Dartmouth summers -- even those that lie only months away from a hot presidential primary -- are usually times when national politics takes a backseat among on-campus interests.
During non-class intervals, the Rockefeller Center for Government and Public Policy stands empty. Curious stares at loitering, eccentric visitors trying to muster support for fringe candidacies quickly turn into eye-rolling opportunities. Even the mainstream candidates themselves, who often frequent Hanover's intellectual base at other times of the year, remain MIA.
Political energy wanes, as much of the College's activity shifts from policy to more recreational pursuits.
But don't tell that to Dartmouth's Dean team.
"We're just out there all the time," said Liz Middleton '06, manning a table in the Collis Center lobby during the lunchtime rush to attract more supporters for the former Vermont governor's presidential campaign.
Busy handing out popular Dean stickers -- they're known to run out soon after first being sighted, another fan noted -- Middleton, a first-time volunteer, ran down a laundry list of activities the campaign had in the works, from blood drives to heavy recruitment among the Class of 2007.
Today, another round of tabling in Collis. Tomorrow, door-to-door canvassing in local neighborhoods. And from now through the Jan. 27 Democratic primary, Middleton said, the steam behind this grassroots engine will only pick up.
"When people hear what [Dean] stands for, they agree," she said, as several students added their names to a campus BlitzMail list for updates on Howard Dean, the physician-turned-politician whose unabashed style and oftentimes anti-Bush message has won both applause and vehement disapproval within his own party.
At the College, the campaign's core -- around 40 students, according to various volunteers -- is out to tell the world that the Doctor is In.
"I don't see anyone getting excited for anyone else on campus," Dean volunteer Jordan Kovnot '04 said, citing the up-front nature of the campaign as a reason behind its student energy.
Volunteer Greg Klein '04 praised Dean's "common-sense approach" to issues, calling the campaign a "bottom-up insurgency" whose accessible and honest candidate has brought hundreds of thousands of people together behind him.
An activist component to the campaign also resonates with Democrats disenchanted with the party's more conventional candidates, many volunteers have noted.
"The Democratic Party keeps lunging farther to the right -- it's gotten a little too far right for me," Kovnot said. "Dean's the clear alternative to Bush."
At the same time, supporters quickly pointed out that Dean is not the liberal extremist his enemies say he is. One of his catch phrases may proclaim that he "represents the Democratic wing of the Democratic party," but that, Dean volunteers said, just indicates his honest, straight-talking demeanor and refusal to take on views that are not his own.
On that note, Klein argued, Dean's criticism of U.S. military action in Iraq -- one factor in his popularity among students -- doesn't mean that the candidate can be nailed as a pacifist.
"He's not a peacenik," Klein said. "He's supported other wars in the past."
The classification difficulties go further. During his tenure as governor, Dean legalized Vermont civil unions for gays and lesbians, a move that won him the ire of many conservatives and kept alive the widespread notion of Vermont being a haven for hippies escaping mainstream society. But at the same time, Dean balanced the state budget several times over and received an "A" rating from the National Rifle Association, an interest group many liberals love to hate.
Still, popular opinion surrounding Dean continues to stress his leftist attributes above anything else, making many in the Democratic party's administrative base fearful of a Dean win and a subsequent political demolition by the President.
Rising numbers for the outsider candidate indicate that within the state, the tell-it-like-it-is strategy is working among Democratic faithfuls and independents alike. Dean now ranks first among likely N.H. Democratic primary voters in an Aug. 19 American Research Group poll, with 28 percent. Sixty-three percent voters have a favorable opinion of Dean, according to the poll.
Meanwhile, polls indicate that 2000 vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., now stands to garner just 3 percent of the vote in a hypothetical race among the Democratic contenders.
And unlike other candidates, Dean supporters often note, the governor's support comes not from big donors, but many average individuals. The Internet has proven to be a huge campaign tool, with over 300,000 people signed up as "Americans for Dean" -- more than half of whom have made some monetary contribution. Supporters have found each other on campaign-sponsored websites and gathered (the monthly events are referred to as meetups, and can involve anything from volunteer brainstorming to massive letter-writing efforts) with fiery enthusiasm. They take pride in their candidate's successes, and in their own, too.
This month has been particularly fruitful. When Vice President Dick Cheney raised $300,000 at a $2,000-a-plate luncheon, the Dean campaign vowed to meet that mark on the level of ordinary people.
In three days, it amassed more than $500,000 online from supporters across the nation.
This, volunteers say, is how grassroots stumping will win the race.
A Dean Organizing Convention, held Aug. 10 in Manchester, brought together 400-plus supporters from different parts of the state. Dean's Upper Valley office, located in Lebanon, opened just weeks before. Its faded walls are lined with newspaper clippings and toasts from dedicated Dean-ites, and a hand-painted coffee table proclaiming "We Love Dean" is littered with the governor's magazine spreads.
"What we're seeing is volunteers organizing themselves -- that's what's making this campaign strong," said Dean staffer Graham Roth '04, who works in the Lebanon office with a handful of other full-time employees.
"Dean is offering concrete solutions, and that's pulling in people from all political backgrounds," added fellow staffer Sarah Ayres '06.
