So, what's it like to drive in Kerry's motorcade?
It's been a few weeks, but now that I've gotten off my butt and started posting diaries here I figured I'd repost the email I sent out to some friends.
I had a great time, and now I know what Kerry eats on the way to all those speeches.
More below the fold.
It all started at the Betty Castor for Senate meetup. I've been volunteering for Castor since I met her daughter at a Democracy for America GOTV training event. (FWIW, Karen Castor is a remarkably friendly and genuine person, and I can think of no higher praise for Betty than she raised such a grounded, compassionate woman.)
After the meetup, one of the local paid staffers for Castor approached me and wondered if I was interested in driving in Kerry's motorcade that weekend. He was due to give a speech at the Kissimmee Civic Center and also appear at a local high school. I said sure, sign me up. She took my name, address, phone and social security number for a Secret Service background check.
The next afternoon I got a call from one of Kerry's advance team leaders, a guy named Steve. He told me the tentative schedule for the trip and wanted me to confirm I'd be available. I was, so he told me to meet him and the other drivers the next night at 7pm at a hotel on Disney property. (For those that don't know, Disney property is larger than Manhattan, and they have something like two dozen hotels.) Since I didn't know what he looked like, I told him I'd be wearing my KE04 pin.
The next night I got to the hotel about 6:45 and wandered around the lobby looking for anyone who looked official. It got to be a few minutes after 7 and I started to get a little nervous that I'd somehow screwed up. I saw two other people wearing KE04 stuff so I walked over and discovered they were also going to be drivers, but Steve had told them 7:30. By the time 7:30 had rolled around there were about six of us. Steve came over, introduced himself, and we all went upstairs to the Kerry staff suite.
It took about an hour to go over the plan for the weekend, how to drive in a motorcade, what was expected of us, and assigning us to specific cars. The meeting ran longer than we'd expected, because that night was the first debate and most of us had plans to watch it somewhere else. (I was going to either the Orange County Democrats watching party, or League of Conservation Voters.) But since we finished up about 15 minutes before it started, most of us just stayed and watched it in the hotel room.
So I got to watch the first debate surrounded by Kerry staffers. Way cool.
I tend to get very nervous at debates. Sometimes I Tivo it and watch it later so I can forward past the people I don't want to hear. (Lieberman in the primaries, and you know who here.) So I paced like an expectant father for an hour, but gradually settled down as it became obvious Kerry was kicking butt.
After the debate was over we switched on CNN for the spin, but that got sickening, so I headed home after watching the MGM Studios fireworks from the hotel room.
The majority of the drivers had been told that on Friday they'd be needed around 4pm at the airport, but Steve asked two of us to come early the next morning and meet him at the hotel. We had to help him take his rental car back to the airport and then swap that out for a minivan, and then drive over to another rental car agency and sign out about a dozen other minivans. I'll skip the part of the story where your hero forgets that there was a toll between the airport and the car rental agency and has to get an IOU for a fifty cent toll from the toll booth woman.
After signing out the motorcade fleet, we headed over to the airport and picked up the other drivers, and then drove them back to the rental agency to assign each one a van. We discovered in the midst of all this that two of the girls were only 20, and you have to be 21 to drive a rental car in Florida. So it was back to the airport to pick up two replacement drivers from the other volunteers. (Each round trip was about 20 minutes, made longer as the day went on and the Secret Service set up security.)
During one stop over at the airport, the representative from the local Veterans Group approached me (since I was wearing a "Driver" badge) and asked me questions about their meeting with Kerry. I politely let her know I had not the slightest clue.
When we got back to the airport as a convoy, we each had to stop so the Secret Service could sweep the vehicles, inside and out, for explosives. Very cool procedure. We then drove in through a back gate onto one of the runways at the back of the airport, with a police escort. They lined us up in order, and gave each of us several sheets of paper with the "name" of our vehicles to tape up on all sides. Several cars were designated "Staff," and lots more for the media reps traveling with the campaign.
One car was designated "Straggler 1," and was for any staffer that needed to make a trip off the primary motorcade route.
Theresa Heinz Kerry ("THK") was also on the trip, so there was a car for her staff and guests.
Before the plane landed, we met with a rep from the Secret service and Orlando Police who reiterated the procedures for driving in the motorcade. We had been told we'd be going right from the airport to the rally, but that had changed. There was now an OTR ("off the record") stop planned in Kissimmee. Kerry ("JK") would be stopping for a few minutes to meet with a small business owner who had his roof blown off by Hurricane Jeanne. (After four hurricanes in six weeks, we're all still a little shellshocked down here.)
The plane landed, and after a couple minutes of offloading media and staffers, Kerry bounded down the steps in a shirt but no tie. He waved to everyone, spoke for a minute with the veterans, and then jumped into a large SUV at the front of the convoy. I had been assigned "Staff 1," so my van was filled with high level folks.
(After the weekend was over, I asked someone from the campaign who were the people who had been in my car, since they didn't wear namebadges. He asked me if I watched "West Wing." When I said I did, he said, "You had Bruno, Toby, Donna and Charlie.")
