MANCHESTER, New Hampshire — The Trump campaign appears to be scrambling to tighten up their ground game in New Hampshire, despite a double-digit lead that Donald Trump holds over his nearest competitors in the latest polls.
The Trump New Hampshire campaign headquarters on Granite St. Friday night appeared to be whirring with phone bank volunteers. However, it was difficult to see how many campaign helpers there were, as The Daily Caller was ordered to step outside the office door when campaign staff realized media was inside.
No doubt, Trump still feels the sting from his loose Iowa ground game, which various reports over the last few months revealed a low turnout of volunteer door knockers and unreturned phone calls in the Hawkeye state.
As Trump is having rallies, Cruz on the other hand is having Town hall meetings everywhere.
Belknap GOP County Chairman and New Hampshire Republican Party Area 5 Vice Chairman Alan Glasman says the Trump campaign reached out to him on Thursday asking for his vote.
“It certainly appears that for the most part they are relying on phone calls from the Trump campaign,” Glasman told TheDC. “Whereas Cruz is really getting out there with the Town hall meetings and I believe that they are going door-to-door. Why should Trump change, you know?”
Trump admitted he lost the Hawkeye state because his campaign “didn’t have much of a ground game because I didn’t think I was going to be winning.”
Nevertheless, the latest WMUR/CNN poll shows Trump in the lead with 28 percent, Sen. [crscore]Marco Rubio[/crscore] with 17 percent, Ted Cruz and Gov. John Kasich with 13 percent, Jeb Bush with 9 percent, Carly Fiorina 5 percent, and Gov. Chris Christie with 4 percent.
But Glasman does not take the polls too seriously.
“You cannot rely on the polls right now, because there are so many undecided voters in New Hampshire. The polls are reaching out to Republicans and Democrats primarily, and based on the polls 40 percent of the people are independents here, and they can take whatever ballot they want on primary day and vote that way,” Glasman explained.
“It’s kind of an open primary. A Democrat can’t take a Republican ballot and Republican can’t take the Democratic ballot, but an independent can have the latitude to go whichever way they want,” he said.
The Trump campaign, The New York Times reports, began emailing their supporters recently urging them to swarm New Hampshire to volunteer for the campaign. In return, the campaign offered to “Visit New Hampshire & Be Boots on the Ground” as well as “free lodging and meals.”
“Potential opportunities to be near Mr. Trump,” the email said, and an opportunity to “phone bank from home or at a group phone bank.” In addition, it offered supporters “deployment benefits,” which, including the lodging, meals and proximity to Mr. Trump, were: “Travel expenses considered on a case-by-case basis; Bragging Rights. You helped Make America Great Again!”
Trump’s competition already has their volunteers in New Hampshire staying in free lodging and receiving free meals. The Cruz campaign brought in student volunteers, some who took a semester off to work on the campaign and stay in the now defunct Chester College dormitories that the Cruz campaign rents out.
The Cruz campaign also whizzed about with phone bank volunteers Friday night at their Front Street headquarters in Manchester.
By 9 p.m., the Rubio campaign was wrapping up shop. According to a campaign spokesman, 50 to 100 volunteers are either door knocking or phone banking for the Florida Senator.
According to Glasman, the Carson campaign is nearly non-existent in New Hampshire.
“You don’t hear much about him. I believe he has a bunch of events scheduled. I’ve been sending an email out to my mailing list of close to 500 people with all of the events and all of the candidates throughout New Hampshire. I haven’t had any events published in my mailing other than today when [The Carson campaign] got back to me and said they had two events,” said Glasman.