As Hillary Clinton stumps in swing states like Iowa or South Carolina, her second bid for the White House is being run from a warren of cubicles along Cadman Plaza in Brooklyn Heights. Josh Robin got a rare look at it and filed the following report.

Follow the arrow to the Clinton nerve center.

Forty thousand square feet. Dozens hunching or standing over open laptops.

It's a good thing they look so young. Days are long.

"You do spend a lot of time with people that you work with on a campaign," said senior Clinton spokeswoman Karen Finney.

This space aims to motivate them to keep it up for more than 15 months.

Another aide led us. The only restrictions were to not zoom in on people's desks or film security.

Signs point to history-making, and deadlines. Cheeky slogans mark campaign sectors.  

"We have fun," said Clinton spokeswoman Adrienne Elrod. "As you can see, we're having fun."

Fun, perhaps. It seems more about dilligence. There's air hockey, unused for now.

Outside, Brooklyn unfolds. Not that anyone glanced out much.

The choice over Manhattan has people talking. Was Clinton looking to reboot her image? She, by the way, was in Detroit tuesday.

"Maybe," Finney said. "I know people consider Brooklyn to be very hip right now."

Finney said diversity and geography were stronger draws. So were late-night food options. 

"Lots of different things to do on those rare occassions when we have a few minutes of free time," she said.

They say a larger vision propels them.

"We support Hillary, but there are real values that run this campaign," Finney said. "And really keeping people, and America, and Americans who are out there working hard every day, kind of at the center of everything we do."

Another theme the Clinton campaign prizes is frugality. There are no free snacks lying around the headquarters, and a chart publicly praises staffers who take the bus to Washington, D.C., not the more expensive train or shuttle. It's to save money to campaign more, and respond to inevitable attacks.

Staffers jonesing for more than, well, coffee head to Montague Street. A restaurant there does well.

The thrift raises questions about whether Clinton banks on volunteers as she campaigns to lift Americans' wages. Some use their own phones to canvass. One-quarter are unpaid.

The candidate sometimes stops in. When she's not on the road, she has an office in Manhattan.