Clinton campaign ended in N.C.

ryanteaguebeckwith — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 18:15:35 -0400

Hillary Clinton's campaign really ended in North Carolina.

The post-mortems of the former Democratic presidential candidate's campaign pretty much agree on this point, saying that her last chance to turn the primary around were on May 6.

The New York Times adds some details about divisions between Clinton adviser Mark Penn and pollster Geoff Garin about how winnable the state was:

North Carolina was the question mark. Mr. Clinton, unwilling to give up on his native South, believed they could whittle down her double-digit deficit and insisted on spending more time there. Mr. Garin took polls and reported back in an April 25 e-mail message that “we are on track to narrow this to single digits.” Mr. Penn argued it was not possible and took his own shadow poll to prove his point.

The paper says Clinton aides essentially realized the race was over when they saw Tim Russert on MSNBC say that she did not get a "game-changer" that she wanted.

Perdue using Clinton's polling firm

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 14:28:19 -0400

Beverly Perdue may have endorsed Barack Obama, but she's got a Hillary Clinton pollster working for her.

After Clinton demoted chief strategist Mark Penn, she replaced him with veteran Democratic pollster Geoff Garin, who is more of easy-going, according to CNBC:

An ardent fan of the Washington Nationals baseball team, Mr. Garin cast his campaign role as that of "the seventh inning guy instead of the starter." But his genial relationships throughout the party may offer some reassurance that the endgame of the nomination fight won't prove as damaging to Democratic hopes this fall as some have feared.

His firm, Garin-Hart-Yang Research Group, is currently working as pollster for Perdue, but the polling is being done by Garin's partner Fred Yang.

As with the national race, Democrats are hoping the gubernatorial nomination fight won't be too bruising.