Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. Photo: Screenshot.

Politico – Democrats aligned with Hillary Clinton are laying the groundwork for a general election campaign focused primarily on the same battleground states that twice elected President Barack Obama, buying up ad time on local TV in an attempt to quietly shape the playing field before the Republicans choose a candidate.

The 2016 electoral map being drawn by pro-Clinton forces, according to ad reservations and interviews with high-level strategists and pollsters on both sides of the aisle, begins with a core group of familiar presidential swing states at the center of the fight — Florida, Ohio, New Hampshire, Nevada, Iowa, Virginia, and Colorado — with roughly a half-dozen other states on the periphery.

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