Obama Relies on Volunteers to Sway Texas

Volunteers, not the paid staff Barack Obama has relied on to win previous primaries, are at the core of his campaign in Texas, reports the Wall Street Journal. It's "like a baling wire and duct tape thing," says his campaign chief in the state. A year ago, it didn't make a lot of sense for the Obama camp to devote many resources here, but the state's emerging importance has forced a relatively late scramble, the Journal notes.

Hillary Clinton’s big lead in Texas has eroded to the point where she and Obama are dead even. She counts 130 endorsements from local politicians and a strong street-level organization that’s been building for months. Obama is hoping his pros, who arrived only three weeks ago, can take a small army of volunteers and turn them into a significant force before Tuesday's vote. (More Clinton 2008 stories.)