This fall the words of a Hillary Clinton backer were posted like a locker-room taunt on the wall at Bernie Sanders’s Iowa headquarters: “There is no Sanders organization.”
The quote, from Jerry Crawford, a leader of Iowa’s Democratic establishment, was meant to enrage and goad the Sanders staff, and it did the job.
The campaign has quietly assembled an extensive ground game here, with 100 paid staff members and with trained volunteer leaders for each of the state’s 1,681 caucus precincts.
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A poor result for Mrs. Clinton would leave her hobbling into the New Hampshire primary, where Mr. Sanders leads in most polls, and raise questions about her ability to corral the liberal wing of the party and generate excitement about her candidacy.
“I don’t want to get Secretary Clinton nervous, but I think we’re going to win here in Iowa,” Mr. Sanders told a crowd during a three-day swing through the state last week, when appearances before gatherings of up to 1,800 people reduced his voice to a froggy croak.
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On Saturday, volunteers calling attendees ranked them from one to three based on the strength of their support for Mr. Sanders. In real time, the data flowed to a regional field director, and then to state headquarters in Des Moines, where it merged with a river of statewide data showing a daily head count of Mr. Sanders’s support in Iowa. It was pored over by the campaign’s top brass.
“We’ve got organizing goals for all 1,681 precincts,” said Robert Becker, the state director. “We watch them every day to make sure we’re on track.”