In what some are calling the most contested presidential primary season in recent memory, student volunteers are playing a big role. While many University students spent Winter Break either relaxing at home, traveling the world or taking a class during January Term, others spent their time campaigning for presidential candidates in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Now, with classes well underway, these students do not plan on stopping anytime soon. A group of University Democrats, for example, traveled to South Carolina this past weekend for the state's Democratic primary. With the presidential nominations for both the Democratic and Republican parties still undecided, students on both sides of the aisle have turned their focus to the upcoming Feb. 12 Virginia primary.
More choices on the ballot
For some student volunteers, working for a political campaign is not a new experience. Many University Democrats campaigning for a candidate in this year's primaries supported Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., in his unsuccessful 2004 bid for the presidency. One of these repeat volunteers, a supporter of Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-New York, said she feels more optimistic and inspired this election season.
"I did campaign for Kerry, but I don't remember feeling as passionate about him as a leader as I do about Hillary," second-year College student Megan Barry said. "When we won in New Hampshire, it was incredibly exciting."
While much of the political landscape has changed since the 2004 presidential election, some volunteers attribute their current excitement and motivation to their early involvement in this year's campaign. For most campaigns, the first major push by volunteers is to get their candidate on the ballot. These signature-driven initiatives have taken place around the Charlottesville area for months, and some student volunteers were involved as early as Election Day 2007.
Savanna Rutherford, third-year student and College Republicans vice chair of campaigns, spent Election Day last year at the polls gathering signatures in order to add former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney to the Virginia ballot for next month's primary. Though she did not have much success at her polling place in University Hall, she attributed some people's reluctance to sign to voter confusion.
"A lot of people are under the belief that if you support someone to get on the ballot, then you have to vote for that person," Rutherford said, adding that Virginia only suggests voters who offer their signature participate in that candidate's party's primary. "I typically ask people, 'Don't you want more choices on the ballot?'"
Trial by fire in New Hampshire
In early January, 41 University Democrats traveled to New Hampshire to volunteer for the candidates of their choice in the first primary of the season, according to the organization's president, third-year College student Sarah Buckley. Though not paid for entirely by University Democrats, the cost of the trip was subsidized by the group's fundraising. For a trip that would typically cost much more, interested students only had to pay $85 to make the journey.
"This means it can be more accessible to people who wouldn't be able to go it otherwise," Buckley said. "Going on a trip like we did to New Hampshire or going to South Carolina, it was really a trial by fire for people who'd never campaigned before. We arrived and immediately went over to the campaign offices. You were given literature, and you had to start knocking on doors."
Campaign volunteers are asked to do a wide variety of tasks from passing out campaign literature and holding up signs at events to reminding voters to get to the polls and sometimes even transporting them. Though Democratic student supporters met in New Hampshire from all across the country to help their party, sometimes they found themselves working against one another.
One volunteer recalled dropping literature door-to-door in the middle of the night to remind voters to vote in the primary the next morning. When some of their literature was missing later that night, they suspected members of another campaign might be responsible.
"We noticed that there was a car following us, down dead ends and back out again," said Buckley, who campaigned for former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C. "This car had [Sen.] Barack Obama [D-Ill.] stickers on it. We pulled up to a light and put on our left blinker. But, when the light turned green, we turned right. They had turned on their left blinker and turned right. We started speeding down side streets until we lost them and continued on our merry way."
Though in this instance, Buckley called the incident motivation enough to fight sleepiness in order to work through the night, she noted oftentimes student volunteers needed no other motivation but their own to encourage other volunteers on the campaign trail.
"We have the vigor and idealism that they need to campaign for 16 hours a day," Buckley said. "It's a great form of self expression. Your one vote is important on its own, but if you can get 20 other people to vote, that makes a much bigger impact."
"Visualization" and candidate image
Another major part of on-location campaigning is "visualization" or making sure a candidate's name is clearly seen in high- and low-profile situations. One student campaigning for Obama was asked to hold up supportive signs during a broadcast of ABC's "Good Morning, America" in New Hampshire.
"I had no idea what to expect when I went up there," third-year student Carolina Ferrerosa said. "We had to get up really early that morning to make sure we got there around six. [ABC anchors] George Stephanopoulos and Diane Sawyer came out and shook our hands."
This was not Ferrerosa's first brush with celebrity on her trip to New Hampshire. During a phone banking event, when volunteers remind voters to show up to the polls, she and her team of Obama supporters took calls alongside Larry David, creator of "Seinfeld" and "Curb Your Enthusiasm." While admitting she and others were star struck, she noted all of the work for the campaign was engaging and exciting.
"It was so much fun," Ferrerosa said. "We were working on this adrenaline. We didn't know how tired we were until we just collapsed after election day."
Another volunteer described a similar circumstance after meeting with Madeline Albright and Chelsea Clinton at a caucus function in Iowa. Barry, who traveled to Iowa and New Hampshire, was able to see some events staged by the Clinton campaign from an insider's perspective with the help of her uncle, one of the chief finance directors for the Clinton campaign.
Much like the visualization outside of "Good Morning, America," Barry said careful thought and planning went into the staging of every media appearance.
"At the speech after the Iowa caucus, they were trying to push up some people from this labor union and younger people because that shot would be what was reported by the press," Barry said. "There's a lot of focus on image that I didn't expect. It's a lot about organizing how the candidate is going to be received."
Looking toward the future
Following the South Carolina primary this past weekend, all of the candidates are looking toward Super Tuesday, when 22 states will hold primaries or caucuses Feb. 5. These contests, however, might not decide the nomination for either Democrats or Republicans. According to a report released by the Associated Press Jan. 24, it is statistically impossible for any candidate to secure the nomination Feb. 5. Some volunteers said this factor has motivated them to campaign in and around the commonwealth for the upcoming Virginia primary.
"There definitely is the perception that Virginia might matter more," Buckley said. "Everybody's got their eye on Super Tuesday. Still, few, if any of the candidates, have set up formal Virginia offices. It'll be hard to do some of the on-the-ground stuff."
No matter if Edwards wins the nomination, Buckley still plans to volunteer and to campaign for the Democratic nominee in the fall. While most student volunteers noted they would do the same, at least one said she would only volunteer if her candidate wins the nomination.
"If [Obama] is the nominee, I'm going to work for his campaign," Ferrerosa said. "If not, I tend to like the idea of reserving volunteering for candidates that really inspire."
In an effort to focus their efforts on the presidential election in the fall, the College Republicans made an executive decision last year not to make any trips to states with early primaries like the University Democrats did, Rutherford said.
"Ultimately, I believe our nominee will be better than whoever [the Democratic] nominee is," Rutherford said of the Republican Party supporters, adding that more opportunities will be available for College Republicans to assist in the fall campaign. In the meantime, Rutherford will continue to place phone calls for the Romney campaign until the Virginia primary. Like volunteers on the Democratic side, she said plans for campaigning in Virginia will come into clearer focus after Super Tuesday.
All aboard
For both the University Democrats and the College Republicans, this primary season is all about rallying support from students for the fall presidential election. Still, student volunteers who traveled either to Iowa or to New Hampshire expressed excitement about having been able to make the trip. For these students, the campaign trail doesn't end in Charlottesville.
"On the bus back from New Hampshire, everybody said, 'We should go to South Carolina,'" Buckley said. "If that can be maintained through the fall, that'd be great for me."
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