Today’s NY Times has an in-depth look at the spending practices of the Obama and Clinton campaigns for the upcoming week. I did get a chuckle out of Mark Penn’s complaint about the Obama campaign: “they are dumping a lot of money there.” Given the millions his firm has raked in — and where it’s gotten his candidate, Penn is the last person who should accuse anyone of dumping money.

But, that’s not key point of the article. The key point for me actually didn’t make the Times on-line version of the story, I read it in my print edition. It’s about the Obama campaign’s on-going efforts “to grow the electorate.” I did find it on the Barre Times-Montpelier Argus website

Obama has been particularly aggressive in these contests in using Internet tools to identify and turn out supporters, building on tools they have developed throughout the campaign. For example, anyone using the search engine Google to look for Texas caucus locations will see an advertisement from Obama’s campaign listing the caucus sites, and, after a click, inviting people to sign in with their names and e-mail addresses. Visitors to the Web sites of The Houston Chronicle and The Cincinnati Enquirer were confronted with a moving advertisement that took up nearly half the screen that showed a video of Obama and urged voters to sign up and pledge their support to his campaign. “We are trying to grow the electorate,” said David Plouffe, Obama’s campaign manager, referring to the Internet effort. “We have had almost 20,000 people come through our ads looking for their early vote location.”

Growing the electorate is why Obama wins. Traditionally, at this point in a campaign, the get-out-the-vote effort is aimed only at already confirmed supporters. Those folks get harassed over and over with multiple phone calls. That’s what traditional campaigns do. Winning campaigns find new voters, too.

And, the Obama campaign keeps finding new voters. That’s what adds to the numbers. It really is a new generation campaign. Plouffe, Steve Hildebrand and Paul Tewes (who is running Ohio after managing the Iowa victory) and that whole political/field/internet team deserve major kudos. They’re redefining the ways Democrats campaign. They’re using every tool to add support. And, that’s how we’ll win in the fall against McCain.