Campaign official: Sanders campaign building Obama-like coalition of caucus support

CEDAR RAPIDS - Although recent polls have shown Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders leading the race in Iowa for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, his campaign officials say it's still an uphill road to winning the Iowa caucuses.

It's not an easy path, according to Sanders' senior media adviser Tad Devine, 'but I think it is a realistic path.”

'It begins in Iowa as it has for most every modern nominee of the Democratic Party from Jimmy Carter to Barack Obama,” he told reporters on a conference call Wednesday. 'We believe we are well positioned to follow that path.”

In fact Devine thinks Sanders is building the sort of coalition of young voters, working families and high-information voters that Barack Obama put together in 2008 to win the caucuses.

'That's a winning coalition,” he said, adding that Sanders' support among working families, especially those with income so less than $30,000, 'is beginning to percolate in Iowa and elsewhere.”

The official also sought to knock down suggestions that Sanders support is concentrated in college communities rather than across those 1,682 precincts.

'We're definitely playing in all 99 counties,” said campaign manager Jeff Weaver. The 25 campus organizations give the campaign an edge in those precincts in places like Iowa City, Cedar Falls and Ames - homes to the three state universities, he said. However, the volunteer base is much wider than that and the volunteers in college communities are helping with organizing in neighboring counties, too.

Robert Becker, Iowa state director, added that Sanders gets 'tremendous crowds and tremendous response” wherever he goes in Iowa, not just in campus communities.

'So if there is a scarcity of support somewhere off campuses it is not evidenced by the larger and enthusiastic crowds we're receiving in town after town across Iowa,” he said.

'Sanders' support is not confined to the young age demographic. It's much more comprehensive than that,” Devine added.

The campaign is building a grass roots organization across the state with 56 organizers in Iowa and hundreds of volunteers across the state, Becker said.

With 131 days until the Feb. 1 caucuses, Becker said the campaign faces the same challenge as every campaign - building a precinct-based operation. As the campaign attracts new supporters and volunteers, he added, they have to be trained how the caucuses work.