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On a conference call this morning, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told reporters that his campaign is expanding advertising into three states in which few expected the Democratic nominee to be competitive: North Dakota, Georgia, and John McCain's home state of Arizona.

McCain has represented Arizona in Congress for 26 years, but recent polls have shown Obama by just the low single digits in the state.

Pressed on why the campaign was advertising in the three states when other battleground states remain tight, Plouffe said the polls were close enough to justify the effort. “We’re just going to give it a go in the last 4 days and see how close we can get it,” he said, adding that the campaign's push in the three states would not detract from its efforts in more traditional battlegrounds.

We wrote about the two spots now set to air in the three states, "Rearview Mirror" and "Something," yesterday. Check them out here.

"Something," which Plouffe referred to as a "positive closer," will be airing in Arizona. He said "Rearview Mirror," which links McCain to President Bush, will air in the other two states because "we've seen movement" there. He cited "highly encouraging" early voting numbers in Georgia and noted the campaign has organizations in all three states.

The Obama campaign would not release the size of the advertising buy.

On a conference call this morning, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe told reporters that his campaign is expanding advertising into three states in which few expected the Democratic nominee to be competitive: North Dakota, Georgia, and John McCain's home state of Arizona.

McCain has represented Arizona in Congress for 26 years, but recent polls have shown Obama trailing by just the low single digits in the state.

Pressed on why the campaign was advertising in the three states when other battleground states remain tight, Plouffe said the polls were close enough to justify the effort.

“We’re just going to give it a go in the last 4 days and see how close we can get it,” he said, adding that the campaign's push in the three states would not detract from its efforts in more traditional battlegrounds.

We wrote about the two spots now set to air in the three states, "Rearview Mirror" and "Something," yesterday. Check them out here.

"Something," which Plouffe referred to as a "positive closer," will be airing in Arizona. He said "Rearview Mirror," which links McCain to President Bush, will air in the other two states because "we've seen movement" there. He cited "highly encouraging" early voting numbers in Georgia and noted the campaign has organizations in all three states.

The Obama campaign would not release the size of the advertising buy.

With polls showing a surprisingly close race in Arizona, Democrats are upping their activity in John McCain’s home state. MoveOn.org announced it would begin airing an ad on broadcast and cable in the state over the weekend. An NBC News/Mason Dixon poll out today showed McCain ahead by just four points.

The MoveOn ad features former Staff Sergeant US Air Force John Weiler, a “lifelong Republican” who won a contest the outside group conducted earlier in the year. "I'm a Veteran, I served under President Ronald Reagan and under the first President Bush,” Weiler says in the ad. “I've been a Republican since before I could actually vote. We need somebody in the White House that is strong. We need somebody who's gonna represent the left and the right, the Democrat and the Republican, everybody. I'm a lifelong Republican and I'm voting for Barack Obama." You can see the ad here.

Also, CBS News chief political consultant Marc Ambinder reports on an e-mail sent to Obama supporters in Arizona urging them to double their efforts and try to pull off a “real upset” on Election Day. “The Arizona Republic is now reporting that a series of new polls show us ‘neck and neck’ with John McCain in Arizona,” the e-mail says. “According to the Republic, Senator McCain is ‘struggling in his own backyard.’ Arizona is his home state. He should have a comfortable lead with voters who've known him for nearly three decades. That says all you need to know about the strength of Barack's message and the grassroots movement we've built. With Election Day just 5 days away, this surge of support for Barack couldn't come at a better time. But we have to act immediately to take advantage.”

Sen. John McCain and the Republican National Committee are reportedly running anti-Barack Obama robocalls in Arizona – McCain's home state.

Talking Points Memo reports that the calls hit Obama for being inexperienced and soft on terrorists. The script:

I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC because Barack Obama is so dangerously inexperienced, his running mate Joe Biden just said, he invites a major international crisis that he will be unprepared to handle alone.

If Democrats win full control of government, they will want to give civil rights to terrorists and talk unconditionally to dictators and state sponsors of terror. Barack Obama and his Democratic allies lack the experience and judgment to lead America. This call was paid for by the Republican National Committee and authorized by McCain-Palin 2008.

Few expected McCain's home state to be within Obama's reach, but recent polls have suggested McCain's lead has shrunk to the single digits in the state.

Barack Obama has been piling up the endorsements lately: John Kerry, Nevada unions, and now, according to the Associated Press, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano and two-time presidential candidate and former Colorado Democratic Senator Gary Hart.*

The formal announcement concerning Napolitano is expected to come this afternoon. Napolitano is in her second-term and is well known in Arizona, and could help Obama in nearby Nevada, where caucuses will be held Jan. 19. The AP reports the pair will appear together in Las Vegas this evening.

Hart, who ran for president in 1984 and 1988, called Obama "the embodiment of what is best about our nation." He said in a release that ``Senator Obama's personal history uniquely qualifies him to restore America's standing in the world.''

Democratic Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, meanwhile, is now weighing an endorsement – one that could factor heavily with both African-Americans and South Carolinians. The New York Times reports that Clyburn, the highest-ranking African-American in Congress, had planned to remain neutral in the race but is now considering changing his mind over Hillary Clinton's comments on civil rights.

On Monday, Clinton said “Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Lyndon Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. ... It took a president to get it done.” She was trying to make a case for what she sees as the importance of her experience and competence compared to rival Barack Obama's uplifting rhetoric. Her advisors later said the comments did not capture her meaning.

“We have to be very, very careful about how we speak about that era in American politics,” Clyburn, a longtime civil rights activist, told the Times. “It is one thing to run a campaign and be respectful of everyone’s motives and actions, and it is something else to denigrate those. That bothered me a great deal.”

South Carolina Democrats go to the polls on Jan. 26th, and African-American voters are expected to be a major factor. “His influence would be extraordinary if he should endorse somebody,” South Carolina Democratic activist Don Fowler told the Times.

*This post has been updated with news of Hart's endorsement.