Nation-Building >> People behind the Dean campaign are believers | return to front page

From the Rutland Herald, Tracy Schmaler writes that Dean supporters are not typical political volunteers. They're willing to go the extra mile, pack up a car and get to Vermont to volunteer, work overtime in far away states through meetups, and much more. Some good comments from Joe Trippi on the message here as well - this is not just a campaign against the president's war policy, it's a campaign for a balanced budget, for health care for all Americans, for a sane approach to public education, and much, much more.

This is the kind of story that other Democratic presidential candidates would sell their right arm to get (or at the very least, abandon their principles for. ahem.):

Certain volunteer stories have become lore in the campaign, the examples of the kind of inspiration Dean invokes in his supporters. There is the young man who packed up his car in New York City and drove north to Burlington to volunteer because he believed in Dean. He worked for no pay for several weeks, but now makes about $500 a month. There is a pair of Washington, D.C., lawyers who came to Vermont to work for free because they liked what they heard from Dean. They may have a paying job some day, they were told. It is that type of response that has campaign staff convinced that Dean will be the candidate who emerges as the party’s nominee next year.

“It’s one of those things that you can’t believe,” said Kate O’Connor, who has been working for Dean as his special assistant since he moved into the governor’s office upon the death of Richard Snelling in 1991. “It’s hard for people here in Vermont who know him to get it.” O’Connor recalled the audience’s reaction to a speech Dean gave in California last month. “It was amazing,” she said. “When he was walking through the crowd, people were reaching out to touch him.”