, Patch reporters and editors paid visits to candidate offices and made phone calls to their communication offices Wednesday and Thursday to ask about volunteer efforts.

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