Inside a NH campaign office

I wanted to give people a sense of what it is like on the ground.  I'm writing about the Edwards campaign office in Nashua but I expect the offices for other candidates aren't much different.  If you want to volunteer, people would love to have you in any office.  And I'll put in a plug that the folks at the Nashua office are hard working and very cool.

Last week I worked in the office a little bit while soberboy and I were up for an event.  There is a real mix of people volunteering in Nashua.  I spoke with both staff and volunteers last week to get a sense of what brought them to the Edwards campaign.  What I found was a myriad of individual stories all adding up to a common choice.

The office is typical campaign chaos with yard signs and canvassing bags piled around.  There are handmade signs up like Canvass for Change.  There's a wall with signs and pictures of local Edwards events.  There's another wall set up as a thank you to volunteers with pictures of them.  There are at least 10 desks with phones on them and laptops and cell phones charging in every outlet.

The events wall (soberboy and I put together these yard signs)

The volunteer wall

The office is run by Matt, a young guy from the Bay Area.  He's totally camera shy so I have no pictures of him.  He adopted a rescue dog when he moved to NH to work on the campaign.  Sheldon is the office mascot.  He's full of energy and can leap 4 feet in the air.  Matt is very persistent.  He called my mother to invite her to every Edwards event starting in August.  He called her after each event to ask her opinion of the event.  Once she signed on as a supporter, he called my mother to volunteer.  She said no initially but he called back every other week and she finally agreed to come discuss the issue with him.  The next thing she knew she was scheduled to be in the office every Tuesday making calls to voters in her town.  She made 75 calls the first week, increasing each week to 198 last week.  She's in the office today since the office was closed for Christmas.

Mom and JRE

Sheldon begging amidst canvassing bags

Meghan came out from LA.  She was hoping to be placed in Nevada when she signed on with the campaign.  Instead she wound up in NH for the snowiest December ever.  She had seen snow on the ground but never a snow storm.  The first time it snowed she looked out the window and assumed it was ash.  As it continued to fall she went outside to see where the fire was.  As the "ash" melted on her face she was giddy with excitement at her first snowfall.  Meghan was the first one in her family to sign on with John Edwards.  Her brother arrived last week to intern and her sister is volunteering in another state.  Her parents flew out for Christmas since there was no way Meghan was going to budge.  Until her brother arrived she was the only bilingual worker in the office.

Meghan and Sheldon (if you look closely in the upper right corner there is a b&w of Matt making the call sign)

Kathy is 60 years old and volunteering for the first time in her life.  She's in the office every day calling other residents of Nashua.  She loves to tell the undecideds what brought her to support John. Jen supported John in 04 in the primaries and was just waiting for him to jump into the race this time.  She knew she'd be on board.  Despite the age difference she and Kathy hang out sometimes.

Kathy

Kathy, Jen and JRE

Joanne comes in regularly most nights.  Last week she had lost her glasses in a parking lot and couldn't see the numbers on the phone list.  So she helped me out putting signs together.  She chose after taking a look at each candidate's health care plans and decided that John's was the most aggressive.

Joanne with JRE and without glasses

Nancy is a registered Independent who pays close attention to politics, even between election years.  She said that she'd remembered John from 04.  When she listened to the candidates this time around she said, "I've already heard this before.  I heard it 4 years ago."  So she took a look at an NPR chart on each candidate's stands on the issues and when they announced that particular plan.  She realized John was more specific and had announced his plans before anyone else.  So she came down to the office and just went to work doing whatever needed to be done.  I didn't get a picture of her.

Mom and Dad's yard sign

Joe moved up from New Jersey in 1978.  He's also an Independent who did not vote Democratic last time around.  He volunteered because he likes John's feistiness and his willingness to take on lobbyists and corporations.  He calls voters in his Republican leaning town.

Meghan and Joe

I don't have pictures of Alex and Gabe who I've seen multiple times.  They were out canvassing all day last Tuesday and Wednesday.  Alex is from North Carolina and isn't a fan of the snow.  She'd fallen several times one morning while she was trying to make her way up unplowed side walks.  She's learned how to fall without injuring herself.  She wasn't just knocking on doors, she was canvassing the guys in snowplows and with snow blowers.  She's a fierce supporter for John.  I never had a chance to speak with Anne Elise because she was always out canvassing or busy on the phone or computer.

Anne Elise with 2 laptops going

Bill signed onto the campaign very early on, before the Nashua office was even open.  He met with David Bonior and grilled him on John's health care policy.  Bill is a retired pharmacist and knew my mother, a retired nurse, when they were younger and employed full time.  He does something with the data base--tech kind of stuff I didn't bother to figure out.

Bill

Mark Erlich is from the Carpenters Union and has had carpenters up in NH every weekend.  They are hardy and hearty workers who build signs, go door to door, and staff events for John.  They never, ever quit working.

JRE, Mark and his son

There were a few coincidences in the office as well.  The door to the office was held open by a man whose children I babysat over 30 years ago.  He'd just walked in that day to volunteer.  My mother was chatting with a few people before the Nashua event and one woman asked if she knew my father.  The woman then confessed that her son had spent quite a bit of time in the principal's office with my father.  She'd gone in herself and yelled at my Dad.  They laughed over the coincidence.  There was also a woman there who was a recent convert to John.  She'd been a supporter of another candidate, and still had volunteers for that candidate staying at her house, but had soured on the person.  Joanne called her regularly and hooked her with health care.  Now she's supporting John.

Some Nashua volunteers

So if you'd like to come up and volunteer in New Hampshire, I highly recommend the Nashua office.  Give Matt or Meghan a call at 603-821-7086.  Or email them at mlydon at johnedwards.com.  If you think you might be interested in volunteering in another office here are your choices.  You might meet kossack  dewey in the desert in the Derry office or be inspired up in Concord.

In case you're wondering whether canvassing works, soberboy and I met Jane at a Manchester event.  She was committed to another candidate but didn't like the way that candidate was ignoring her volunteers.  Two weekends before Christmas some college kids from Boston knocked on her door, sat in her kitchen, and discussed John's positions on the issues.  They left her this booklet and now she's supporting John.

soberboy and Jane