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SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- At Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's headquarters here the other day, the campaign staff was brainstorming about ways to reach beyond the voters who appear on traditional Democratic Party lists. Did anyone know fathers able to distribute flyers at Little League practice? When do the farmers markets open?
"We spend a lot of time trying to find new people and get them plugged in," said Clinton regional field director Pete Hackeman.
That has not always been the case. As it continues to refine its tactics, the Clinton campaign is devoting far more energy to on-the-ground efforts in Indiana than it did in many of the early states she lost to Sen. Barack Obama, who deployed scores of young staffers to unlikely places and profited from the power of grass-roots organizing.
Driven by strategy and necessity as the New York Democrat's advertising budget runs low, the Clinton campaign has opened 28 offices in Indiana, where she faces another critical test on May 6. With 72 delegates at stake in Indiana, the Clinton family has made more than 50 stops in the state already, far more than Obama and his wife, Michelle.
"They've gotten religion in terms of on-the-streets activism and the importance of it," said South Bend Mayor Steve Luecke, an Obama supporter, of the Clintons. "They're working the streets a lot harder, and to their credit. It will help with her campaign in the final vote total here."
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