After claiming for months that having offices in key states was mostly a waste of time, the Trump camp has clued in to the fact that it can't compete without an actual ground operation. After running a deficit, for instance, of 16 offices in Ohio to Clinton's 36 and 1 office in Florida to Clinton's 34, a new effort is reportedly afoot. Kellyanne Conway is heading up the effort, writes CNN:
Last week she finalized the budget for two ground game projects, a door knocking program to increase voter contact in the battleground states and a direct mail effort to encourage absentee ballot voting. She also hired a national field director and deputy campaign manager, two experienced political hands, to build out campaign operations. The campaign also began airing its first TV ads in battleground states.
And in the last two weeks, the campaign opened 30 new field offices in 21 states, more than half of which opened in the battleground states of Ohio, New Hampshire and Pennsylvania, the campaign's chief operating officer Jeff DeWitt said in an email Conway shared with CNN.
The previous campaign chief, Paul Manafort, is being tagged with leaving the GOTV effort in "shambles." Conway is reportedly also trying to streamline the previously clunky communications with GOP operatives on the ground. The main question is whether it's too little too late to make up for that total blind spot.
"You will certainly see what looks like a traditional ground game operation in Ohio (going forward)," the state's GOP chairman said. "The question is, did too much time pass before that was really put into place? I'd like to think no."
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