April 30, 2008, 10:22 am By Jeff ZelenyCHICAGO – With six days to go before the presidential primaries in Indiana and North Carolina, Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are campaigning in cities across the Hoosier State today. That, however, is hardly the only battleground.
Here in Chicago, where the Obama campaign headquarters is located, a vigorous operation is underway in the fight for superdelegates. A similarly aggressive effort is underway at Clinton headquarters outside Washington. Both are sophisticated ventures – run by seasoned operatives – who spend large parts of the day taking the temperature of uncommitted superdelegates and organizing calling trees to check in periodically.
The first get of the day? Representative Bruce Braley of Iowa.
Mr. Braley intends to announce his support this afternoon for Mr. Obama, according to his spokesman Jeff Giertz.
The eastern Iowa congressman endorsed John Edwards late last year before the Iowa caucuses. Only weeks ago, he indicated he might wait until the Democratic convention to make his decision, but aides said after he saw the support for Mr. Obama last weekend at district conventions in Iowa, he changed his mind.
So was he concerned by the controversy created by the latest development in the relationship between Mr. Obama and his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr.?
“I think it would be safe to say he was not swayed by the Wright stuff,” a Democratic official familiar with the Iowa congressman’s thinking said by e-mail today. “He was swayed by the right stuff.”
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