Low-profile headquarters for high-profile Obama

[September 15, 2008]  CHICAGO (AP) -- On the outside, it looks like just another metal and glass high-rise. Inside, just steps off Michigan Avenue's busy shopping thoroughfare, beats the heart of Barack Obama's presidential campaign

No signs announce the presence of Obama's campaign headquarters. Even if you know it's there, you can't just saunter in. Security guards in the lobby restrict access.

The headquarters' main floor is college dorm meets modern office -- a high-tech epicenter of young people where muted green and gray walls are plastered with campaign memorabilia, and a mishmash of tables helps make the most of every inch of the 33,000 square feet. A calendar with Obama's picture on it has this message: "Party Like It's 1-20-09" (Inauguration Day).

The slivers of desk space allotted to campaign workers would make regular office workers claustrophobic. Tables are crammed in wherever they fit. Portable fans help keep the place cool. Some top aides, including senior strategist David Axelrod, share glassed-in offices.

The dress code is decidedly casual.

"I came with a tie my second day. I was heavily ridiculed. I've never done it since," said Corey Ealons, the campaign's communications director for African-American media.

The attitude toward the election is not so casual. A red digital clock ticks down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until polls close on Nov. 4.

Several hundred staffers, volunteers and interns work at the headquarters. The campaign wouldn't provide specific numbers, but campaign spokeswoman Moira Mack said just under half the people who work there are volunteers and interns.

The main floor is divided into clusters of people grouped by job functions, from press operations and research to new media and finance. Michelle Obama's communications staff works near operations for vice presidential candidate Joe Biden. Other groups are divided by the regions or voter groups that are their focus, such as black and Latino voters.

Desk partitions -- where there are any -- are low. Glass offices are at a minimum. Staffers say it's easier to get things done because they can see and hear everything going on around them.

"Because our conversations are overlapping, when you hear something that might raise a flag or might be of some relative importance to you, you kind of are right there on the spot to address it," said Vince Casillas, the campaign's coordinator for Spanish media.

One person who doesn't have his own office is Obama himself, who stops in from time to time. He'll work in other people's offices or conference rooms and mingle with workers in the main workspace. One night, he was dropped off for a late-night meeting at an entrance on the alley.

The campaign recently expanded into 12,000 additional feet of office space on another floor. A seven-day-a-week call center operates in the new space.

Campaign workers don't really require much space because their tools -- computers and phones -- are portable.

More than half of the headquarters staff members have cell phones only, eschewing landlines, and most have laptops they can carry around the wireless-network-equipped office. Relying mostly on wireless laptops is cheaper than constantly adding and moving Internet connections, Mack said.

The office features a few cell phone booths, small glassed-in spaces where people can have private conversations.

Meeting rooms are at a premium and so are chairs -- some people label theirs to protect their real estate.

The tight quarters don't seem to bother people.

Biden press secretary David Wade, who worked for Democrat John Kerry during the 2004 campaign, said his headquarters space is bigger than any he'll have on airplanes when he's out on the campaign trial.

"This is like a penthouse apartment compared to the space that I'll be in," Wade said.

[Associated Press; By DEANNA BELLANDI]

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