Giuliani Notes: Blogger Conference Call
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Former New York Mayor and Presidential candidate and Mrs. Rudy Giuliani in Simi Valley, California, May 3, 2007. Standing next to the Mayor is Anaheim, California Mayor Curt Pringle.
The Giuliani campaign has sponsored another blogger conference call this morning/afternoon with Giuliani Campaign Manager Michael DuHaime and Communications Director Katie Levinson.
Patrick Ruffini hosted the call.
Matt David (left) and Katie Levinson are top communications staffers on the governor’s campaign. Eric Luse photo courtesy of San Francisco Chronicle
Katie Levinson:
I would like to give you an update on Rudy schedule wise and what we have been talking about with a message perspective.
After the debate on Thursday night, Rudy headed to Cedar, Rapids, Iowa, where he did a Townhall and talked about the repeal of the “Death Tax.”
He, then, headed to The Citadel where he delivered the commencement address.
Tonight, he will be speaking at the Heritage Foundation in Washington.
Later this week, he will head to Alabama, then back to New York and then to Florida.
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The campaign has been focusing on Rudy’s record in New York City. He had a very strong track record of success, bringing crime down, turning the economy around and really ceaning the city up – making it a liveable city again. We are trying to bring this message across the country. And let people know what kind of job Rudy did as Mayor.
This is something we will certainly talk about prior to the next debate in South Carolina and in early June in New Hampshire.
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Michael Duhaime in the “Spin Room” at the Reagan Presidential Library Debate, May 3, 2007.
Michael DuHaime:
Just on polling and where we are right now….the race has settled into a place where we expected it all along. There were three national polls last seek and our average lead was 10 points and we feel very good where things have settled in and not surprising where they are right now. In a field as large as it is, I feel it is a good place for us to be.
Also, in the early primary states, the first three are close and are likely to be close down to the wire and will go back and forth on those. If you average them all, they are all close.
Obviously with Florida’s move , it is a significant thing. With the move before February 5th, the most recent polling shows double digit leads for the Mayor and in some cases more than 20 point leads – which is certainly encouraging for us.
And with the moves of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and California to February 5th certainly alters the dynamic in all those states where the Mayor has double digit leads – with California being in the low teens and New York, New Jersey being more considerable than that. With other states, February 5th will be an important day for everybody.
Then, you have a regional primary on February 12th perhaps Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.
Obviously, the front-loading of all of this means a tremendous amounts of resources that you have to raise.
But, we feel very good about the Mayor’s record, polling we see and our overall electoral strength.
Bloggers Questions:
Flap will update this post throughout the day with the Q/A with the bloggers.
Update:
1. Question from Jennifer Rubin (free-lance writer NRO and the American Thinker):
Mike, you talked about moving up of the primaries. Does anything about this concern you? And have you adjusted either your travel plans or your organization or your spending patterns to reflect all of the states that are now moving up?
Mike DuHaime:
I think what it does and this is probably not unique to our campaign is puts a heavier burden on the amount of money that has to be raised. And it used to be that any viable candidate would be able to raise enough money to compete in every state. But, now every candidate has to make resource allocation decisions and look at the places where they may be able to perform best – where one can get delegates.
So, it changes the need to raise money which laters the schedule. In order to do a significant amount of fundraisers it takes time away from some other places where you may do some more “retail” campaigning.
It affects our campaign and will affect every campaign as to the schedule.
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