Pennsylvania Is Target Of Intensive Get-Out-The-Vote Effort By Clinton Campaign
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- With less than two weeks left until the presidential election, the Clinton campaign is preparing what's being called "the most intense election day operation" Pennsylvania has ever seen. Meantime, the Trump campaign is taking a more low-key approach.
To get a glimpse of the Clinton campaign's Get Out the Vote effort, consider its college campus presence.
"They have people assigned to every college campus in Pennsylvania," notes communications strategist Larry Ceisler.
And Ceisler says they're not just volunteers but paid staff, though he also expects a flood of volunteers from heavily Democratic states, where they're not needed, to hit Pennsylvania within the week.
"What you are seeing from the Clinton campaign is unprecedented in all the election cycles that I've observed," he said. "This is the most intense, comprehensive election day operation I think that we've ever seen in Pennsylvania."
Ceisler says it's a sharp contrast with the Trump campaign.
"This is probably one of the weakest Republican efforts I've ever seen. You just don't have the same amount of effort to identify and turn out those voters," he said. "Now, I think one could argue that the Trump voter is going to come out. You don't need a hundred phone calls."
But Ceisler says, if the race is close, the "ground game," as turn-out efforts are called, can make the difference between victory and defeat and Pennsylvania, he says, is a must-win for both candidates.
Ceisler says senator Pat Toomey is making a robust effort but getting little aid, while the Clinton campaign is using its organization to help down-ballot races.