As speculation over Joe Biden’s 2016 presidential aspirations continues, the super PAC “Draft Biden” is expected to announce a key hire Wednesday in the first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire, a source close to the group confirms to CNN.
State Rep. Daniel Eaton of Stoddard, New Hampshire, will take the position of state director as the group looks to build a Granite State ground game, hiring several field directors and considering where to find office space.
Eaton served as Biden’s state co-chairman during his unsuccessful primary run in 2008 and has been in talks to join the group for several months.
NH1 first reported the hire.
In the latest poll looking at a possible Biden bid, a Franklin Pierce University/Boston Herald survey has him garnering 9% in New Hampshire. Democratic candidates Bernie Sanders at 44% and Hillary Clinton at 37%, with former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee trailing with 1% or less of likely Democratic primary voters, according to the same survey.
When asked about how to compete against Sanders and Clinton’s sizable head start in the state the source said that there have been “phone calls and emails from different New Hampshire party activists all saying if Biden jumps in they want to come on.”
“They are locking up a lot of the vote but a lot of it is soft support,” said the source. “Some people have been forced to land in other campaigns, but its a soft landing. They say they will jump” if Biden declares.
However Sanders, Clinton, and O’Malley have already built sizable campaign organizations in the state, and the group recognizes it will be a challenge to find new hires.
“A lot of oxygen has been sucked out of the state,” the source said. “It will take some work to find people, no doubt about it, they have to know the geography well.”
