When I first got to Denver I tried to delineate the difference between the two McCain offices in Denver, but as things got crazy, I laid back on it.
The first office I visited was the McCain campaign headquarters in Centennial, a southern suburb of Denver. Ironically, it is located at the same exit off the interstate as the one I used the last time I was in Denver (lonnnnnnnggggg story).
It was pretty much a generic campaign office, not really any different from the Ricketts, Johanns, or Terry offices in Omaha, save for the fact it was larger. A big room with a bunch of phones, a room to eat pizza in, a few offices. My first day there we made signs to be used at rallies at the RNC.
An interesting aside about the McCain office occurred a week before I arrived. One of the campaign staffers opened a letter sent to the office addressed to Senator McCain (sending letters to the Senator isn't uncommon; sending them to a campaign office rather than D.C. or Arizona is).
The letter was simple. It read "IF YOU ARE READING THIS YOU ARE ALREADY DEAD" After reading this the office was evacuated and the three people inside were sent to the local hospital, which was promptly evacuated as well. I ended up spending my first night in Denver with one of the staffers that was "contaminated" He said all tehy essentially did was hose them off.
They quickly realized it was a hoax, and the man who sent it was "not well" and actually already in prison for sending threatening letters.
The other office was far more interesting. Located probably a mile from the Pepsi Center on Speer Boulevard (Denver's main corridor) the site was nicknamed the "war room" The building looked like a very modern builing from the outside and the area around the front door was adorned with "NOT READY '08: A MILE HIGH, AN INCH DEEP"
Immediately to the right inside the front door was a long rectangular room with hardwood floors taht had been converted in to a proess conference room. At one end stood a podium and a "NOT READY '08" backdrop. In front of it was a row of seats that media occupied during the press conference and behind them was a row of large television camperas. Off this room was a small professional office where the major GOP dignitaries did personal interviews.
After walking in the front door you ran in to a secretary's desk. Behind that was a glass room with every inch of wall space featuring flat screen televisions tuned to every imaginable news sources. A long glass table stood in the middle of the room, and every inch of desk space was covered with files and laptops. This was where the big wigs planned, maneuvered, and coordinated. (someday hopefully I'll have a job like this!)
Upstairs is where I spent most of my time. There were a series of offices for campaign officials, and in the middle was a large room with a ping-pong table in the middle. A large map of downtown Denver was strewn across the table. Across the map were small toys, the type you receive in a kids meal at a fast food restaurant. Each of these represented a place where a Democrat event was taking place. Also on the board wer a number of red markers, each signiying where GOP forces were. Lastly, a Yoda doll stood where the McCain office was.
My job on day one was to coordinate where the red markers went in relation to the fast food toys. My job was to find out where and when every event was taking place (a difficult chore- there is no master list of everything) and to plan which events were worth going to and how to get our forces to all of them in as effective a matter as possible. It was incredible fun. I was a little disappointed that I got the entire task done the first day and had to head out of the office later in the week (although I found everything else I did that week fascinating)
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