Obama will be 2nd choice of Richardson Voters

[Mr. Peabody]

Things are looking better for the Obama campaign.

Is Obama a Plan B for Richardson Voters?

By John Harwood

Barack Obama’s drive to win tonight’s Iowa caucuses is getting a boost from two of his putative rivals. After earlier winning the support of Dennis Kucinich, Obama’s campaign has reached an agreement with Bill Richardson for the second-choice votes of Richardson supporters in caucuses where the New Mexico governor can’t clear the threshold for compe ion, according to a senior Obama campaign adviser. The adviser estimated that the deal puts Mr. Obama in position to claim support from roughly half of the 15 percent of Democratic caucus-goers expected to support second-tier candidates.

In return, the Obama adviser said, Obama forces will lend support to Mr. Richardson at caucuses where Mr. Obama turns out more backers than he needs to win any additional delegates. Mr. Richardson drew 6 percent of the vote in the most recent Des Moines Register Poll, trailing Mr. Obama’s 32 percent, Hillary Clinton’s 25 percent and John Edwards’ 24 percent.

In a close race, such a deal could make an important difference. John Edwards’ 2004 campaign credits a similar deal with Mr. Kucinich then as helping fuel his strong second place showing.

But the specter of backroom deal-making could also raise questions about Mr. Obama’s stance as an opponent of traditional politics. The national spokesman for Mr. Obama’s campaign, Bill Burton, said word of a deal “isn’t true.”

Update | 3:25 p.m. David Plouffe, Obama campaign manager, responding to the report that Mr. Obama had reached an agreement for reciprocal support with Bill Richardson’s campaign, insisted the campaign had reached “no formal arrangements” with any of his rivals. But he said that “there are certainly places where our precinct captains want to work with Richardson” supporters — to gain second-choice support in cases where Mr. Richardson doesn’t reach the threshold to compete, or to lend Mr. Richardson surplus backers in instances where they can’t yield any additional Obama delegates.

“We’re giving our precinct captains a lot of la ude to work this out,” Mr. Plouffe said. “We’re going to fight as hard as we can for every one” of Mr. Richardson’s available supporters, and “It comes down to how well our precinct captains do.” With polling showing that Mr. Obama and Mr. Edwards are the top contenders for second-choice support, Mr. Plouffe said they’d made similar efforts with supporters of Joseph Biden and Chris Dodd as well. Dennis Kucinich has already publicly urged his backers to support Mr. Obama in precincts where Kucinich is not viable.

[SA210]

Richardson just denied that right now on CNN.

[Mr. Peabody]

Richardson just denied that right now on CNN.

The Richardson Shuffle

January 03, 2008 5:45 PM

The Iowa Independent this morning reported that according to two sources, the campaign of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was preparing "to direct its supporters to caucus for Sen. Barack Obama in the second round of voting at Thursday's caucuses in precincts where he is not viable."

Viability is crucial to the Democrats' caucus process. Voters whose preferred candidates do not achieve 15% support in precincts then are able to cast another vote for their second-place choice in subsequent rounds of voting.

"Richardson, whose poll numbers in Iowa have hovered near 10 percent since June, may need a solid fourth-place finish in the caucuses to continue his campaign," the newspaper wrote. "And he is best served by directing support away from former Sen. John Edwards, who consistently polls between him and the two national front-runners, Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton, in national and early state polls."

When I asked Richardson spokesman Tom Reynolds about this earlier, he told me "there is no deal."

Okay, I said, I didn't say anything about a "deal," but thanks for the clarification. Now a simple question -- has Gov. Richardson or his campaign told precinct captains to suggest -- in the event that Richardson isn't viable in a precinct -- that supporters back Obama?

Governor Richardson has said no one should tell Iowans how to vote, he said.

Right, I said, but what about his campaign?

Said Reynolds: "I disagree with the premise of your questions. Big picture strategic decisions will be made throughout the course of the day to ensure we do as well as possible in Iowa. The only instructions we have given our captains in areas we aren’t viable is make every effort to change the minds of others supporters to become viable."

What about instructions to precinct captains all over the state? Why all this parsing?

It was getting exhausting.

"Yes or no," I said. "Has the Richardson campaign told precinct captains to suggest -- in the event that Richardson isn't viable in a precinct -- that supporters back Obama?"

He would not answer the question.