Talk about a people-powered candidate! The NYT has an interested article up about how a Dartmouth undergrad, Vanessa Sievers, ran for County Treasurer as a Democrat on a shoestring budget...and won!
Vanessa Sievers, a Dartmouth College junior, was not content to wait tables or make coffee as a side job. Instead she ran for treasurer of Grafton County, N.H., and won, unseating the incumbent and unleashing a war of words.
What's really impressive about her no-frills campaign is how literal that term applies to her campaign:
Ms. Sievers’s big investment in the campaign was a $51 advertisement on Facebook, which she paid for with her own money.
Now, you can imagine how pissed local Republicans are that a young Democratic upstart rained on their incumbent's parade:
The current county treasurer, Carol Elliott, 68, called Ms. Sievers, 20, a “teenybopper” in an interview with a local newspaper, The Valley News, and said she had won only because “brainwashed college kids” had voted for the Democratic ticket.
Jealous much, Ms. Elliott?
Oh, and here's another goody from their county GOP chair:
“College students are not involved in local things at all,” Mr. Flower said. “They’re only involved in Dartmouth College. They don’t buy property here, they don’t pay taxes here, so they’re not concerned with how the treasury is handled.”
Does he forget that students still pay sales taxes, or that they indirectly pay for property taxes with rent they pay to their landlords if they live off-campus? And what about the fact that students call Darmouth home for 9 MONTHS OUT OF THE YEAR? most of the year.
Of course, it's just sour grapes at this point, but it's great to see local Republicans foam at the mouth over a college student whom they underestimated greatly.
Hopefully there will be more students like Sievers in the future at other university's.