Bill Clinton is becoming more concerned that wife Hillary's presidential campaign is focusing too much on New Hampshire and Iowa, where Bernie Sanders is posting strong numbers, and not enough on the Super Tuesday and other March primaries where she could garner large numbers of delegates.
An unnamed source, reportedly who has firsthand knowledge of the situation told
Politico that the former president has been calling wife Hillary's campaign manager Robby Mook almost every day about the March primaries, which include the vital states of Florida Ohio, Texas, and Illinois.
"Iowa matters a ton but it seems to be the campaign's only focus," another person, close to one of Clinton's campaign operations in a March state said. "It's going to be a long primary, and the campaign seems less prepared for it than they were in 2008."
The former president's involvement in his wife's campaign is growing and he has been raising money for her March races in Ohio and Illinois, while still appearing at events in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Ohio alone will send 93 delegates to the Democratic convention in July, but the state's primary is not until March 15 and is not yet a primary for the campaign, as there have been no campaign offices or staffers put in place yet.
"They don't have a whole lot here," Ohio Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan acknowledged, although there are some self-organized groups forming. "We have people calling my campaign office because they don't know who else to call. We just track it, and when the time is right, we'll activate those people."
Sanders' campaign says it will have staffers in place in Ohio in the next 10 days, and has already hired 90 staffers for the Super Tuesday states.
Bill Clinton's growing interest in his wife's ground operations is marking a shift from the early days of her campaign, when he concentrated more and traveled for the Clinton Foundation.
He was also heavily involved in her 2008 campaign, showing up after she came in third behind then-Sen. Barack Obama and John Edwards.
The Clinton campaign also has at least one paid staff member in each Super Tuesday State, said a campaign official, but wouldn't give more information, as it doesn't want to "telegraph" its attack plan.
But Adam Parkhomenko, the campaign's director of grassroots engagement, did not have answers for why there are not more staffers arriving for the Super Tuesday vote.
The Clinton camp is also counting on being able to do more with minority voters in the March states. Sanders hasn't gained traction with Latino or black voters, like Obama did eight years ago, and Clinton has most of the state's' big union support.