The mastermind of the 2008 Obama campaign David Plouffe today is making a last-minute push for Sen. Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania, asking the most loyal of President Obama’s supporters to help the struggling senator prevail in tomorrow’s primary election.
“President Obama is committed to seeing Senator Specter re-elected. Whenever he has needed a crucial vote for a top priority, Arlen Specter has been there for our President and this movement,” Plouffe wrote in an email that will be sent today by the Democratic National Committee’s Organizing for America and obtained by TPMDC.
Plouffe was the campaign manager for Obama and has been a special adviser to the president ever since. The White House had him take on a more visible role this winter following the loss of Sen. Ted Kennedy’s seat in Massachusetts.
Plouffe noted in the email that Specter was the deciding vote on health care and helped Obama pass the $787 billion economic stimulus plan last year. “And he’ll be there for the fights ahead — as long as he wins tomorrow,” Plouffe said.
“Re-electing Arlen is going to take the same effort we all have put in so many times before — spreading the word to friends and neighbors, knocking on doors, and making phone calls,” he said.
Obama’s White House is on the line in Pennsylvania, since the president helped convince Specter to switch parties last spring and has recorded radio ads and robocalls for Specter that are still playing in the final hours of the race. Specter’s vote for the stimulus plan is the focus of those efforts as well.
The email comes after the DNC’s campaign arm Organizing for America had volunteers make calls into Pennsylvania without mentioning Specter’s name. The get-out-the-vote calls over the weekend were to make sure voters showed up for both the primary and the special election in Pennsylvania’s 12th Congressional district.
