Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Law Students Blogs -> Harrell Blog

Law Students

: Harrell Blog

The Primaries, or, my time in New Hampshire

By pharrell

Apologies for the long hiatus from blogging. Meryl and I were in France from December 26th to January 6, and we've had exams since the 8th. For my first post back, I want to write about the two days in between--January 7th and 8th--which Meryl and I spent in New Hampshire volunteering for the Obama campaign.

I'd been warned that the final days of a New Hampshire presidential primary were a zoo, but that warning hadn't really prepared me for the circus-like atmosphere we encountered. We made it to Concord, the state capitol, a little after noon, having driven up from New Haven that morning. The office, just off the square opposite the capitol building, was overflowing with volunteers, most of whom were milling around looking for something to do--there simply wasn't enough work to go around. We were advised to help ourselves to some cookies in a back room and wait around because "Bill" would be showing up shortly and we could hear him speak. After a couple of minutes it became clear that "Bill" was Bill Bradley, the former pro basketball player and New Jersey senator who nearly beat Al Gore in New Hampshire's primary in 2000. He'd announced his endorsement of Obama that morning and would be giving a short speech at the office.

A little while later fresh rumors of Bill's arrival prompted a crowd of volunteers, Meryl and me included, to go stand outside the office's door waving "Obama" and "Change" signs--we wouldn't want a minor political celebrity to receive a cold welcome, particularly since it looked like at least one TV crew would be in tow. After a few minutes of uselessly waiving signs at adjacent office buildings--Obama's office was one the backside of the building, looking out at building--we migrated to the street where, presumably, Bill would be arriving. At the very least, we could make a good show of Obama strength on the square itself, which was pretty much packed with volunteers from rival campaigns doing the same thing. A couple of campaign staffers spent the next fifteen minutes trying to get all thirty or so of us to chant pro-Barack slogans, e.g., "Want hope? Barack the vote!," or "I say 'O,' you say "bama;' O-BAMA." The goal seemed to be to drown out volunteers from the other campaigns who were chanting their candidate's slogans (there must be a cottage industry of people who make a living dreaming up up political chants), or, at the very least, to get passing cars to honk at us enthusiastically. The long, low baritone of an 18-wheeler's horn got lots of applause, though, in fairness, the driver may have just been venting his frustration at the horrible snarl of traffic we'd created.

In any event, there was a great deal of cheering when Bradley finally showed up, in the back of a chauffeured Town Car (at least it uses less gas than the current political vehicle of choice, the black Chevy Suburban). We followed Bradley back around to the office entrance and listened to him give a short speech about why he was supporting Barack. I couldn't hear it all that well; for a man who must be 6-6 or taller Bradley has a surprisingly quiet voice, and the campaign had not succeeded in procuring a mic. Plus, the speech was interrupted every 90 seconds by the noise of a low-flying propeller plane towing a banner of a giant, disembodied Ron Paul in endless loops over downtown Concord.

After Bradley was done, Meryl and I badgered a campaign staffer for some actual work to do. It was clear that the office was overwhelmed with volunteers and was not well enough organized to make use of all of us, but still, if we couldn't work we would rather have been in New Haven studying for finals. I told Meryl that I'd go try to drop our stuff off at my aunt and uncle's house if she'd keep after the campaign staff about projects. I came back a half-hour later having failed in my mission (no one was home), but Meryl had succeeded in hers: if we drove to Hopkinton, a suburb a few miles to the west, we could spend the remainder of the afternoon canvassing.

Thirty minutes later we were standing in someone's kitchen taking orders from a University of New Hampshire sophomore who was organizing people into groups to fan out around town. This was the kind of person campaigns crave: no-nonsense, take-charge, put 'em to work. In short, organized. By some weird cosmic coincidence at least six of the other volunteers in this random corner of New Hampshire were fellow Princeton alums up from Washington, D.C., where they worked for McKinsey (the consulting firm). They were a couple of years younger than us and we hadn't known any of them in college, but we soon discovered a few acquaintances in common. If that wasn't enough of a coincidence one of the Princeton alums had just been admitted to Yale Law and had a couple of questions about it.

Canvassing in the suburbs--Hopkinton ranges from suburban to rural farming country--isn't as easy as canvassing in town; you spend a huge amount of time just getting from door to door, which makes the going slow. We could tell the race was close: a lot of people hadn't made up their minds, and, of those who had, there seemed to be a pretty even split between Barack and Hillary. Still, we hoped we were leaving people with a positive impression of the campaign and kept at it for about an hour after dark.

On the the way back to my aunt and uncle's house we swung by the Hillary's Concord HQ to say hello to Meryl's father, Bob, who was at Yale Law with the Clinton's back in the early 70s and who had decided to head up to New Hampshire to help her out. It was sort of funny being there and briefly comparing notes with him--we were actually more optimistic about Hillary's chances than he was at that point: Newspaper polls had just given Barack a nice lead, but, in our experience, we hadn't sensed it that he was significantly ahead.

After dinner with my aunt and uncle, we went with my aunt to the local high-school where Barak was holding a final rally. It took him about 5 minutes to warm up, but once he got going it was a great rendition of his stump speech. It was the first time Meryl had seen him in person, and my second--the first was at the 2004 Democratic convention, when he gave the speech that started his path to where he is today.

We were up early the next morning to make it to Hopkinton not too long after 7. From 7:30-8:45 Meryl and I and one other volunteer did "visibility" on the town's main street corner, which basically meant waving "Obama" signs at every passing car. We got a lot of waves back and a lot of positive honking; for the first time, I let myself think that Barack might actually win the state. To illustrate just how extensively the media cover New Hampshire, and how desperate they get for absolutely anything that can fill the time, a TV crew from the BBC showed up at this random frozen crossroads and filmed the three of us for a good 20 minutes before heading somewhere else.

We spent the rest of the morning canvassing. Most people weren't home, but I had a memorable conversation with an undecided voter who actually had questions about Barack's positions on specific issues. We also apparently visited the governor's residence (New Hampshire's governor lives in a private home, not an official mansion), though no one was there--and I'm not sure it would have been a good thing if someone was, since, while the governor was remaining neutral, his wife was a prominent Hillary supporter in the state.

The afternoon consisted of a second round of visits, mostly to houses that had been empty in the morning; at this point, the goal was to make sure that known supporters had actually made it to the polls. Meryl stopped by the house of the undecided voter I'd spoken to in the morning who, it turned out, had voted for Barack! Score one for in person-visits, and actually knowing that I'd had an impact was probably the most rewarding experience I've had canvassing for a political candidate.

We canvassed till 7, and then went back to Concord for a final dinner with my aunt and uncle, and their eldest, Ben, who is in grad school at MIT but who had come up to vote in the New Hampshire primary. By the end of dinner, about 9, the news was looking bleak for Barack and we decided to head home, swinging by Boston to drop Ben off at his apartment.

We heard Barack's concession speech on the radio at about 11. It was disappointing, particularly since we, or at least I, had let myself think that Barack might win it. But this primary is shaping up as a marathon, not a sprint, and we'll just have to keep working.

Full post as published by Harrell Blog on January 20, 2008 (boomark / email).