WILMINGTON, Del. -- With fewer than 2 percent of the delegates needed for a presidential nomination available here, campaigning in tiny Delaware would hardly seem worth the Interstate 95 toll money.
But Michelle Obama was in the state Thursday, giving a rousing stump speech that turned out to be a warm-up act. Her husband, Sen. Barack Obama, will stop in Wilmington tomorrow, making a Mid-Atlantic appearance on his final push before Tuesday's primaries.
Delaware is one of several small states receiving big attention leading up to Super Tuesday, when more than 20 states will vote in the closest thing to a national primary.
California is the biggest prize, and New York, Illinois, New Jersey and Georgia offer large numbers of delegates. Close races in both parties mean that leading candidates need every advantage. States such as Alaska, Kansas and Utah are suddenly valuable.
"Literally every single one of the states is in play," said Erik J. Schramm, a Democratic operative who has run several statewide races in Delaware. "You can see the energy and feel the buzz."
On the Democratic side, Obama and Sen. Hillary Clinton have the money and organizational strength to compete in places otherwise ignored in years when nominees were decided earlier or there was a clear front-runner.
Ads and fliers
For Delaware, that means advertisements on television, fliers landing on doorsteps and armies of paid staff members and volunteers fanning out in neighborhoods.
"The strategy is not only to win as many delegates as possible; it's to win as many states as possible," said Chris Lu, an Obama Senate staff member on leave to work on the Delaware campaign effort. "It's trying to show we are running a national campaign ... that we can run in any state, and we can win in any state."
Clinton's Delaware campaign denies feeling pressure from the Obama visits.
"We have a great ground game going on," said her state spokeswoman, Emily Cain.
Clinton is running television ads and will "technically" appear Monday night in Wilmington, one of 22 cities participating in a national town hall meeting broadcast on the Hallmark Channel in a time slot purchased by the campaign, Cain said.
Local activists say the Obama and Clinton campaigns stepped up their Delaware operations about two weeks ago, adding paid campaign workers and developing advertising strategies.
On the Republican side, Tom Ridge, a former governor of neighboring Pennsylvania and a former homeland security secretary, toured Delaware yesterday on behalf of Sen. John McCain.
The McCain campaign has been consolidating support from backers of former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who withdrew from the race this week, and is "cautiously optimistic," said John R. Matlusky, a McCain supporter and Republican national committeeman from Delaware.
The heightened activity is not lost on voters in a state with three counties.
"We usually do get left out," said Mary Ann Varanko, 70, a Kent County resident who works at the visitor information center in the capital, Dover. We're a one-day stop from New York or wherever they're heading."
Varanko has been struck by the back-to-back advertisements for Obama and Clinton she has seen on evening television. An independent, she won't be allowed to vote in Tuesday's primaries, which are closed to those not registered in a major party.
Michael Rasmussen, 28, who works for an educational foundation in Newark, has received three pieces of literature from the Obama campaign in the past couple of weeks.
"We normally don't see that," Rasmussen said. "It's just impressive that we got it. In the last two elections, we haven't seen anything."
Michelle Obama's appearance at the Grand Opera House in downtown Wilmington this week attracted 1,500 people for a noon event.
"They say Delaware is a small state, but we deliver big," said Kayla Stewart, an Obama volunteer who was part of platoon of workers asking attendees to sign volunteer forms and work through the weekend.
Sitting in the Grand Opera House before the speech, the Rev. Paul Wilson, a Baptist minister from New Castle, accused the Democratic candidates of spending too much time fighting with each other. Because of that, he had not chosen a candidate.
"I've spent a lot of time watching debates, reading papers," Wilson said. "I feel good. I feel responsible. I feel I need to vote. But as of now, I can't say for who."
Across the hall, Benjamin Moore, 56, an Army retiree from Bear, was leaning toward Obama.
"The Clintons were in the White House for eight years. The Bushes were in the White House for 12 years. You tell me, what has changed?" Moore said. "Why not take this opportunity to try a new thing?"
States that will vote Tuesday offer 1,943 Democratic delegates (2,025 are needed for the nomination) and 1,008 Republican delegates (1,191 are needed to nominate).
In most cases, the winner of a Republican state primary or caucus gets all of that state's delegates. Democratic rules are more complex, with delegates awarded in proportion to votes and by congressional district, and with some super delegates remaining unpledged. Delaware has 23 Democratic and 18 Republican delegates.
Varied strategies
In the absence of clear front-runners, the leading campaigns are using a variety of strategies. For Obama, it means being visible in as many places as possible.
Obama was in Kansas this week, where his maternal grandparents, who helped raise him, were born. Today, he will visit Boise, Idaho, in a state with no statewide elected Democrats and with a paltry 23 delegates.
Obama has five offices in Idaho, and Clinton has none, said Chuck Oxley, a spokesman for the Idaho Democratic Party. The downtown Boise location has been jammed with eager volunteers.
"It may not help him in the delegate count, but his strategy is to go pick up a state," Oxley said. "If you put a few staffers here and visit one time, it's more attention than we've had in decades."
In Delaware, Antoinette Anderson of New Castle said she wants to hear more specifics from Obama and Clinton about pocketbook issues affecting working families. But the 59-year-old customer-service worker said she is excited about voting Tuesday.
"I believe we are going to count this year," she said. "It's going to put us on the map."
david.nitkin@baltsun.com