Obama's campaign staff dwarfs McCain's

WASHINGTON, July 20 (UPI) -- Democrat Barack Obama already has the largest presidential campaign in history, and the Illinois senator's staff is still growing, observers say.

The Boston Globe reported Sunday that Obama's unprecedented 50-state general election campaign is being fought by a massive army on the ground.

Obama's likely Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, has a considerably smaller paid staff than the Obama camp, the newspaper said.

Rather than running a 50-state campaign, McCain is targeting some battleground states, including Florida and Ohio, sending smaller staffs to those states than the likely Democratic nominee, but spending more on television ads.

Obama, meanwhile, is running uncontested television advertising in seven of the historically Republican states and is sending in large paid staffs.

"Between the Obama staff and the Democratic Party staff there will be several thousand" paid operatives on the ground deployed across the country, deputy campaign manager Steve Hildebrand said. "I don't want to get too specific; it gives away strategy."

Reports filed with the Federal Election Commission show that in May the Obama campaign had a payroll of about 900, not counting nearly 500 part-time workers who were paid stipends.

As of May 31, that was nearly three times the size of McCain's staff, and has expanded significantly since.