Following up on yesterday’s email, the Giuliani campaign sent a memo titled “Looking Good,” to reporters today arguing that they remain “convinced that our strategy we have long had in place is right - bold, innovative and designed to deal with the radically different election calendar.”

Giuliani’s decision to bypass Iowa, New Hampshire and the early states—what the campaign calls the antiquated “Carter/Clinton” approach—is being questioned, but the memo argues that the new election calendar will “prove us right.” With all of the political reporters focusing on Thursday’s caucus, where Giuliani will likely finish outside the top 3 or 4, the campaign saw it fit to send this message.

“Our rivals seemingly have built campaigns based on the old calendars’ strategies — a couple of very early state wins to propel them deeper in to the nomination process. To the contrary, our plan allocates time and resources to the many states which vote a bit later…putting a high priority on spending our time and money in a proportional basis in Florida and the large delegate states voting on February 5th is clearly the right thing to do.”

Full memo after jump

(more…)

As the national press corps have been increasingly focusing on the upcoming Iowa caucuses, Rudy Giuliani–who is largely bypassing the state—has been playing a minor role in the news cycle. He popped up in the Hawkeye State Friday and Saturday but will not be returning to Iowa before the voting begins this Thursday, and plans to spend caucus night in Miami, FL.

One senior campaign official often laments about the need for the media to better understand and report on the new campaign schedule (read: It’s all about the 20+ Feb. 5 states, stupid.)—joking that “it’s time to teach an old dog new tricks.”

Well–the campaign saw it fit to send along the below reminder to political reporters Sunday:

“As Iowa voters make their way to the caucuses on January 3rd, it is important to remember that around the country absentee voting is already underway in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Missouri and New Jersey. New York State will begin voting tomorrow with California, Connecticut and Delaware to follow suit shortly. This is truly a national Republican primary.” - Katie Levinson, Giuliani Communications Director

Detailed voting breakdowns of states Giuliani folks are confident about:

(more…)