blogger interrupted

Helpful emailer sent this along.

At least 20 employees of the Iowa Democratic Party have been demoted or fired and a coordinated state-wide campaign was essentially disbanded, replaced by a focus on the presidential bid of Sen. Barack Obama.

Details are sketchy, but the changes could have an impact on November’s legislative races, with field staff that was previously working for down-ticket races now being placed on the payroll of Obama’s presidential campaign and working almost entirely on its behalf.

What I’ve heard from numerous sources is the the Pickerell hiring as Obama State Director has largely put this kind of thing to rest in Ohio - word is “the guv’s in charge”.  I’d be a bit cautious about that though.

The real question is who will be the director of the Coordinated Campaign.  That person reports directly to the state chair, not the Obama campaign.  And usually, all the money for field staff goes through the coordinated.  Of course, this year could be very different, as there is no statewide ticket, other than AG, which looks like a cakewalk (thanks to the absence of a GOP candidate even now), and the mother lode of cash is coming into the Obama campaign, not the state party, or the DNC.

It is not unusual for Ohio to go through several state directors in both positions, because various politicos across the state veto them for one reason or another.  Previous state directors to whom I reported in 1992 and 1996 have often said to me that the Ohio Democratic Party in a presidential year is a lot like the former Yugoslavia after Tito died.  Every fief has his/her fiefdom, and anyone running a statewide presidential in Ohio usually comes out so scarred for life that they can never work in Ohio again.  And every single year, the most balkanized part of the state is Cuyahoga County.

Again, this year could be different on all fronts.  The real pressure is on the prezzie, there are a few targeted congressionals, and Barack’s long primary has made his position pretty strong statewide - everyone has an interest in making nice, and doing it quick.  However, Ohio has a real funny way of going from perfect happy ODP coordinated to family to endless foodfight dysfunction in an instant.

I’m watching for who will be coordinated director.  That’ll tell us a lot about how smoothly this fall will go.

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