The primary night party for Senator Hillary Clinton’s campaign will be at Southern New Hampshire University, Athletics and Recreation Complex, 2500, N. River Road, Manchester. It will be a night to remember. So come to NH for the day or the weekend, and then come to the party in the evening. Your help is needed.
If you volunteer on January 8, you will be part of history. You’ll always remember what you did on January 8, 2008 if you come to NH and join us. If you stay home, five years from now you will not remember what you did at work that day. If you come to NH, you’ll remember all your life.
This looks to be an exciting primary day. As, I was writing this up, I started thinking about the various NH primaries I’ve worked. It’s always exciting and memorable. I’m wondering if BMG readers have memories to share.
Before I get to one of my memories, I’ll mention that if you want to help in NH for the Clinton campaign, you can contact me at 508-404-8531 or send me an e-mail at KateDonaghue@aol.com.
I remember one story I was told of a woman came in, gave her name and asked for a ballot. Then she asked for one for her husband. The poll worker explained that her husband would need to come in himself. She said he couldn’t; he was dead. She then says, “But, I know how he would have voted.” It made perfect sense to her.
That reminds me of another memory from the 2000 cycle. I was calling through a list of potential volunteers. The potential volunteer explains that she can’t volunteer because her mother is near death. I express my sympathy and am about to move on when she says to me, “We’re trying to keep her alive until the election.”
Those who know me, would not he surprised to hear that my first thought was to say, “Has she voted absentee?” But I decided that it wouldn’t be appropriate and choked back the words.
After my brief pause, the woman went on to say, “Don’t worry. She’s voted absentee.”
Anyone have any interesting memories? NH primaries or other election stories?
ok, Kate, my worst NH night was also, in some ways, my best. It was the last night of Senator Alan Cranston’s “Peace and Jobs” campaign. Cranston had spent a lot of time in 1983 trying to win straw polls (which were big that year, then the DNC stepped in), which he did in Wisconsin and ran strong in Massachusetts, picking up a lot of the state’s leading activists and electeds (Alice Wolf, Felix Arroyo, Kevin Honan, Tom Gallagher, Elisa Speranza, Sue Kaplan, lots of folks you’d be proud to work with).
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p>Cranston gambled heavily on Iowa, but ended up finishing 4th with 9%. We had an election watch night at Senator Sal Albano’s house in Somerville that night, and, seeing the results come in, someone commented “we’re screwed” (actually, it was a stronger word). They were right.
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p>The campaign staggered through the last few days with a number of us headed to Maine, hoping that if the Senator could stay alive in NH, he could spring a surprise there the following weekend. The day of the NH primary, we fanned out through the streets of Portland, inviting people to a noontime rally with food, music, etc. What we got was a paltry showing, with a few homeless persons coming in out of the cold for some food, which we had plenty of.
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p>After the “rally”, the Senator took a bunch of us to lunch at a restaurant in Portland’s harbor. He was relaxed and resigned to his fate and couldn’t have been nicer to us. We drove in a motorcade across to Manchester to get the NH results — Gary Hart, whom we had beaten in the Mass. State Convention straw poll the year before, had surprised Walter Mondale and became a real threat to his nomination. Cranston got two percent.
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p>Anyway, as the slogan goes, “win or lose, we drink the booze!”, which was easy to do in that situation. Then about 16 of us slept in one room before waking for Senator Cranston’s withdrawal announcement. Coming back to Boston, I had a message on my answering machine from the late Ray Dooley, then Mayor Flynn’s top aide, saying, “if you’re done with presidential politics, come over to City Hall and get to work”. Good idea.
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p>In retrospect, a number of the people I met in that campaign are still good friends and we look back on it fondly. No one worked for Alan Cranston because a big job in DC was in line for them, something bigger motivated them, and because of that, the friendships have outlived the campaign by many years.
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p>Hopefully that will be true for many on this year’s campaign trail as well, whether your candidate wins NH or gets 2 percent. Good luck!