Clinton-Obama Battle Moves to Wisconsin

Feb. 19, 2008 — -- Campaigning in Wisconsin, Sen. Hillary Clinton is trying to slow some of the momentum Illinois Sen. Barack Obama has going into Tuesday's primaries in both Wisconsin and Hawaii.

Polls suggest a tight race in Wisconsin with Obama holding a small, five-point lead over the New York senator, according to a recent Research 2000 poll conducted for Madison's WISC-TV. Obama is also thought to have an edge in Hawaii, where he grew up.

"Wisconsin's a competitive race," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told reporters on a conference call today.

Obama has won the last eight consecutive primary contests, giving him a huge boost of momentum and allowing him to pull ahead of Clinton in pledged delegates to the party's convention in August.

Plouffe argued a win in Wisconsin would move Obama further ahead in their delegate battle with Clinton and would quiet opponents who have credited his wins to black voters and high-income, urban Democrats.

Clinton counts Hispanic voters, low-income Democrats, white women and rural voters among her core supporters.

"This is a state where by their own definition you've got heavy blue-collar portions of the electorate, you've got a lot of rural areas. … This is a playing field that by their own language would tilt in their favor and we're going to try to do as well as we can tomorrow," Plouffe said.

The Clinton campaign downplayed expectations for Wisconsin today, arguing its focus is winning the delegate-rich states of Ohio and Texas that vote March 4.

"I do not subscribe to the momentum theory of American politics," Clinton communications director Howard Wolfson told reporters on another conference call, which was held at the same time Plouffe was talking up reporters covering the Obama campaign.

"We feel very good about Ohio and Texas, which are the next big contests that vote after Wisconsin and Hawaii," Wolfson said.