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Jan. 01, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Campaign: Mistaken claims about Nevada unintentional

By MOLLY BALL
REVIEW-JOURNAL
Elections
2008 ELECTIONS
Get more news, voter information

Barack Obama
Illinois senator consistently has trailed Hillary Clinton in Nevada

The campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama says multiple mistakes and exaggerations about Nevada in a recent presentation to the national media were unintentional.

Of four claims the campaign made about Nevada in the presentation, one is outright wrong, one is a stretch, and one cannot be proven.

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    • Early Monday, campaign manager David Plouffe held a conference call with national reporters to make the case that Obama, a senator from Illinois, is best-positioned to win Thursday's Iowa caucuses and to go on to win three other early voting states and the 22 states holding contests Feb. 5.

    Two of the 24 pages in the campaign memo Plouffe presented concerned Nevada. On the first, four bullet-pointed items purport to show the strength of the campaign's grass-roots organization in the state, where he consistently has trailed in polling to Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

    One claim, that Obama was the "first candidate to run state-wide Spanish language ads," is false. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson began airing commercials in Spanish on Reno and Las Vegas radio stations in July.

    Obama started his Spanish radio ads in August. Asked about this Monday, the campaign admitted the claim was wrong.

    The memo also claims that Obama was the "first candidate on TV, airing first commercial December 11th."

    In fact, Obama was tied for first in getting started with televised ads. Clinton also began airing TV commercials on Dec. 11.

    Obama announced that his ads were about to start several days before Clinton did, but the ads themselves began airing on the same day.

    The document claims that Obama has the "largest field operation with over 50 field staffers," meaning organizers who go out and talk to voters.

    A spokeswoman said she could not prove that its number of organizers was more than other campaigns' but contended that "largest field operation" referred to more than just staff.

    Clinton's campaign said it also had more than 50 workers in the field in Nevada. "We have more than that number (50)," Clinton spokeswoman Hilarie Grey said. She would not give an exact number.

    The Obama campaign was telling the truth when it said it has the "most offices open of any candidate, with 11 offices across the state."

    Obama's campaign on Friday opened its 11th Nevada office, in the Lake Tahoe area, giving him more than twice as many campaign offices here as any other candidate. No other campaign has more than four offices in the state.

    Nevada's Jan. 19 caucuses will be the third meaningful Democratic contest, after Iowa on Thursday and the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 8.

    Contact reporter Molly Ball at mball@reviewjournal.com or (702) 387-2919.

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    bigyaz wrote on January 03, 2008 11:26 AM: Thanks for some truly hard-hitting reporting. That distinction between being "first" and "tied for first" will certainly help me choose the next leader of the free world.


    Barbara Samuelson wrote on January 02, 2008 08:31 PM: Hey Molly-

    How much is the Clinton campaign paying you?


    Ed wrote on January 02, 2008 05:45 PM: surely with all the trouble that there is in the world you have more important issues than this.


    who cares wrote on January 02, 2008 10:23 AM: who gives a crap who aired the first commmercial?! Does it really matter in the grand scheme of things. Vote for somebody based on the issues. If you are going to crucify somebody because he was wrong on who aired what commercial when, then you got some bigger issues.


    spdubois wrote on January 01, 2008 09:05 PM: This is from the guy who says "you can trust me" -- yeah, OK.


    Libertarian wrote on January 01, 2008 01:21 PM: Obama has promised to go to war to
    rectify the problems of Africa. How is this a change? From one war to another.
    Vote for Ron Paul!


    NVMojo wrote on January 01, 2008 10:53 AM: Does Hillary have a major supporter on the LVRJ staff or are the future glories of campaign ads driving the media in general? She's got quite a warchest and the he77 with the fact that she is BushLite. Money, money, money, keeps a candidate in the media's favor, not credibility.


    Sophies_mom wrote on January 01, 2008 10:41 AM: Sure it was unitentional.


    Percy2008 wrote on January 01, 2008 10:37 AM: I am troubled and uninspired by Obama. It s concering how many people may have drank the BHO koolaid. I am so tired of hearing him say he has the judgement in Foreign Policy because he was against the war in Iraq from the beginning. YET when he COULD VOTE and Be On Record for the Iran Resolution vote, he did not bother to show up. Yet he can criticize others who were responsible to show up for the vote. I have faith that people will vote with their head and vote against Obama. He has a hopeful speech, yet our country is in a critical crossroads and we need to affect change quickly.....it is possible to work within he system and chage the outcome with th right leadership and he is not the person.


    Obama supporter wrote on January 01, 2008 10:25 AM: this does not mean Obama "lied" -- lying is cheating on your wife in the Oval Office and then saying...well you get my point. This is a staffer speaking without the facts being straight. I will still only support Obama. He has the integrity and grass roots knowledge of what life in America is really like - to me, that is what is most important.


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