Back to New Hampshire

Sorry about that unrelated rant before. Nathaniel told me last night that he had a $188 bill for the period ending December 15, which means that is just for the time he used his cell phone over thanksgiving, and does not include the 1-2 hours a day we have spent on the phone over winter break. So I am a bit pissed off about that this morning and I felt the need to alert other people so they don't end up in the same situation. But now back to New Hampshire.

Things have been getting a little easier. New interns have come in, so now they are at the bottom of the pack and I am less expendable than I was in the beginning. Plus, Steve and I confronted the volunteer coordinators and the "superinterns" about the way we were being treated, and they have made a conscious effort to make sure that we know we are appreciated. Steve was still having a hard time and decided to go home, so I brought him to the bus in Boston yesterday. But I am staying, and there is a part of me that really wishes I could stay until the primary. Even though I never planned to stay through the 27th because I have to get back to school, I feel like I am copping out early, and I want to stay to the end. But I know I can't - my mom said no way, since missing 2.5 weeks of school would mean I might have to take the semester off, and besides, Nathaniel is flying into Boston on Wednesday and I am his ride back to school! So I will just try to make the most of my time here and do as much as I can for the campaign while I am here.
- posted by Laura @ 10:24 AM |

Consumer Alert: A Completely Unrelated Rant

This is completely OT, but if you are thinking about signing up for Cingular Wireless, don't. If you have the misfortune of having a Cingular cell phone, if you ever see the word "extend" on the screen, do not use it. This is Cingular's sneaky way of telling you that you are incurring roaming charges, if you do not have a nationwide plan. Before using your Cingular phone out of area, make sure you have a national plan. Otherwise, you will be charged at a rate of 79 cents a minute. In other words, don't be like Nathaniel and unknowingly rack up a cell phone bill that will probably be over $1,000 for using a DC cell phone in California thinking you have a nationwide plan!
- posted by Laura @ 10:16 AM |

Airport Craziness

Yesterday was a crazy day. I had told Paky, one of the people I have termed "superwinterns," that I would be happy to pick up other winterns at the airport. So at 2:30 PM yesterday, he asked me to go pick up this girl named Eva at the Manchester Airport. He gave me her cell phone number, and picking her up went really smoothly, except for the fact that her luggage had not arrived on the same flight. But she said that it was not a big deal because her friend was coming in an hour later and she had left a message on her friend's cell phone to get her luggage.

Eva and I talked on the way back, and she is really cool. She is from Texas, and has worked for everyone who has run against George W. Bush, for governor and president. When I got back to the headquarters, I was talking to Nathaniel online, and he was angry about Ralph
- posted by Laura @ 10:24 AM |

Second update

Sorry I have not been able to update this. I have been SO busy...I have come home so exhausted each night that I have not even had the energy to talk to Nathaniel on the phone or burn a CD for my car. But right now I have managed to avoid being given a list of people to bother on New Year's Eve to promote Friday's event, so I have a minute to post.

The first few days were really rough. I started crying on Sunday night because we had been there for 12 hours and they would not let us leave and I was unfocused and had not slept and I got really frustrated. Monday morning was a little better, and the afternoon was not too bad because I got to leave early to pick up Steve at the airport. Yesterday started out good, because I got an assignment to drive around delivering letters, but it ended up taking forever and I was alone driving around the unfamiliar backwoods of New Hampshire in the dark. Plus, I almost ran out of gas and had to try to find a station in the middle of nowhere. I was pretty close to quitting, but today was a much better day.

This morning we went flyering for the event Friday, and Teddi, one of the volunteer coordinators, told us that the order from above was to just stick them on cars. I feel strongly that it is better to hand the flyers to people, because making contact is likely to have more impact, some people get a favorable impression just from seeing young people get involved, and it is a chance to identify supporters. So I insisted that while the other three winterns who went put flyers on cars, I would hand them to people. In the process, I found five supporters and one person who was leaning toward Dean, which is more than we were able to identify from 3 hours of canvassing Monday morning. Gretchen, the regional director, was psyched, and Sam Simon, whose position I am not quite sure of, said "I would like to let it be known that i agreed with her the whole time that handing out the flyers was better." I felt really good about standing my ground and proving my case.

Then tonight we saw fireworks, which was really exciting. I almost did not go out to see them, because I was afraid that they would make me sad. But I have loved fireworks since I was a little kid, and there is no way I could not see them. I just forced myself to look at the sky and not the people, because I knew that if I saw one happy couple watching the fireworks together I would cry. I know, I probably sound ridiculous. But the good news is, Nathaniel is coming here in less than a week. His dad changed his flight yesterday so that he can fly into Boston and be here for a few days and then drive back to my house with Steve and me. Then my dad will take the three of us back to school. I have no idea how we will get all our stuff into my little Honda Accord, since Steve and Nathaniel both pack like girls. But we will figure it out.

