Forget campaign buttons. President Barack Obama's Chicago-based 2012 campaign headquarters is focused on high-tech methods of getting out the vote.
A report from the New York Times describes Obama's Prudential Plaza headquarters downtown as "a corporate research and development lab." It employs a special department to monitor voter trends and a “chief scientist” who studies behavior of consumers, resembling more of a corporate atmosphere than a re-election one.
The Times points out the offices are kept mostly secret, but inside are marketers, analysts and strategists aplenty. The focus? Re-energizing his supporters of four years ago.
Recently Obama pulled from his Chicago roots to help reassemble his African-American base.
Chicago Bears' head coach Lovie Smith backed Obama's re-election in a campaign video to, in part, advertise the website AfricanAmericans.BarackObama.com.
"I have the President's back," Smith said in the video. "It's up to us as African Americans to show that we have his back also."
The campaign also brought on web developers to create technology to make its website fit onto the screens of all mobile devices to help ramp up donation click-through rates.
Though campaign officials told the New York Times they don't intend to recreate the wheel, Obama's social media numbers paint an attractive view of followers.
And workers are full steam ahead toward the election -- with numbers and gadgets in tow.
