The Obama campaign is adding several surrogates to the list of Democrats who will be in the spin room after the second presidential debate after feeling like Republicans dominated the spin after the first debate when only top Obama advisers showed up to talk to reporters, Roll Call reports.
But for the Long Island town meeting debate tonight, Team Obama has lined up a who’s who of Democratic lawmakers to join the post-debate messaging war.
In addition to the usual Obama campaign advisers — David Axelrod, Stephanie Cutter, Jim Messina and Robert Gibbs — the spin room will have appearances from Democratic Sens. Dick Durbin (Ill.),Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and John Kerry (Mass.), Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Rep.Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), as well as Reps. Xavier Becerra (Calif.), Chris Van Hollen (Md.), Nydia Velázquez (N.Y.) and Karen Bass (Calif.). The campaign is also bringing in Democratic Govs. Martin O’Malley (Md.) and Deval Patrick (Mass.) and former Govs. Jennifer Granholm (Mich.) and Ted Strickland (Ohio), among others. O’Malley was a designated surrogate for the first debate as well.
Deploying such a large group marks a significant shift in approach for the Obama campaign, which has been prone to go it alone during this year’s long campaign.
