Even though today is officially Halloween, New Hampshire (or at least parts of it) like to fiddle with it and make official "trick or treating" on different nights. Seems very un-NH to me...too much gov't intervention, etc., but it is all about "local control." Anyhow, last night, 10/30, was Dover's night. We spent so much time out in our neighborhood that we never had a chance to give out our candy. So rather than keep all the chocolate where two four year olds (and their moms) can devour it, we did a little reverse trick or treating and brough some treats to the staffers and volunteers in the Dover John Edwards office.
Like most nights, the room was packed and phones were busy non-stop. The staffers were excited because they could officially announce the upcoming visit to UNH (Nov. 6th, in Holloway Commons, or "HoCo"). So my kids went right to the back, to busy desk of the Regional Field Director Mike, and handed over a big cupful of candy. They love Mike and couldn't wait to show off their costumes, and I swear the Reese's cup he devoured was the first thing he ate all day. And I walked away with a new NH Carpenter's for Edwards long sleeve t-shirt. As we reloaded the minivan, Stacey commented on how much weight all the staffers have lost, and that she was going to send me in with real food for them. Then she asked, "do they ever get discouraged?"
Fast forward to 8am this morning. I missed the latest Dem Debates last night & was eager to listen to Morning Edition on NPR and check my usual favorite news sources and blogs. I had half a dozen emails from friends and Edwards supporters quoting this or that pundit who raved about JRE's performance. THEN, to add icing to the cake, came a note on my Facebook account from the state staffers: NH SEUI Endorses Edwards.
Discouraged? Are you kidding? A major endorsement, a stellar debate performance, a successful local visit (Oyster River High School in Durham yesterday) ALL IN ONE DAY! And a campus event to plan and fill for next week. No, Mike & his butt-kicking team in Strafford County, New Hampshire are tired and hungry, but they are never ever discouraged!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Finally!
OK, no more whining about the dry spell at the University of New Hampshire! Welcome back!!
Hillary Clinton will be on campus 11/01/2007 in the indoor track known as the Sweet Arena. Not a pleasant venue, but workable. I am pretty sure I can attend, I'd love to see if she's different on campus than she was at Dover High back in the spring (where the crowd was very much blue collar and older). And my favorite past-time, beside watching staffers and press, is to compare what I think is important, in her speech, to what the local papers report as important.
And, now we're on a roll. Rumor has it that the following week John Edwards will be on our campus, too. No details yet but I can assure you that I'll be there for that. Let's hope it's not the Sweet Oval!
Hillary Clinton will be on campus 11/01/2007 in the indoor track known as the Sweet Arena. Not a pleasant venue, but workable. I am pretty sure I can attend, I'd love to see if she's different on campus than she was at Dover High back in the spring (where the crowd was very much blue collar and older). And my favorite past-time, beside watching staffers and press, is to compare what I think is important, in her speech, to what the local papers report as important.
And, now we're on a roll. Rumor has it that the following week John Edwards will be on our campus, too. No details yet but I can assure you that I'll be there for that. Let's hope it's not the Sweet Oval!
Thursday, October 25, 2007
On The Ground at UNH
Well, I'm clearly NOT in any front row seats lately. The candidates are in the area but not in the right place at the right time for me. (I missed Obama in Dover yesterday, even though the time changed to be 4pm instead of 11am!) So, instead, I will give you the round up of visibility...besides visits, what's happening here in the Granite State & at UNH.
Our school newspaper is called The New Hampshire. That's about as uncreative as one can get with a title, so it's referred to as TNH around here. Over the past few weeks, one candidate has had a full-page ad in almost every issue: Ron Paul. I tell ya, he's going to surprise a lot of folks come election day. Anyway, it's a pretty cool ad, full color. And they ain't cheap!
Facebook Flyers directed within the UNH Network have been purchased by Mike Gravel, touting his position on lowering the drinking age. So every time I get on Fb, I see his smiling face in a small ad on the left of the screen.
"Tabling": This isn't unique to UNH. A registered student organization can "rent" a table in our well-trafficked student union (the MUB), and attract interested students, hand out literature, build a mailing list, etc. At UNH in Durham, Hillary & Obama have been most frequent, followed by Ron Paul. Team Edwards is at it today. I was at UNH-Manchester yesterday and Obama's team was there, and reportedly they are the only ones who show up at UNH-M.
