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Ms. Smithie Goes to Washington
(and New Hampshire)
By Sara Barz ’06
Last fall Liz Hartmann-Dow ’10 found herself with stacks of Barack Obama campaign
literature in the middle of No. Weare. That’s North Weare, New Hampshire, but
the locals pronounce it “nowhere” -- a little joke by the hardy Granite
State folks who live on a hillside completely foreign to the dispatch of Smith canvassers.
“We drove up this misty, eerie mountain on a single-lane gravel road,” laughs Hartmann-Dow. “The
houses were 500 yards apart or more. It took us one hour to talk to talk to four or five people.”
However, Hartmann-Dow’s perseverance was appreciated by the residents. Smith
Democrats overwhelmingly reported that New Hampshire voters like to be courted, and
the residents of No. Weare were no different. “Some of them who came to the
door looked at me like, ‘What are you doing up here?’ But they were all
really considerate,” Hartmann-Dow says. “One woman -- a Hillary supporter -- engaged
me in this huge debate on policy. Then after five or 10 minutes she got this shocked
look on her face and ran back into the house. She had left dinner on the stove.”
Left: Members of the Smith College Democrats with John
Edwards: (left to right) Claire Stein-Ross ’10, Davida Ginsberg ’10,
Tessa Keefe ’10, Katy Frank ’10 and Sarah Mueller ’10. Right: Members
of the Smith College Republicans in Washington D.C. (top, left to right): Kelsey
Radwilowicz ’10, Samantha Lewis ’08 and Sarah Brock ’09.
Tales like Hartmann-Dow’s became familiar in the run-up to the New Hampshire
primary on January 8, 2008. According to Claire Stein-Ross ’10, the campaign
coordinator for the Smith Democrats, “we did seven canvassing trips and three
phone banks at Smith.” All but one of the campaign trips went to New Hampshire,
and the club worked with the Obama, Edwards and Clinton campaigns. “We tried
to work wherever we could be used most,” says Stein-Ross.
One highlight for her was the October canvassing trip to Keene to work with the John
Edwards campaign. “We always asked to stay overnight so we could get as much
exposure as possible,” explains Stein-Ross. “When we worked for Edwards,
we slept on the floor in the campaign office. It was more like a middle-school sleepover
than a campaign trip. We had a carton of ice cream, and we were all curled up in
our sleeping bags. It was really fun.”
On the other side of the aisle, this presidential primary season did not provide
the best opportunity for the Smith Republican Club to flex its political muscle. “We
had nine candidates for four volunteers,” explains Samantha Lewis ’08,
president of the Smith Republican Club. “Most of our members were abroad or
in Washington, and even among those who were on campus there was no consensus regarding
candidates to support. Some people did not make up their minds until the Conservative
Political Action Conference in February.”
The Smith Republican Club regularly attends the annual CPAC in Washington, D.C. Held
for three days, this year’s event highlighted the divisions between conservatives
across the country as well as those within the Smith Republican Club.
“When Romney announced that he was leaving the presidential race at CPAC there was just chaos
in the room,” says Gretchen Hahn ’09, secretary of the Republican Club and editor-in-chief
of The Right View, a conservative campus newspaper. “People were sobbing and crying. Then when
McCain got up to speak, the man sitting next to me booed him the entire time.”
Hahn, who did not decide that McCain was her candidate of choice until CPAC, hopes
to continue her political involvement over the summer, campaigning for either McCain
or her congressman Christopher Shays (R-CT).
Both organizations are gearing up for fall 2008. “Last fall we were reorganizing,
but in the fall of ’08 we plan to be a lot more active,” says Hahn. “In
the fall we intend to publish The Right View on a more frequent basis, and we also
will paper the campus much like the club did in 2004 for President Bush.”
“In the spring semester we’re bringing Madeleine Kunin, the first female governor of Vermont,
to campus, and we hosted the Liberal Date Auction in March,” says Sidnie Davis ’08, president
of the Smith Democrats. “We want to make sure we go into the general election cycle strong on
funds.”
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