Obama bets big on Florida turnout

The big bet on Florida and Miami-Dade County, Obama aides say, is based on the campaign's belief that it has secured enough supporters to win the state and must now ensure that those supporters get to the polls -- in contrast to states such as Ohio, where the campaign believes victory depends on persuading more voters to support Obama.

On Thursday, Miami-Dade County disclosed that Democrats had added more than 94,000 new voters to the rolls since January, compared with about 21,000 new Republicans. Democrats' gain came partly from the Obama campaign's major voter registration efforts here. The party has also made large gains statewide, though final numbers are not yet known.

Now the Obama campaign believes that it can win Florida -- and, therefore, a majority in the Electoral College -- by turning these voter registration gains into actual votes. In addition, the campaign has identified more than half a million African Americans and hundreds of thousands of young people statewide who were already registered but did not vote four years ago. That year, President Bush undertook a major GOP voter-targeting effort and secured a victory margin of about 380,000 votes.

"The demographics of Florida have lined up better for us" than in some other battleground states, said Steve Hildebrand, Obama's deputy campaign manager, referring to the campaign's outreach to African Americans, who are numerous in Miami-Dade County. "Ohio is more about persuasion. Here it's more about turnout."

In addition to Hildebrand, who is now focusing almost entirely on Miami-Dade County, the officials sent to Florida include the Obama campaign's liaison to the national Democratic Party and its senior or No. 2 outreach directors for African Americans, Jews and religious leaders.

Four of the officials are working out of a third-floor suite in a Miami Beach office building, and one, national party liaison Paul Tewes, has joined the campaign's state headquarters team in Tampa.