Campus Canvassing: UNH has strict rules about what can be posted in on-campus housing, and soliciting & blanket canvassing are not permitted. It would be nice if certain front-runner status candidates told their students to follow the rules.
Bumper Stickers: No notable changes or increases, really. I park next to someone with a Hillary sticker almost every day. I spotted someone with an old Kerry/Edwards sticker half peeled off, with a Richardson sticker next to it the other day. I saw a few PrioritiesNH pie chart magnets in Lot B, and am eagerly awaiting mine!!
Lawn Signs: No change, unless you count the overwhelming number of local officials running for school board and city/town council.
TV/Radio: Our 20 year old TV died while I was in DC, so I can't report on who's advertising on NH or Boston stations anymore. As far as radio goes, I only listen to NPR so I'm not help there, either. I was nice to hear an Edwards staffer call in to the NHPR pledge drive yesterday, though! (For the record, she didn't identify herself as a staffer, she just said she loves the primary coverage.)
Red Sox: Not one person that I have talked to would even consider routing for the Yankees, so Rudy can just go someplace else. Folks are loving Chris Dodd's response on behalf of Red Sox Nation!
Our school newspaper is called The New Hampshire. That's about as uncreative as one can get with a title, so it's referred to as TNH around here. Over the past few weeks, one candidate has had a full-page ad in almost every issue: Ron Paul. I tell ya, he's going to surprise a lot of folks come election day. Anyway, it's a pretty cool ad, full color. And they ain't cheap!
Facebook Flyers directed within the UNH Network have been purchased by Mike Gravel, touting his position on lowering the drinking age. So every time I get on Fb, I see his smiling face in a small ad on the left of the screen.
"Tabling": This isn't unique to UNH. A registered student organization can "rent" a table in our well-trafficked student union (the MUB), and attract interested students, hand out literature, build a mailing list, etc. At UNH in Durham, Hillary & Obama have been most frequent, followed by Ron Paul. Team Edwards is at it today. I was at UNH-Manchester yesterday and Obama's team was there, and reportedly they are the only ones who show up at UNH-M.
Campus Canvassing: UNH has strict rules about what can be posted in on-campus housing, and soliciting & blanket canvassing are not permitted. It would be nice if certain front-runner status candidates told their students to follow the rules.
Bumper Stickers: No notable changes or increases, really. I park next to someone with a Hillary sticker almost every day. I spotted someone with an old Kerry/Edwards sticker half peeled off, with a Richardson sticker next to it the other day. I saw a few PrioritiesNH pie chart magnets in Lot B, and am eagerly awaiting mine!!
Lawn Signs: No change, unless you count the overwhelming number of local officials running for school board and city/town council.
TV/Radio: Our 20 year old TV died while I was in DC, so I can't report on who's advertising on NH or Boston stations anymore. As far as radio goes, I only listen to NPR so I'm not help there, either. I was nice to hear an Edwards staffer call in to the NHPR pledge drive yesterday, though! (For the record, she didn't identify herself as a staffer, she just said she loves the primary coverage.)
Red Sox: Not one person that I have talked to would even consider routing for the Yankees, so Rudy can just go someplace else. Folks are loving Chris Dodd's response on behalf of Red Sox Nation!
Sunday, October 14, 2007
View From a Distance
There's nothing like being away from your routine to get you out of a funk. I'm in DC for work, so I naturally figured I'd be away from the blog for a while with nothing to report. Alas, you can take the voter out of NH, but you can't take NH out of the voter.
I flew out of Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (formerly just Manchester Airport) on Saturday, and I hadn't been there in a while. I was hoping I'd see a candidate or entourage maybe, but no luck. So I tried to view the tiny airport from the perspective of someone like my fellow blogger, Joe at
www.newhampshire2007.blogspot.com, who's coming to NH from VA to experience a week or two in a front row seat. (We didn't plan it this way, but we've basically switched places for a week.) Biggest thing I noticed were the advertising displays. One from SEIU, another from that Chronic Disease foundation, and others, suggesting questions to ask if you run into a candidate in NH.
