INDIANAPOLIS | David Plouffe chose a basketball reference to explain the post-primary attention Barack Obama's presidential campaign has paid to Indiana and other reliably red states.
"There's not a head fake in any of these states," said Plouffe, the Illinois Democrat's campaign manager. "We believe that there is a path to victory for Senator Obama in all of these states. This is not strategically about draining John McCain's resources. This is about aggressively playing in the states that we think we can win."
It's no surprise Plouffe sought to dampen speculation that the better-funded Democrat is deploying resources in Indiana and other historically Republican states in an effort to stretch thin his GOP opponent. After all, the Hoosier state's support of Republican presidential nominees is nearly as resolute as its love of basketball.
Lyndon Johnson was the last Democrat to win Indiana -- in 1964. And the state backed Franklin D. Roosevelt for only two of his four terms.
But Indiana's late primary gave the state several weeks in the spotlight this spring as Obama and Hillary Clinton fought for their party's nomination. Both Democrats addressed packed crowds across the state, and their campaigns signed up thousands of new voters.
"You can't compete in a state if you never show up," said Indiana Democratic Party Chairman Dan Parker. "The fact that they were here and folks got to see Senator Obama -- and they got to hear the issues and they got to participate and really have a say -- that paid huge dividends."
The campaign hopes to buttress that enthusiasm. Obama began running a biographical ad here in late June, and last week the campaign added a second television spot in Indiana and 17 other states.
Emily Parcell, political director for Obama's key caucus victory in Iowa, was selected to head up the campaign's Indiana operation. And Jonathan Swain -- an aide to U.S. Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., who served the Clinton campaign this spring -- became Obama's Indiana spokesman last week.
Swain said Obama plans to open 25 to 30 regional campaign offices across Indiana in the coming weeks. The campaign had 26 offices here prior to the May 6 primary.
The staff and advertising dollars pouring into Indiana, Georgia, North Carolina and other GOP-leaning states follow the 50 State Strategy that Howard Dean adopted after becoming Democratic National Committee chairman in 2005.
Dean gave the beleaguered Indiana Democratic Party, which had just lost the governor's office, the resources to hire three staffers. The move paid off a year later when Hoosier Democrats defeated three incumbent GOP congressmen.
The state party's emphasis this fall is on maintaining Democratic rule of the Indiana House and on giving former Congresswoman Jill Long Thompson a shot at ousting Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels. Democrats hope Obama enthusiasm will drift down-ticket.
"What Gary (Democrats) will be doing is asking people to pull one lever, the Democratic lever," said state Sen. Earline Rogers, a Gary Democrat and ardent Obama supporter.
But Daniels, who dubs the aggressive but often contentious accomplishments of his first term "change that's working," argues the new voters drawn to Obama aren't likely to blindly cast straight Democratic ballots.
"We think there's a whole bunch of people who are voting for Mitch and Obama, and that's based on the idea that they're both change agents," said Daniels campaign spokesman Cam Savage. "Nobody can argue that the governor has brought more change (to Indiana) than anyone in recent history."
