The ground game

Sean at FiveThirtyEight has a really nice write up that explains what we politico's mean when we discuss the "Field" aspect of a campaign. Sean does a good job of explaining what the goals are of field work, what data is collected and why and then how that data is used to shape the campaign.

Outside of the candidates themselves the field aspect of the campaign is, in my opinion, the most important work done. The fact that field work is labor intensive and thus staffed with loads of volunteers has the effect of making the field work seem less important than say, the policy office that is staffed full of stuffed shirts and folks with graduate degrees. Field work is grunt work but it's vitally important grunt work.

FiveThirtyEight has more on the Obama advantages in the field here, here and here.