Supporters of low-polling O’Malley have strategy for tonight’s caucuses

With barely a heartbeat of support in public opinion polls, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley on Monday urged supporters to “hold strong” at the evening caucuses.

Caucus rules present a huge problem for the Democratic presidential hopeful. If O’Malley can’t muster 15 percent of the total vote in a room, he lacks “viability” and his supporters must choose another Democratic candidate or leave.

No such viability requirement applies to GOP caucuses.

Nancy Bobo, an O’Malley precinct leader in southwest Des Moines, said that if her candidate needs extra supporters to acquire a single delegate, they’ll try to draw from undecided caucus-goers or even the camps of neck-and-neck opponents Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.

Depending on how a caucus is shaping up and the respective delegate counts, one of those two stronger campaigns might see a need to keep O’Malley boosters from flocking to the enemy.

“We have a strategy,” Bobo said. “Caucus math makes it possible.”

A recent poll in the Des Moines Register showed O’Malley slipping from 3 percent support among Democrats to 2 percent.

This story was originally published February 1, 2016 at 11:31 AM with the headline "Supporters of low-polling O’Malley have strategy for tonight’s caucuses."