Taking New Hampshire by Storm

With the critical Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries only days away, Harvard students are hitting the campaign trail.

Part of a national attempt to mobilize student workers, these undergraduates and recent graduates are going all out to turn the tide for faltering candidates and help push campaigns of popular candidates down the long road to the summer conventions.

Undergraduates hold key positions in several campaigns, and all the major candidates have support groups on campus. Massive student participation in the presidential campaigns dates back to 1968. In that year, an exodus of Massachusetts student voters handed Eugene McCarthy a stunning New Hampshire primary victory, revealing that Harvard and other colleges can be sources for manpower and enthusiasm important for a successful presidential drive.

"Students have always provided enthusiasm and excitement," says Ariela J. Gross '87, national student coordinator for the Michael S. Dukakis For President campaign. More importantly, in small states like New Hampshire student volunteers can reach enough registered voters to make the difference between and upset victory and a suprising defeat, workers say. An early win New Hampshire or elsewhere, can build momentum for a presidential race, while a poor showing can kill a candidate's hopes at the beginning of a campaign.

Student volunteers play a crucial role in February. All candidates hope to show strongly in either Iowa or New Hampshire and so they need volunteers who can canvass entire towns in a few hours.

"The most important thing we do at this point is getting people up to New Hampshire," says Jane E. Arnold '90, campus coordinator for Congressman Richard Gephardt (D.-Mo.) When participating on a canvassing trip, students receive a short orientation as they arrive at New Hampshire sites, load up with literature and lists of voters, and head out. Campaigns provide transportation, food and organization.

Although the vast majority of student campaign workers are part-time volunteers, a number of Harvard undergraduates and recent graduates have taken full-time jobs on the campaign. Evan O. Grossman '87-'88 is one such worker. Having warmed up in 1984 as an advance man for the Democratic ticket of Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro, he now works for Dukakis as an analyst and coordinator. His job includes compiling daily delegate counts, financial information and logistical data.

Grossman says he has put in 15-hour days at campaign headquarters in recent weeks now that his honors thesis in Social Studies is complete. "It's difficult for students who are busy with exams and classes to have the time for a campaign," Grossman says. "I tried not to sleep too much."

Students working across party lines are equally dedicated. James D. Chung '88 is one of Sen. Robert Dole's (R.-Kan.) lead advance men in New England and Washington, D.C. A native of Wichita, Kansas, Chung worked for Dole during his earlier years in the Senate and joined the campaign last July.

"When I'm working, I'm up at six and not asleep until two a.m.," the Cabot House resident says. "It's harsh, really, really harsh." Chung is surviving 100-hour work weeks right now, working almost like a nanny. His job includes waking his candidate, feeding him, sending him to smaller events, putting him into holding rooms, preparing for other events, and finally putting him to bed at around 10 p.m. "Then I begin doing all the work for the next day," Chung says.

The students working on campaigns may not be spending much time in their classes, but they are getting an education in the inner workings of politics. "The toughest thing is balancing all the different factions within the campaign as well as the people outside," Chung says. "Everyone has different goals, different ideas of what the senator should do."

One of the groups participating in this political tug of war includes the student workers themselves. Since Gary Hart's presidential drive emphasizes "new ideas" and appeals for student activism, young people play key roles in shaping the candidate's policies, supporters say. Alan Khazei '83, resident scholar in law and public service at Currier House is a long-time Hart supporter. He coordinated 15 percent of the precincts in New Hampshire for Hart's 1984 victory and now works as a speechwriter and organizer in the newly revitalized drive.

Khazei says he worked closely on the formulation of Hart's proposals for national public service legislation, which proposes compulsory community service work for college-age youth. Hart's college organizers say that they like Hart's "progressive, national" vision, and Khazei says that workers in their early twenties will be more numerous in Hart's campaign than in any other candidate's.

Affecting the Issues

Student campaign workers say that student interests have also affected the issues that other candidates have focused on. At the Dukakis camp, Grossman says young people want the next president to address issues that have disrupted campuses nationwide such as Central America, apartheid and the homeless. And Avram S. Brown '88-89, co-coordinator for Hart at Harvard, says many students want a candidate who is "not willing to rely on traditional liberal solutions," which is how Hart couches his appeal.

When appealing to student workers and voters, Republican candidate Pat Robertson focuses on his fundamentalist religion and his conservative views on family and education, says Michael D. Lord '90, Robertson's youth co-ordinator for the New England region. He says that these views run counter to those held by "the Washington and party establishment."

Youth outreach groups like Robertson's serve two purposes: they win over college-age voters and drum up more volunteers for the crucial canvassing that can win primaries. The Democrats in particular have made strong efforts to send volunteer to meet New Hampshire voters.

The student volunteer efforts center on small core groups of workers which consistently travel to New Hampshire or campaign headquarters in Boston where they man telephones and lick envelopes, leaders say. These groups vary in size from a handful of supporters for candidates such as Al Haig or Bruce Babbitt, to 20 or 30 backers for Dole, Bush or Dukakis.

Benefits for volunteers may include after-hour visits from candidates, social mixing with other students, and debating with voters. Brown says New Hampshire residents are "fiercely politically and willing to question canvassers about their candidates while maintaining an independent viewpoint.

Dukakis' young campaign workers last fall tried another campaign technique. Gross says college students helped create the first-ever satellite conference in a presidential election when Dukakis addressed students in 56 colleges in 25 states via a satellite hookup last November.

Registering New Voters

While most candidates ask their volunteers to concentrate on winning votes, the Rev. Jesse Jackson's supporters at Harvard and nationwide have been an exception. The Jackson workers instead try to register new voters. Jackson's Massachusetts campus coordinator H. Edward Young Jr. '89 says volunteers at the College will be recruiting voters in Cambridge. "Jackson keeps pushing that Americans need to vote," Young says. He adds that Jackson's campaign registered 3 million voters in 1984 and hopes to beat that record this year.

Besides the Jackson campaign, however, candidates' student groups have similar agendas for this spring. Most plan weekend canvassing trips to New Hampshire over the next two weeks, coupled with more campus publicity. Most groups do not anticipate any more visits by presidential hopefuls, although every candidate except for Vice President George Bush came to Harvard's Institute of Politics this fall for Murrow Professor of Press and Public Policy Marvin S. Kalb's series of interviews.

Although most of the campaigns have been able to assemble small collections of individuals for canvassing, most have had trouble pulling in larger groups of students. L. Ellen Cox '89, co-president of Harvard's Republican Club and co-chairman of Harvard Students for Dole, says, "With Harvard kids, it's tough to pin them down with volunteering. Everyone has a lot of activities."

Other student leaders say that apathy keeps the majority of the student body inactive. However, Ann-Marie Leshkowich '89, president of the Harvard Democrats Club, says she thinks student activism is on the rise and will continue to grow as the campaign progresses. "Students are interested but they need a sense that they make a difference," Leshkowich says. She adds Harvard's schedule makes campaigning difficult, because exam and registration schedules in the fall and winter conflict with important political events.