On Saturday afternoon I played tourist in DC a bit & visited some Nat'l Monuments & gift shops. They seem to have more tacky souvenirs related to the primary & election than you can find in NH. Most candidates are represented, but you can guess who is represented the most. HINT: there's a bobblehead of her for sale. After I saw that and was moping around thinking "is this really preordained?" I was walking by the USDA, where there's a TREE dedicated to her AND another tree she "planted." Back in my hotel room I was ready to give up when I read some NH websites & listened to a bit of NHPR and regained my hope. I don't think folks in NH are really ready to roll over and crown another legacy candidate so quickly. [To answer GraniteProf's rhetorical question about democratic primary voters & the upset victory: NO, we haven't lost our stomach for it...please!] The words "sense of entitlement" came up, along with annoyance that Hillary seems to be skipping the NH Primary and is running a general election campaign already. That gave me a great deal of hope.
Two more things happened to pull me out of my own doldrums: First, on my walk to my meeting (which took me past the Whitehouse), I spotted Friday's Washington Post. Topic of headline article: Bill Gardner & the setting of the NH Primary date. (great article!) Then, as I was participating in my meetings, it became the joke of the room full of folks from all over the country, when we repeatedly had to introduce ourselves to various presenters, that "My name is Paula, I'm from the University of New Hampshire, and no, I do not know when the NH Primary will be held." Everyone wanted to know how it was going on the ground, and what the main stream media was missing. When I relayed some reports of events I have attended and candidates I've seen or met, I was even surprised to hear many say that they were impressed with the level of questions Granite Staters ask, basically supporting the NH Primary as First in the Nation, because they didn't think their home state average joes would ask such tough questions or make the candidates jump threw so many hoops and shake so many hands. For example, when I told them of the popularity of Ron Paul, I got more than one "who's that?"
And besides, someone will always have to go first, and everyone agrees that it should not be a big and powerful state. In the famous words of Johnny Damon, when he was part of Red Sox Nation: Why not us??
OK, I'm back...and I'm ready to go home now.
I flew out of Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (formerly just Manchester Airport) on Saturday, and I hadn't been there in a while. I was hoping I'd see a candidate or entourage maybe, but no luck. So I tried to view the tiny airport from the perspective of someone like my fellow blogger, Joe at
www.newhampshire2007.blogspot.com, who's coming to NH from VA to experience a week or two in a front row seat. (We didn't plan it this way, but we've basically switched places for a week.) Biggest thing I noticed were the advertising displays. One from SEIU, another from that Chronic Disease foundation, and others, suggesting questions to ask if you run into a candidate in NH.
On Saturday afternoon I played tourist in DC a bit & visited some Nat'l Monuments & gift shops. They seem to have more tacky souvenirs related to the primary & election than you can find in NH. Most candidates are represented, but you can guess who is represented the most. HINT: there's a bobblehead of her for sale. After I saw that and was moping around thinking "is this really preordained?" I was walking by the USDA, where there's a TREE dedicated to her AND another tree she "planted." Back in my hotel room I was ready to give up when I read some NH websites & listened to a bit of NHPR and regained my hope. I don't think folks in NH are really ready to roll over and crown another legacy candidate so quickly. [To answer GraniteProf's rhetorical question about democratic primary voters & the upset victory: NO, we haven't lost our stomach for it...please!] The words "sense of entitlement" came up, along with annoyance that Hillary seems to be skipping the NH Primary and is running a general election campaign already. That gave me a great deal of hope.
Two more things happened to pull me out of my own doldrums: First, on my walk to my meeting (which took me past the Whitehouse), I spotted Friday's Washington Post. Topic of headline article: Bill Gardner & the setting of the NH Primary date. (great article!) Then, as I was participating in my meetings, it became the joke of the room full of folks from all over the country, when we repeatedly had to introduce ourselves to various presenters, that "My name is Paula, I'm from the University of New Hampshire, and no, I do not know when the NH Primary will be held." Everyone wanted to know how it was going on the ground, and what the main stream media was missing. When I relayed some reports of events I have attended and candidates I've seen or met, I was even surprised to hear many say that they were impressed with the level of questions Granite Staters ask, basically supporting the NH Primary as First in the Nation, because they didn't think their home state average joes would ask such tough questions or make the candidates jump threw so many hoops and shake so many hands. For example, when I told them of the popularity of Ron Paul, I got more than one "who's that?"
