CONCORD, N.H. — They’re packing their bags with extra sweaters. They’re bringing along students. They’re making a family event out of politics.
They’re the political volunteers from Worcester County volunteers heading here for the nation’s first presidential primary on Jan. 8. Many will arrive this weekend for the last big push for their chosen candidates.
“It’s very critical, these last 36 hours — to get out the vote,” said Bill McCarthy, president of the Worcester County Republican Club.
McCarthy is a professor of criminal justice at Becker College and Quinsigamond Community College who supports Mike Huckabee’s campaign. He’s coming to New Hampshire with about eight to 10 other Huckabee volunteers. Some of his students are also traveling to New Hampshire to lend support to the candidates, he said.
Other 2008 volunteers include Clark University students, professors from Becker and Quinsigmond Colleges and employees from non-profit political organizations. Their passion for politics so strong that they are traveling to New Hampshire this weekend to help out, and are making last-minute phone calls to get others to go with them.
For example, Meagan Covino, president of the College Democrats at Clark University, spent Thursday calling and e-mailing other student volunteers, trying to convince them to help out for the weekend.
She’ll be volunteering with four other Clark students in Keene, N.H., on Sunday and will stay until the primary. She expects about 10 students total from the College Democrats to join her this weekend.
“It’s going to be exciting,” Covino, a sophomore geography and international development dual major from Cumberland, R.I., said. “Everything is up in the air right now.”
She supports all of the Democratic presidential candidates right now, Covino said, so she’ll help out with any of their campaigns. She plans to make phone calls, door-to-door house calls and hand out materials on the street.
“I think there are a lot of really great Democratic candidates,” Covino said. She mostly likely will volunteer for Hilary Clinton or Barack Obama, she said, because two former presidents of the Clark College
Democrats work for each of those campaigns.
Another potential volunteer is Joseph Provost, national vice chairman of the American Independent Party. His plans aren’t definite yet, he said. But he intends to send volunteers from the party to help out with the campaign of Ron Paul, congressman of Texas and Libertarian.
Right now, Provost said, between 20 and 25 party members are interested in traveling to the primary.
But the biggest preparation work, Provost said, is thoroughly educating themselves on the issues important to Paul’s campaign. “The last thing we want to is not be prepared,” Provost said. “We have to have all the answers in hand.”
For McCarthy, of the Worcester County Republican Club, the New Hampshire presidential primary is also a family event. His wife and three children will also join him in New Hampshire later this weekend to help out.
McCarthy is driving to New Hampshire on Friday and staying until Tuesday night. Once there, he’ll be calling voters, doing door-to-door work and holding signs for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
“Signs are big for New Hampshire,” he said. “They’re a good reinforcement.”
The Worcester Huckabee volunteers also plan to rally in front of St. Anslem College before the debates on Saturday to show further support for him. Support for Huckabee is very important, McCarthy said, because he thinks a strong start will yield positive results in November.
“Iowa and New Hampshire are the main show,” McCarthy said. “You have to have a good showing at the beginning. You have to set the stage.”
(Laura Van Wert, a senior newspaper major, is covering the New Hampshire primary for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.)
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