After the fireworks, I and a few other winterns handed out flyers to the swarms of people passing through the street, and I got two more supporters identified. I think I have identified more supporters today than anyone has been able to do in one day, at least recently, since they thought all the easy ones were already identified. So I feel really good, and I am more confident that I will be able to survive the next week. I just wish the hours were not so long. I can't focus after a certain point, and I feel pretty useless after 4-5 PM, though we still have another 5 hours of work at least at that time. My mom is right - school will seem like a vacation after this!
- posted by Laura @ 7:51 PM |

First update from New Hampshire

So I am here in the office in Nashua, NH. I only have a few minutes to blog, but I will try to say as much as I can before I have to get back to work.

I admit that all last week, I did not want to come. Leaving school was rough, and I miss Nathaniel terribly. I had finally adjusted to being back home, and I did not want to leave and come up here. For some reason, I have not been as focused on the campaign lately.

But now that I am here, I find myself getting back into the spirit. I arrived at the headquarters in Nashua around 9 PM last night, after spending almost 10 hours in the car. Everyone says it is supposed to take 6 hours to get to New Hampshire from home, but it has never taken me fewer than 9. Last night, I was really intimidated - they had the evening meeting and I had no idea what they were talking about, and I did not understand how the other winterns who had also arrived yesterday already seemed like experts. And another wintern in Salem had told me that the shortest day he worked was 14 hours, so that made me a little nervous.

This morning, we went out and assembled and posted these huge Dean signs that a volunteer had built. There were too many of us and I mostly felt useless, but I did get to use a hammer and a drill, and I must say that I did quite well with them. I will post pictures later.

Now I am updating the database of New Hampshire Democratic and independent voters based on their level of support for Dean. It is tedious, but also interesting, because I get to see how some people have changed their minds either for or against Dean. I have only done a few pages so far, but it looks like a lot of people are changing from supporting other candidates to undecided, and a few people have Dean as their second choice and support candidates who are floundering, so that is good news. I don't notice a lot of people switching to Dean, but like I said, I have only done a few pages, and I spend far more time deleting wrong numbers and marking refusals than changing people's support status, since most people hang up when you call.

Speaking of which, I was just told that I am needed to do phone-banking, so I will post more later.

- posted by Laura @ 1:58 PM |

Al Gore to Endorse Dean!

Well, if it did not already look good for Dean, things just got a little better. I am really shocked...I did not think he would make an endorsement so soon and I certainly did not think that he would endorse an outsider like Dean. Then again, the party establishment turned on him, so I guess he is not as much of a Washington insider with an insider mentality as he used to be. This is great news...one of the biggest endorsements we could get, and I think this definitely puts Dean a step closer to getting the nomination.
- posted by Laura @ 6:39 PM |

I'm Back (Sort of)

Argh! I have not blogged in so long...two weeks! I apologize for my absence...I have had a ton of papers and other stuff. I won't be able to blog much until after the semester ends in mid-December, but I will try to blog as much as possible before then. And then when I am in New Hampshire, I will try to keep this as up to date as possible, as often as I can access a computer.

Anyways, on Monday night I went to the birthday bash at the Capitol City brewery. It was awesome...I had not seen Dean speak in a long time, and it was great to go to another rally. I got a great spot sitting on a ledge, from which I could see the stage and take pictures. At one point I motioned to Dave Kinsey, the head of Generation Dean AU, to hold up a sign someone in our group had made that said "American University for Dean." I wanted him to hold it up so I could take a picture, but instead he passed it to me. I held it up when everyone was cheering and waving signs, and Dean looked right at me and grinned! It was really exciting...everyone in our group was so excited for me.

In other exciting news, Scott IM'ed me late last night and told me that I appear in the background in a new Iowa commercial. I looked, and sure enough, I could see a shot of myself at the Falls Church rally in August. I look really goofy, just like in the picture that I appeared in from that rally, but it was still really exciting.
- posted by Laura @ 4:16 PM |

Public Financing Vote

So I voted to accept matching funds. I was really torn, but I decided that since I know that rejecting matching funds is going to pass overwhelmingly, that enables me to vote my conscience. Here is what I wrote in the comments section:

I know that rejecting the matching funds is going to win overwhelmingly, and I think it is probably a smart decision. But I feel very strongly about public financing, and I am afraid if Dean opts out other Democrats will follow and it will set a bad precedent for future elections. So while I understand why you want to opt out and I would probably do the same thing if I were in this position, I am going to vote my conscience and vote to stay within the system. But I appreciate your opening this decision up to grassroots supporters like me, and I will respect whatever decision is made and continue to be a diehard Dean supporter whatever the outcome. Just as long as you use the extra money that opting out will enable you to use to GIVE 'EM HELL!
- posted by Laura @ 1:23 PM |