But it is home to the largely secret engine
of President Obama's re-election campaign,
where scores
of political strategists, data analysts, corporate marketers and Web producers are sifting through information gleaned from Facebook,
voter logs and hundreds
of thousands of telephone or in - person conversations to reassemble and re-energize the scattered coalition
of supporters who swept Mr. Obama into the White House four years ago.
Political leaders had seen no upside to taking on a school system that employs
thousands of African Americans in a city
where African Americans account for a majority
of the population, the
voter rolls, the city council, local - government posts, and union leadership.