Ready for Warren staffing up in key states

A super-PAC pushing Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) to run for president is staffing up in key presidential states.

Ready for Warren, the group that aims to draft the senator to run for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, is hiring new staff in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, three important early voting states, according to a report from MSNBC. 

{mosads}The group is looking to hire state coordinators and an overall deputy campaign manager, the report said.

Warren is a popular dark horse pick for liberal Democrats unsatisfied with the likely field.

She is credited with the idea for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis and has a significant following among the party’s liberal base.  

Polls, though, show former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as the clear Democratic frontrunner in 2016, if she chooses to seek the nomination.

Vice President Biden, Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb have also said they are weighing bids.

Warren herself has repeatedly denied that she’s flirting with a 2016 run, although some argue that she’s left the door open.

That hasn’t stopped Ready for Warren from beefing up its operations. But Warren’s status as a sitting senator did give the group a big hiccup. Earlier in September, the Federal Election Commission demanded the group change its name because only the candidate’s official committee and a draft committee can use a politician’s name.

That forced Ready for Warren to officially become the “Ready for Warren Presidential Draft Campaign,” although the group’s press treasurer told the Center for Public Integrity (CPI) that it will use the shorter name unofficially.

Ready for Hillary, the group building support for Clinton, can keep its name because she is not a declared political candidate, according to a report.