Obama adding ads to GA, ND and AZ

by John McCormick, updated

COLUMBIA, Mo. - In the closing days of the contest, Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign is adding states to its advertising portfolio that were previously thought safe for Sen. John McCain.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told reporters this morning that ads would start running in Georgia, North Dakota and Arizona. He said early voting numbers and polling suggest Obama has a real chance in those states.

Calling core Obama supporters "very sticky," he said the campaign is focusing especially on more slippery undecided voters.

"We like what we are seeing with all the states with early vote," he said on a conference call.

In Iowa, where Obama is headed this morning, Plouffe said there has only been one day during absentee voting when more Republicans cast ballots than Democrats.

Georgia has a large proportion of African-American voters and has been a lucrative fundraising state for Obama.

"If we win it, we'd win it narrowly," he said. "When we look at Georgia, we think we see a pathway there."

On Arizona, Plouffe said he suspects the state would have been more a part of the battleground mix earlier, had it not been McCain's home state.

"If someone else had been the Republican nominee, I think Arizona would have been a core battleground," he said, saying polling there suggests it could be a "a very, very close race."

Plouffe said much of Obama's success in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico is because he is doing well among Hispanic voters in the West. "It's enough in the realm of the possible that we want to put a little extra effort at the end," he said.

With Obama's massive financial advantage, the campaign manager said the advertising expansion would do not take away from Obama's efforts in places like Ohio, Florida and Virginia.

"Nothing we are doing is taking away from our core efforts in the battlegrounds," he said. "From a resource perspective, we think we are doing everything that we need to do in the battlegrounds."

Plouffe said the advertising addition could have a side benefit of helping Democratic Senate candidates in Georgia and North Carolina. "Our goal is to get to 270 electoral votes," he said.

The top architect of Obama's ground game, Plouffe said much work remains to be done over the weekend to turn out voters for Tuesday. "It's going to be a ferocious four days," he said.