On June 3, the night he clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Barack Obama singled out one of his staffers for special praise.
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“Thank you to our campaign manager, David Plouffe, who never gets any credit and has built the best political organization in the country,” Obama said.
Obama may have been right on both counts.
Not seeking credit, Plouffe has labored in the background during the campaign. David Axelrod, Obama’s chief strategist, has played a far more visible role.
Plouffe’s counterparts on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s staff, first Patti Solis Doyle, and then her replacement, Maggie Williams, received far more media attention.
At the same time, Plouffe (pronounced “Pluff”) built a political organization that was able to take on and defeat Clinton, an odds-on favorite at the beginning of the race.
He implemented a strategy that focused on winning early (Iowa), on taking delegates from small states and/or caucus states and on trying to get as much as could be had from the big states, even those where Clinton was sure to win.
In addition, Plouffe helped create a money-raising machine, one that far out-paced Clinton’s campaign efforts.
And while the Clinton camp seemed always at war with itself, the Obama organization projected harmony.
“(Plouffe) implemented his winning strategy without the drama, leaks, or infighting that typically plague campaigns,” wrote Bloomberg’s Julianna Goldman.
Though he is only 41 years old, Plouffe has more than 20 years of experience working on campaigns.
He began in politics as a deputy field director for Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa, helping him win re-election in 1990. Two years later, he worked on Harkin’s presidential campaign. Plouffe’s Iowa experience helped guide the Obama campaign to a critical win in Iowa’s first-in-the-nation presidential caucus in January.
After 1992, Plouffe managed other campaigns, including Robert Torricelli’s successful run for the Senate in New Jersey in 1996. He later was deputy chief of staff for Rep. Richard Gephardt of Missouri.
After that, he served as the executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. That post taught him about Congressional districts throughout the nation, valuable information for the Obama effort.
In 2000, Plouffe joined Axelrod in what is now AKP&D Media and Message, a Chicago-based firm that provides consulting and media to Democratic candidates.
Generally, Plouffe has let Axelrod do the talking for the Obama campaign.
Because of that, it’s no surprise that when Plouffe and Axelrod met with Democratic senators Tuesday, The New York Times blog post on the get-together was headlined, “Axelrod Visits Senate Democrats.”
Plouffe did take part in a Jan. 25 video interview with John Harwood of CNBC and the Times.
“This could be a very long march,” Plouffe said as he looked ahead to the Feb. 5 “Super Tuesday” primaries and beyond.
In explaining his strategy for that long march, Plouffe looked relaxed and informal as he stressed the power of organization, the power of money and the power of message.
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