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Politics

Behemoth California challenges the pack

Campaigning across the state's breadth can be a nightmare, but what a dream to win.

LOS ANGELES - More people live in Los Angeles County than in the state of Michigan.

That's just one of many challenges California poses for presidential candidates:

-More than half of the state's primary ballots may be cast before polls open Tuesday.

-New rules for choosing presidential nominating delegates encourage Republicans to turn up in heavily Democratic districts.

-Independents can vote for Democrats but not Republicans.

Home to nearly one in eight Americans, California is a giant, diverse political landscape. It is enormously expensive for candidates but offers the campaign's largest batch of delegates.

For years, candidates for presidential nominations mostly ignored California except to pick up checks in Hollywood or Silicon Valley. But the state assumed new importance this year by moving its primary from June to Feb. 5.

Catering to the state's burgeoning Hispanic population is just one of the necessities for campaigns this year. Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are fighting street by street for Hispanic votes in the neighborhoods east of downtown Los Angeles.

On TV, their campaigns air a stream of commercials in Spanish, targeting the state's fastest-growing population. The candidates' competition for endorsements has divided Hispanic politicians.

The lavishly funded Democrats are contesting everything, everywhere - celebrity hangouts like Malibu and Beverly Hills, Central Valley farming towns, liberal and high-tech enclaves around San Francisco Bay, in addition to Hispanic strongholds.

On the Republican side, McCain held a 12 percentage-point lead in a late January poll, picked up an endorsement Thursday from celebrity Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and is looking to deliver a stinging defeat to rival Mitt Romney.

Clinton and Obama are vastly outspending Republicans in the state, considered a Democratic stronghold in November. McCain might battle Romney without airing a single TV commercial here - bucking conventional wisdom that the only way to reach voters in the nation's most populous state is on television screens. Romney does plan television ads in California, but it's not clear how extensive they will be.

Clinton, leading by 15 percentage points in a late January poll, is trying to summon the political magic that gave her husband commanding victories here in 1992 and 1996. She's counting on a big payoff from efforts to identify and lure absentee voters, who could account for more than half the ballots on Feb. 5.

Obama is pushing hard to contact independents - about 3-million of California's nearly 15.5-million registered voters - in hope of repeating the success with unaffiliated voters that powered his victory in Iowa.

"It's hard to beat the Clinton brand in California," said Democratic consultant Garry South, who is unaffiliated in the campaign. "Bill Clinton was here 70 times when he was president. He tended the state like it was his own personal vineyard. Not all that good will transfer to Hillary, but she will be hard to beat."

California's vote-by-mail numbers forced the campaigns to begin reaching out to early voters just after the holidays. Much of that advertising targeted the San Francisco Bay area, which has a high proportion of regular absentee voters.

What's at stake

Republicans: California's GOP divvies up 170 delegates on Tuesday - three in each of the state's 53 congressional districts and a bonus of 11 to the statewide winner - with 1,191 needed to secure the party nomination. For the first time, Republicans are awarding delegates to the winner in each congressional district. That has led GOP candidates to campaign in heavily Democratic districts, including San Francisco and Oakland, because a small number of Republicans there could deliver delegates with relatively little effort.

Democrats: California Democrats will award 370 delegates of the 2,025 needed to secure the nomination. A Democrat can qualify for a delegate there by winning at least 15 percent of the vote in a congressional district.

[Last modified February 2, 2008, 01:45:42]