MANCHESTER, N.H. (Jan. 6) — Some answered phones. Some knocked on doors. Others hoisted signs on snowy street corners. And some made sure the campaign bus was stocked with extra doughnuts.
“We’re really all grunts here,” as Richard Beinecke so succinctly put it.
In ordinary life, they are a teacher, a student, a doctor and a lawyer. They are Greater Lowell residents who’ve gone north to New Hampshire to pitch in on the presidential campaigns. As they see it, they have a duty to help out.
Some scenes with the “grunts” from Greater Lowell:
The Teacher
At 6 feet 6 inches, Richard Beinecke towered over the other volunteers at the Salem, N.H., headquarters of Democrat Hillary Clinton, senator of New York. From his perch, he gave directions and offered quiet explanations to new volunteers.
“Barney Frank, that’s Barney Frank,” he whispered to a young woman who seemed puzzled as to why there was a film crew in the office. Democratic Congressman Barney Frank came to the Salem headquarters to energize volunteers before they trekked out into the snow to talk to voters.
Beinecke, a resident of Concord, Mass., spends most of his spare time working in politics. He’s a professor at Suffolk University in the department of public administration. Beinecke’s first political job was with Frank in the late 1960s. Most recently, he volunteered his time working on Democratic Congresswoman Niki Tsongas’ campaign. Tsongas beat Republican Jim Ogonowski in a special election for the US House of Representatives.
Beinecke spent the last few weekends volunteering. He was on “visibility” detail on Sunday. “Visibility” is a fancy word for holding signs on a street corner and Beinecke held his four-foot-by-six-foot Hillary Clinton sign with pride. Every time a car honked its horn, he grinned and pumped his fist.
The Clinton campaign is focusing on independent voters, Beinecke said. Much of his time has been spent handing out literature and trying to sway them to vote for Clinton. “The independents can go either way, Republican or Democrat, up here,” he said.
Beinecke likes working for Clinton, but he misses his days with Tsongas. “Quite frankly, the stuff I enjoy most is working with somebody like Niki, who you’re able to get to know,” he said.
Beinecke has yet to meet Clinton in person. But one of his moments in the spotlight was appearing in the background of a photo of former president Bill Clinton and Tsongas. The picture ran on the front page of The Sun and even appeared on ABC, he said.
The pressure of the last few days before the primary on Jan. 8 was evident in Salem Sunday. A clipboard hung on a wall in the headquarters. It read “2 Days until the New Hampshire Presidential Primary” in bold letters.
For Beinecke, even though he can’t vote in the primary because he’s from Massachusetts, his efforts are important. “This is probably the most critical election in my lifetime,” he said.
The Student
Steve Johnston’s first political experience was in kindergarten. His parents bought him a picture book explaining what a presidential cabinet is. He took the book to school and quickly turned his friends into pre-pubescent politicos. “I was excited, so they were excited. Then I started assigning cabinet positions,” he said.
Johnston lives in Westford, Mass. During the school year he attends Harvard University. He’s spending his break doing what he calls “advanced work” for the campaign of Republican John McCain, a senator from Arizona. He scouts out sites around the Granite State for McCain and makes sure things run smoothly before he arrives. “Where is he going to walk? Where will the press be? Is he going to do interviews?” he said. These are just a few questions he’s responsible for answering.
In March he became the chair of Harvard Students for McCain. He’s moved up the ranks quickly over the last few months, first becoming the New England chair and now the Northeast chair. If there is one commonality among young McCain supporters, he said, it’s their dedication. “Young people really appreciate his straight-forward approach to campaigning,” he said. “He’s someone who isn’t going to tell you what you want to hear, he’s going to tell you what you need to know.”
The Doctor
During the last 35 years, Dr. Donald Miller has worked for some of the biggest names in politics: Eugene McCarthy. George McGovern. Ted Kennedy. Howard Dean.
This time around, Miller is betting on Barack Obama, Democratic senator from Illinois. In between working 16 hour days at his practice in Tewksbury, Mass., Miller heads up to New Hampshire to brandish signs and spread the word about the candidate who, he says, is The Lawyer.
This past week, Jay Gaffney realized that the primary had snuck up on him. Sunday, with only three days left until the primary, Gaffney jumped into his car and sped north, from his home in Lowell, Mass.
“I realize how important the New Hampshire primary was and it was really sneaking up on me,” he said.
He drove to Republican Mitt Romney’s campaign headquarters in Manchester, N.H., and he was put right to work. Gaffney spent most of the day Sunday answering phones in the sparse office space taken over by the Romney campaign on Elm Street. He admits to getting a few rude responses from voters. But, he said, it’s important to call them. “I think the phone calls are part of the process in making sure not to leave any stone unturned,” he said.
Gaffney came to like Romney while he was governor of his state. Romney did a great job managing the state, given its Democratic leanings, he said. “I think,” he said, “he really bailed the state out from the precipice of looming disaster.“
(Andrew Restuccia, a senior newspaper and religion and society major, is covering the New Hampshire primary for The Sun of Lowell, Mass. )
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