And besides, someone will always have to go first, and everyone agrees that it should not be a big and powerful state. In the famous words of Johnny Damon, when he was part of Red Sox Nation: Why not us??
OK, I'm back...and I'm ready to go home now.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Anticipation
I'm afraid I'm loosing my enthusiasm for this primary, but it is NOT because it started too early or that I've got "Primary Fatigue." That would never happen! More likely, I'm not getting enough of it at the right time or in the right place. Besides being distracted by life (work, sick kids, sick mom), there's another reason I'm bummed: the primary will come too early yet end too soon.
Yes, too early, meaning that early January, when UNH is NOT in session and campus is dead. I thank Laura Jones of the UNH College Dems for planting this question in my head (when she reported asking it in POLT 600). Of all the colleges in NH, only Dartmouth will be in session in early January. How does this affect campaigning? Will anyone come to campus now? Will the whole point of my blogging from UNH be obsolete?
Many pundits & candidates will say (off the record, sometimes) that the youth vote doesn't amount to much. College-aged voters just don't vote in any big numbers to make it worth a candidate's efforts. I strongly object. Each cycle it gets crazier on this campus with student organizations and activism, huge get-out-the-vote efforts, and long debates over if a given student can/should vote in Durham or their hometown/home state. Ask Laura about voting rules in New Hampshire; she knows them inside & out. But anyway, will candidates & spouses skip the campus visits now??
No students means no long lines at voter reg or the polls in Durham; no fired up, passionate students; no fired up candidates trying last inspire undecided students. No election-eve or election day rallies, last minute visits (which is how I saw many candidates in the past). No Kucinich bus or PrioritiesNH upsidedown van circling campus. No CNN or GMA broadcasting live from UNH on election day. Debates were too early and too far away; there's no drama left!
End too soon...that means that I fear this will be the last of the NH Primary as we know it. I can thank Justin for that; telling me we're spoiled in the Granite State. I've heard all of it before but I do think some sort of change is on the horizon & I don't have a good feeling about it.
Anticipation. That's what I'm missing. I have no more sense of anticipation. It won't reach a fever pitch around me; more likely things will just fizzle out around final exams and the holidays, then fizzle out forever. For me, this feels almost as bad as cancelling Christmas.
I think I just need to see a few more candidates, and get back on track with volunteering at the JRE office in Dover. They are so fired up there that it's hard to be glum. They will not let polls or early dates or pundits rain on their parade.
I'm off to DC for meetings on Capitol Hill to promote UNH interns in our NH Congressional offices, and to visit UNH interns in the city. I'll be missing Rudy in Durham and Edwards in Dover. But the kids asked if they can go see Edwards without me, so I guess I'm doing something right. Will the NH Primary be something they grow up with, or a funny memory of that time they were four and met all the candidates...
Yes, too early, meaning that early January, when UNH is NOT in session and campus is dead. I thank Laura Jones of the UNH College Dems for planting this question in my head (when she reported asking it in POLT 600). Of all the colleges in NH, only Dartmouth will be in session in early January. How does this affect campaigning? Will anyone come to campus now? Will the whole point of my blogging from UNH be obsolete?
Many pundits & candidates will say (off the record, sometimes) that the youth vote doesn't amount to much. College-aged voters just don't vote in any big numbers to make it worth a candidate's efforts. I strongly object. Each cycle it gets crazier on this campus with student organizations and activism, huge get-out-the-vote efforts, and long debates over if a given student can/should vote in Durham or their hometown/home state. Ask Laura about voting rules in New Hampshire; she knows them inside & out. But anyway, will candidates & spouses skip the campus visits now??
No students means no long lines at voter reg or the polls in Durham; no fired up, passionate students; no fired up candidates trying last inspire undecided students. No election-eve or election day rallies, last minute visits (which is how I saw many candidates in the past). No Kucinich bus or PrioritiesNH upsidedown van circling campus. No CNN or GMA broadcasting live from UNH on election day. Debates were too early and too far away; there's no drama left!
