Report: Clinton Sending More Organizers, Funds To Arizona

By Al Macias, Mark Brodie
Published: Tuesday, August 9, 2016 - 3:19pm
Updated: Thursday, August 11, 2016 - 11:35am
(Photo via Hillary Clinton Facebok page)
Democratic Presidential Nominee Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton's campaign is now targeting Arizona as a state it might win. Representatives of the campaign have notified Arizona democratic leaders of plans to transfer funds to hire more field organizers.

According to the Washington Post,  Arizona and Georgia are being added to the Clinton campaign list. It’s not clear how much the Clinton campaign will spend in the two states, the money may also help down ballot Democratic candidates.

Neither Arizona nor Georgia was part of the first round of states the Clinton campaign targeted with money for television advertising and larger field staffs.

According to the Real Clear Politics poll average for the period ending August 5, Donald Trump leads Hillary Clinton in Arizona by three-tenths of a percentage point and Trump is trailing Clinton in Georgia.

Arizona last voted for a democratic presidential candidate in 1996, during President Bill Clinton’s second term.

Matthew Benson of the Phoenix-based government relations firm Veridus remains skeptical of Clinton's chances here.

"It’s fine for them to talk about a few hundred thousand dollars to fund field workers— that’s great, whatever," he said. But I want to see if that race is actually close after Labor Day, if they start dropping million dollar, multi-million dollar investments in Arizona, then I’ll believe it’s in play."

Benson says part of this effort may be to force the Trump campaign to spend money in a reliably red state, pointing out that every dollar spent here is a dollar not spent in states like Ohio and Florida.

Politics