The police escort started, and boy, these guys must practice this a lot, because they made it seem like an elaborate ballet of motorcycles, swinging in and out of position, bikes zooming ahead at 90 mph to cut off upcoming access points, then swinging back into position as the motorcade passes. Of course the roads are closed off, and we don't stop for red lights.
There was of course nobody on the roads as we traveled the highways, but as we got into downtown Kissimee people knew Kerry was coming, and the roads were lined with people who were watching for the the motorcade. A large number of them were holding signs, both campaign-made and hand-made, supporting him.
At least half a dozen times I saw little kids literally start jumping up and down when they saw Kerry waving at them from his car. It was the sort of thing where you think of them in 20 years saying, "I saw President Kerry drive by right by my house, he waved at me!"
We reached the OTR. Kerry hopped out and went inside, followed by the media pool.
My job was to stay with the van, of course, so I couldn't go inside. While we were stopped, hundreds of people were gathered on local sidewalks, waving signs and chanting for Kerry. There was one lone Bush supporter holding up a sign that said, simply, "BUSH." He made no noise and left after about 5 minutes. Not much of a protest. :)
After about ten minutes, they backed the SUV up into an alley and Kerry must have gotten in back there, because all of a sudden they were off again, and I had to follow. Because of the quick turnaround, I actually had different people in my van than I'd had 10 minutes earlier.
You remember that "West Wing" episode where Josh, et al missed the motorcade? I always thought that was silly. Now I know it can happen, and FAST.
We reached the rally site and after everyone got out, spent ten minutes rearranging the motorcade into a new order for whatever reason. Once again, we weren't allowed to go inside, so I called up my wife and told her to check C-SPAN. Thankfully, they were showing the rally so I asked her to Tivo it. There was nothing to do so I pulled out a book I had brought with me and was close to finishing. ("Settling Accounts: Return Engagement," by Harry Turtledove.)
After the rally, the motorcade again took off and headed back to the hotel.
One thing I wish I could into more detail is the discussions that I heard in the van. I kept my mouth shut, and listened to everyone around me discussing strategy and tactics. But I think I owe them the privacy they expect in those trips, and not give any details. I will say that there was a lot of discussion about how Kerry should respond to post-debate questions, how they should deal with the (then) upcoming VP debate, and a lot of discussion over something the Bush campaign was spinning. One staffer was doing a phone interview and the next day I did a search on that newspaper's web site and saw quotes in there that he'd made while sitting right behind me.
Oh, one funny thing -- Kerry's personal body man was calling up to the lead vehicle with messages for JK. So I heard him pass along the names and cellphone numbers of several calls JK had to make, including some former Clinton cabinet members and at least one prominent celebrity who's done a lot of campaigning and fundraising for the party. No, my lips are sealed. ;)
When we got back to the hotel, most of the drivers were told they could go home, but I volunteered to stay with a couple others in case anyone from the campaign wanted to go out for dinner. Because there are about 30 restaurants within walking distance of the hotel, this ended up not being necessary. Around 11 I headed home.
The next morning we were there bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as my grandmother would say at around 7. Because the vans had been left in the parking lot all night we had to get them into convoy order again and once again the Secret Service did their thing. Steve had left a New York Times, Orlando Sentinel, and Washington Post in my van so I started leafing through them when he let me know to keep them in good shape because they were JK's copies.
As we were waiting for everyone to come out, Steve came back from a trip to the supermarket. He had picked up bread, peanut butter and jelly. I asked him if there was a six year old coming along, but no, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were JK's favorite. So one of the drivers volunteered to make his sandwich for the trip to the speech that morning.
After a bit, we took off again and headed to an area of Southwest Orlando where Kerry was giving a speech at a local high school that was primarily minority students. The speech was supposed to take an hour, but apparently afterwards he did some interviews and so we were waiting outside in the back of the school for several hours.
Luckily I had a new book.
Since were were now two hours late for the scheduled takeoff, we headed back to the airport in a hurry. We had been told that Kerry almost always stopped for a minute for pictures with the volunteers, but unfortunately because he was so late he hopped out of his vehicle and up the stairs to the plane before I could even help my passengers get out with their luggage. Oh well.
As they were about to get on the plane, I told one of his communications directors that we were counting on them. She smiled back.
After the plane took off, we had to get all the vans back to the car rental agency and checked back in. (At which point, we had some rental agency guy telling us that the vans weren't paid for, and that I needed to give them a credit card, which necessitated grabbing the manager who knew that the campaign had paid in advance.)
Back at the hotel, three of the drivers, including myself, stuck around in case there was any last minute tasks that needed doing. We then went out for dinner with Steve and one of the other high level guys, who proceded to amuse for for several hours with war stories from the Clinton campaign and administrations, of which he had been a part of.
Okay, so I didn't meet Kerry, but I still had a great time. And I heard some great war stories.
And I spent a weekend working for the next President of the United States.