End too soon...that means that I fear this will be the last of the NH Primary as we know it. I can thank Justin for that; telling me we're spoiled in the Granite State. I've heard all of it before but I do think some sort of change is on the horizon & I don't have a good feeling about it.
Anticipation. That's what I'm missing. I have no more sense of anticipation. It won't reach a fever pitch around me; more likely things will just fizzle out around final exams and the holidays, then fizzle out forever. For me, this feels almost as bad as cancelling Christmas.
I think I just need to see a few more candidates, and get back on track with volunteering at the JRE office in Dover. They are so fired up there that it's hard to be glum. They will not let polls or early dates or pundits rain on their parade.
I'm off to DC for meetings on Capitol Hill to promote UNH interns in our NH Congressional offices, and to visit UNH interns in the city. I'll be missing Rudy in Durham and Edwards in Dover. But the kids asked if they can go see Edwards without me, so I guess I'm doing something right. Will the NH Primary be something they grow up with, or a funny memory of that time they were four and met all the candidates...
Monday, October 1, 2007
Filing Period & Making Reservations
I started this post about a week ago. Then I got sick, followed by my son, then both of us were outdone by my elderly mother who is now hospitalized in Massachusetts. Therefore, this isn't quite as thorough as I'd like, but here's what I was pondering a few days ago:
Our Secretary of State in NH has announced the filing period for the NH Primary. As posted on nhpols.com: "According to the Secretary of State's Web site, the filing period for the upcoming New Hampshire presidential primary will begin on Monday, Oct. 15, 2007 and end on Friday, Nov. 2, 2007. " So, the big guess now is will it be January 9th? Bummer that it won't be when UNH is in session. This is a huge bummer to me, and it will probably ensure that the campaigns will be less likely to come to campus if the majority of students won't be voting in Durham.
Everyone is eager for the Primary's date to be set so they can more forward. This got me to thinking about unintended consequences, for some reason, and the hospitality industry.
There are so many campaigns waiting for this date. But imagine if you work for one of the larger hotels in the Manchester area. There are only so many ballrooms in NH. With eight Dems and nine Republicans so far, where will all the victory parties be? Do the big campaigns have deposits down on every Tuesday night in December & January, because they can afford to?
A quick study of Manch-Vegas on-line tells me that we have seven hotels in the greater Manch-Vegas area with a three-star rating or better, and only two of them are in Manchester proper. So, who's the lucky candidate who will be spinning live from the Econolodge?? I hope someone picks one of the venues in the Seacoast region, just to mix it up a bit. Oh, the media will hate me for that, but WMUR does have a little tiny branch office in Portsmouth, practically under the Memorial Bridge!
Our Secretary of State in NH has announced the filing period for the NH Primary. As posted on nhpols.com: "According to the Secretary of State's Web site, the filing period for the upcoming New Hampshire presidential primary will begin on Monday, Oct. 15, 2007 and end on Friday, Nov. 2, 2007. " So, the big guess now is will it be January 9th? Bummer that it won't be when UNH is in session. This is a huge bummer to me, and it will probably ensure that the campaigns will be less likely to come to campus if the majority of students won't be voting in Durham.
Everyone is eager for the Primary's date to be set so they can more forward. This got me to thinking about unintended consequences, for some reason, and the hospitality industry.
There are so many campaigns waiting for this date. But imagine if you work for one of the larger hotels in the Manchester area. There are only so many ballrooms in NH. With eight Dems and nine Republicans so far, where will all the victory parties be? Do the big campaigns have deposits down on every Tuesday night in December & January, because they can afford to?
A quick study of Manch-Vegas on-line tells me that we have seven hotels in the greater Manch-Vegas area with a three-star rating or better, and only two of them are in Manchester proper. So, who's the lucky candidate who will be spinning live from the Econolodge?? I hope someone picks one of the venues in the Seacoast region, just to mix it up a bit. Oh, the media will hate me for that, but WMUR does have a little tiny branch office in Portsmouth, practically under the Memorial Bridge!
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