Obama Crew Lands, Orients

“New HAY-ven. Not NEW Haven, “ coached a chorus of ladies as Obama campaign staffer Donnel Baird (pictured) got a late-game primer on his new terrain.

Baird was a regional field director for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in South Carolina. Riding on little sleep and the high of a primary victory, he drove up to Connecticut late Monday night. Now he’s part of a small crew of paid staff whipping together a last-minute campaign here before the Feb. 5 nominating contest.

At a get-out-the-vote rally Thursday evening at Yale’s Afro-American Cultural Center, Baird spurred locals to action and received a lesson himself in the who-what-where of the City of Elms.

Someone with contacts at Southern Connecticut State University made arrangements for a campus push. A union rep offered troops for deployment. Alderman Joey Rodriguez let him in on a weekend lit drop in Fair Haven.

“Fair Haven,” repeated Baird, making a note on his clipboard.

Speaking before a crowd of over 200 volunteer Obamans, Baird acknowledged the campaign was late to the party. Grassroots operations have been going on for a year or so, but without much material support such as lawn signs.

“I apologize on behalf of the campaign for folks who may feel the have been stranded,” Baird told the crowd. The campaign strategy, he explained, was to win Iowa, then New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

But in the final days before Super Tuesday, when more than half the delegates for the Democratic presidential nomination are up for grabs, Connecticut has suddenly become a hotly contested state. Obama is expected to visit the state Monday, along with a repeat visit from his rival, Hillary Clinton. Republican frontrunner John McCain is expected in Fairfield Sunday.

Bairn shared stories of the South Carolinian countryside, where a lady in a great big church hat joked with Obama in the sun. Campaigners drove to all corners of the state to make face-to-face pitches with targeted individuals. They even picked collard greens.

“Here, we don’t have the time to do any of that,” said Baird.

Connecticut is small fry, representing only 60 of the nearly 1,700 Democratic delegates at stake on Feb. 5. But as the race tightens — a recent Rasmussen poll showed Clinton and Obama neck and neck — the state’s seeing unexpected attention. Both candidates are expected in Hartford on Monday.

The newly landed official Obama staffers are now hustling to coordinate with grassroots organizers. ​“We don’t have time, but you guys have social networks,” Bairn said. He asked the crowd to take 10 minutes to call six friends.

The crowd was diverse, with heavy representation from Yale students.

“I texted everyone I knew in Connecticut,” reported Jessica Thomas (at right in picture), a Yale graduate who now teaches at Hopkins. Mark Dunn (pictured center), also a recent Yale graduate, called buddies on campus.

Andrew Johnson (pictured left) beamed as he flashed a pic of Obama he snapped with his cell phone back in his native Iowa. ​“You can have a ten-minute conversation with him there,” said Johnson of his holiday caucus experience.

Roxanne Hayes (pictured) called her church to ask if someone could make an announcement at service Sunday about the primary. Just to get folks thinking about voting, she explained — ​“after church, then we talk about Obama.”