For all the debates, for all the television ads, for all the political rallies and news stories, in the end the presidential election will be decided by the work done in the basement of 220 E. Main St. — along with 30 other Campaign for Change field offices throughout Minnesota and thousands more in battleground states across America.

Nick Meyer is convinced of it.

“I think ultimately it is going to come down to the volunteer work and the grass-roots politics,” said the regional field director for the Obama campaign in southern Minnesota. “It’s all going to come down to the sheer number of people we can talk to.”

Targeting voters one by one
The impact they’re having isn’t one the campaign is sharing in detail. They don’t talk specifics, just like football coaches don’t publicize playbooks and game plans. But Meyer says there is a target for the number of votes the Obama campaign wants from each of the 1,065 precincts in the 1st and 2nd congressional districts, along with all the other precincts across the state.

The Obama campaign’s St. Paul headquarters says the Mankato office has been responsible for 60,000 attempted voter contacts in the past three months.

They have high-tech computerized voter identification systems, that the campaign won’t talk about at all, which pinpoint prospective supporters and the issues that matter most to them.

They have low-tech bumper stickers, campaign buttons and yard signs (the campaign estimates that more than 600 yard signs have been passed out by the Mankato office). They have brochures and position papers and fliers.

They have Meyer, an Illinois native who circulates between Mankato, Rochester and Northfield, coordinating the Obama efforts in the two congressional districts.

They have a couple of paid staffers assigned to the Mankato office, which allows the office to have long and regular hours — open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. weekdays, 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturdays and noon to 9 p.m. Sundays.

They have daily activities, whether it’s door-knocking or phone banks or debate-watching parties.

Most importantly, Meyer said, they have an ever-growing legion of volunteers.

Republican convert joins the team
Amanda Barr, one of the most faithful volunteers, said the first Obama staffer assigned to Mankato for the general election campaign — Robert Connally, who’s now working out of the St. Paul headquarters — can take credit for at least three Obama votes that otherwise might have gone to McCain.

Barr, 23, laughed at Connally when he approached her at Minnesota State University, identified himself and asked if she would consider supporting Obama.

“I said, ‘I’m a College Republican, my dad’s a wounded, disabled Vietnam vet. Who do you think I’m voting for?”

Barr, in fact, had volunteered in Rochester when President Bush came there in 2004 for a campaign rally.