Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue did not consult with the White House or with President Barack Obama's campaign before abandoning her re-election bid, Obama national campaign manager Jim Messina told the Observer during a visit to North Carolina this week.
Some political analysts have said that not having to run with Democrat Perdue, who's been lagging in the polls, would help Obama in his bid to win North Carolina and its 15 electoral votes.
But Messina shot down any notion that Perdue acted on Obama's suggestion.
Asked if the president had spoken to Perdue before she made her decision, Messina said: "No, he did not. She answered that question last week. She did not talk to the White House or the campaign before she made her decision."
The Chicago-based Messina is in charge of Obama's ground game around the country, including in North Carolina, where the Obama campaign has already opened five offices (including one in Charlotte) and sent out hundreds of N.C. volunteers to register new voters. "We are going to look at every single way we can to get to 50.1 percent of the vote," he said. "We basically never shut down (after 2008) ... This campaign is going to be, at some point, a game about turnout and persuasion. So we're building the kind of grassroots organization that can turn out our voters. You saw some of that - not from us, but from Democrats in 2011, and we're going to expand and build on that."
Messina was in Charlotte and Durham on Tuesday to update Democratic National Convention planners on the campaign. Along with senior White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, Messina also attended a "youth summit" designed to reach out to students at N.C. Central University and other historically black colleges.
The two are part of a parade of top Obama operatives - from the White House, the Cabinet and the campaign - converging on North Carolina.
Here's who else is coming:
On Friday, Vice President Joe Biden will join his wife, Jill Biden, and Labor Secretary Hilda Solis in Thomasville to promote the role of community colleges in retraining workers.
On Saturday, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius will be in Charlotte to give the keynote address at the annual gathering of the N.C. chapter of the Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest gay and lesbian civil rights organization.
On March 2, first lady Michelle Obama will be Charlotte and Raleigh to raise money for the Democratic National Convention and the president's N.C. campaign effort.
On May 12, Attorney General Eric Holder will deliver the commencement address at UNC Law School in Chapel Hill.
Then, of course, there's the party's national convention.
"We put the convention in Charlotte in part because North Carolina is such an important piece of our map to get to 270 electoral votes," Messina said. "There are many ways to get there, but we view North Carolina as one of the key ways."
He expects the convention to be a boon to Obama's campaign in North Carolina.
"(Denver in 2008) was the first time we ever used the convention to organize locally and excite our supporters and volunteers," he said. "We've already seen incredible enthusiasm on the ground across North Carolina about hosting the convention, about really putting Charlotte on a world stage. . . . We think that will have political benefits as well."
