Traveling the New Hampshire Trail With Bradley Canvassers

MANCHESTER, N.H.--From the appearance of its campaign headquarters alone, the Bill Bradley campaign seems dead.

The headquarters are located in a brick furniture warehouse with one main room, empty of furniture except for a few metal folding chairs. A few "Bill Bradley for President" signs dot the walls, but other than that, the only decoration is the linoleum floor.

Yet closer examination is always needed, as Alex S. Grodd '04 is quick to profess.

Grodd started working for Bradley over the summer, and decided less than a month into the summer he was going to defer his first year at Harvard.

"I was 100 percent sure I was going to be in Cambridge this fall," he says.

But instead of living in Stoughton or Grays, the first-year-to-be is sharing luxurious accommodations with two other campaign staffers in a two-bedroom apartment. Grodd sleeps in the kitchen.

But Grodd appears happy with his choice as he sits at a brown metal table fidgeting with his cellular phone and excitedly talking about what the office will become.

The current room will become the volunteer office. And the floor above, will soon be a bustling center of campaign activity.

Walking down the wood-paneled hallway, Grodd gestures to spacious rooms branching off. The press room will be over there, the staff offices will be here. When the Bradley campaign moves its headquarters from Concord, N.H., this place will be filled with more than 100 staffers.

When he started earlier this summer in Concord, Grodd could count the paid staff on one hand. His first job was to buy chairs. He was making campaign calls from a pay phone.

As the campaign headquarters fills its rooms, Bradley campaigners on campuses across the country are slowly pulling in volunteers.

At Harvard, Students for Gore has a wide base of support, with 140 students expressing support and 40 to 50 willing to actively volunteer.

But as Bradley's presidential chances have risen, so has student support for Harvard Students for Bill Bradley.

Early Saturday morning, about 10 Bradley supporters gathered in front of Johnston Gate to head up to New Hampshire for that grassroots campaigning essential--canvassing.

"In the end, you're going to have a lot of doors shut in your face," Luke P. McLoughlin '00, the main campus organizer for Bradley, said to the handful of students gathered around him in the overcast weather.

Heading up in a handful of cars, the crew arrived in Manchester a little after 10 a.m.

After struggling to find the poorly marked campaign headquarters on a small street, the campaign volunteers filed past signs for Bradley next to "On the spot financing" signs for the furniture warehouse.

They entered the current one-room campaign office to find about 40 volunteers. The goal was for each volunteer to knock on 100 doors by the end of the day, if not winning votes, at least establishing contacts with potential Democratic voters.

That mission is gaining importance as Bradley becomes more popular: in a poll released last Thursday by a New Hampshire television station, 42 percent of likely Democratic primary voters chose Bradley; 35 percent chose Gore. It was the first time that Bradley had gained a lead outside of the margin of error (in this case, it was a 6 percent margin of error).

At Bradley headquarters, the office was filled mainly with students, but Democratic party faithfuls and straddling-the-fence Independents were represented as well.

Grodd and Eric Landen, the two Manchester organizers, quickly instructed the small crowd on canvassing--how to deal with fawning or belligerent voters, what to do if the voter wants more information. They sent them on their way with an armful of door hangers (many people are not around on weekend afternoons).

Grodd and Landen were, not surprisingly, upbeat about Bradley's chances, with Grodd assuring the crowd that they are selling a candidate who sells himself. But they exuded a certain pep-rally perkiness as well.

"Let's get fired up to go knock on some doors," Grodd exclaimed. "Our philosophy is to go nuts and have a good time. We really appreciate you guys being here."

The meeting breaks up with a team chant more familiar to Little Leaguers than political wonks as everybody gathers in a circle and puts their hands into the middle.

"One, two, three...Bradley!"

The actual canvassing process proves much less inspirational.

Breaking off into groups, then just going it alone, volunteers scoured the streets of New Hampshire towns-- in this case, Manchester's neighbor Goffstown, studying maps of registered Democratic voters.

But the maps sometimes proved outdated, and even when the person answering the door matched the name on the sheet, canvassing wasn't easy.

"I don't even vote, to tell you the truth," said one Goffstown resident.

Others, dressed in pink bathrobes or plaid pajama pants, gave polite nods and then closed their doors.

One door showed a sign saying, "And if you are selling anything to change our life or our religion, please do not ring the doorbell." While political campaigns were not included in the disclaimer, the resident was, not surprisingly, uninterested.

Despite the rejections, the volunteers remained upbeat about spreading the word about Bradley and, hopefully, solidifying votes with the mostly undecided voting public.

"The most gratifying thing is convincing people of the candidate," said Anna B. Benvenutti '00, a Bradley canvasser.

Billing it as a "college invasion" weekend, the organizers originally expected about 50 students to make the trek to New Hampshire. In the end, over 150 students from 19 universities, some as far south as George Washington University and William and Mary, joined Harvard canvassers over Columbus Day weekend.

The growth of Harvard Students for Bradley mirrors the campaign's shift from hopelessness to respectability in the span of a few months.

And as McLoughlin tries to navigate Manchester's streets in his maroon Dodge Spirit, passing white steeple churches along with "Dickieboy Subs," he and his fellow passengers talk about why they are sacrificing their Saturdays for Bill Bradley.

McLoughlin, who started canvassing for Bradley this July, went from a dissatisfied Democrat to a fervent Bradley supporter.

Originally, he became interested from reading The New York Times and Showdown at Gucci Gulch, which recounts Bradley's efforts in the 1986 Tax Reform Bill.

"The more I learn about Bradley, the more I become attuned to the things Clinton/Gore has failed to accomplish," McLoughlin said.

He gave an example of when, during a New Hampshire diner stop this summer, Bradley was accosted by a dairy farmer about dairy issues.

"'To be honest, I really don't k now anything about dairy farming.'" McLoughlin recounts Bradley saying. Bradley later assured to meet with the farmer to discuss his concerns.

"It was totally refreshing," McLoughlin says.

Benvenutti worked this summer for Common Cause, the grassroots citizens advocacy group, and is now organizing for them on campus.

For Benvenutti, Bradley was initially attractive because of his desire to reform campaign finance laws, and his pragmatic side won her over.

"He's not just doing what would please the typical Democratic constituency. [He asks], 'How can we come up with solutions that make sense?'" she said.

And while McLoughlin and Benvenutti have been politically involved in the past, Halla Yang '00 sticks out exactly because he does not fit the stereotype of perky politico. Saturday's canvassing was the first active volunteer work he had done.

Yang, who although is not registered to vote, says he is an Independent because he does not want to be tied to any particular party.

Yet he has tied himself to Bradley because he says that Bradley not only does not toe a party line, but because, well, he just likes him.

"He seems like a really cool guy. He doesn't seem fake," he said. "Honestly, I think Gore would be a good president--I think Bradley would be a better president."

Grodd, who postponed his year in the Yard to sleep in the kitchen of a Manchester apartment, said he is working for the campaign because Bradley represents everything he feels was missing from politics.

"I love Bill Bradley, but I started to become involved because I had become disillusioned with the [political] process and partisanship," he said.

Now, with the first Gore-Bradley New Hampshire debates two weeks away and the primary just 15 weeks away, the Bradley campaigners are trying to ensure their candidate stays in a dead heat with Gore.

And they say the best way to do that is to repeat Saturday's undertaking.

Simply put, "grassroots campaigning is what wins elections in New Hampshire," McLoughlin said.