College Dems Campaign in N.H.

CONCORD, N.H.—One hundred bleary-eyed members of the Harvard College Democrats piled aboard three yellow school buses at 9 a.m. Saturday morning to begin the long trek—getting out the vote in the Granite State.

The buses dropped groups of students in five New Hampshire cities—Manchester, Concord, Portsmouth, Salem and Derry.

There local campaign volunteers picked them up to make the rounds, knocking on doors, soliciting votes and collecting applications for absentee ballots.

College Democrats President Sonia H. Kastner ’03 estimated that students visited 4,000 addresses and made 1,500 face-to-face contacts

“This is by far the largest out-of-state volunteer effort we’ve had this year,” said New Hampshire Democratic campaign staffer Robert F. McCarthy ’02, who served as the president of the Institute of Politics’ (IOP) Student Advisory Committee while at Harvard.

Their targets were “lazy voters,” registered Democrats who did not vote in past elections. Their votes will be crucial in November’s hotly-contested U.S. senatorial election between current Governor Jeanne Shaheen (D) and Rep. John E. Sununu (R-N.H.).

At the end of the day, congressional hopefuls Martha F. Clark and Katrina Swett, and Chair of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) thanked the students for their efforts.

“This is one of the most important senate races in the entire country,” Murray said. “On election night, it’s going to be down to within a couple hundred votes.”

Shaheen also made a surprise appearance with the volunteers in Manchester.

“Your effort just cannot be replaced,” she said. “I hope you will come back. The foliage is only going to get better.”

The College Democrats plans similar trips on a smaller scale every weekend until the Nov. 5 general election.

Saturday’s trip to New Hampshire was co-sponsored by the IOP, which is also sponsoring similar trips by the Harvard Republican Club.

Canvassers enjoyed fair weather Saturday, but battled poor roads, unruly dogs and locked doors.

“Every house we were going to had at least three dogs,” said James W. McPhillips ’04.

Jessica L. Diaz ’05 said that the greatest problem was simply getting an answer at the door.

“Saturday afternoon canvassing is always hard because people are never home or just don’t have the energy to come to the door,” Diaz said.

Saturday’s trip was the first big College Democrats event for first-year students.

“I am definitely going to come back here. I am glad it’s an organization you actually do something in,” Kathryn A. Eidmann ’06 said. “It’s really nice to get out of Cambridge and to get back into real America.”

Eidmann and Fiona J. Kaye ’06—canvassing partners and roommates—both worked on campaigns before coming to Harvard, and both were initially uncomfortable about campaigning outside their home state for unfamiliar candidates.

“I didn’t feel right at first about campaigning in New Hampshire because it’s not where I’m from, but then I realized that any work you can do is good,” Kaye said.

—Staff writer Christopher M. Loomis can be reached at cloomis@fas.harvard.edu.