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As a result of the 2007-8 and 2011-12 Iowa caucus campaigns, President Obama, Vice President Biden and former Gov. Romney and their wives were all very familiar with Iowa and Iowans were quite familiar with the candidates.  Looking at travel by the candidates and their spouses for the final seven months of the campaign (April 10 to Nov. 6), it appears that the Obama campaign worked the state harder, or at least went deeper than the Romney campaign.  The raw number of visits for the Republican and Democratic tickets is about the same, but Obama and Biden made numerous OTR stops.  Altogether the Democratic principals did events or OTR stops in 27 counties compared to 12 counties for the Republican ticket (>).1

In addition to visits, the state also received its share of TV advertising and mail.  According to the Smart Media Group the Obama and Romney campaigns and their allies spent a total of $74 million on the ad war in Iowa, the fifth most after Ohio, Florida, Virginia and Colorado.  The Wesleyan Media Project reported that the Des Moines market ranked 14th by volume of presidential ads in the period from Oct. 22-29, although it  was not among the top 15 states for the period from Oct. 1-21 (1, 2).

As a footnote, Iowa was one of several states where Republicans unsuccessfully challenged Libertarian Gary Johnson's ballot status (+).

Newspaper Endorsements (Sample)

OBAMA	ROMNEY
Daily Times Herald [Carroll] (Oct. 25, 2012) + The Hawk Eye [Burlington] (Oct. 20, 2012) + The Press-Citizen [Iowa City] (Oct. 27, 2012) +	*Des Moines Register (Oct. 27, 2012)   101,915 (74) + The Gazette [Cedar Rapids] (Oct. 28, 2012) + The Messenger [Fort Dodge] (Oct. 17, 2012) + *Quad-City Times (Oct. 28, 2012) + Sioux City Journal (Oct. 28, 2012) +

Looking at the results by county, Romney carried 61 counties 38 for Obama.  Obama carried the eight counties with the largest total presidential vote as well as 16 of the 20 largest vote counties.  Romney carried the 14 counties with the smallest presidential vote as well as 17 of the 20 smallest vote counties.  [Excel 1, 2]



Note.
1. The comparison is a bit unequal in that Paul Ryan didn't join the ticket until August, while Biden was out trooping around for the full period from April 10, but even taking that into account the Democratic principals reached out into more areas of the state.