By Sherri Burr
UNM Law Professor and Author
Until this past weekend, my contributions to the current presidential campaign have been limited to writing small checks to Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson, attending the February rallies with Sens. Ted Kennedy and Obama and Clinton and former President Clinton, and voting on Super Tuesday. Last Friday, I heeded the call of Barack Obama to "come to Texas."
Approximately 200 volunteers came to El Paso from Washington, Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, California and New Mexico. They were Asians, Caucasians, Hispanics and African Americans. They were college students and retired seniors, and every age group in between.
These men and women took time off from careers as defense contractors, organic farmers, teachers and lawyers to roll up their sleeves and participate in the campaign. Working for Barack in key management roles were several recently minted lawyers from Yale, the University of Texas-Austin and the University of Hawaii.
A can-do attitude pervades the campaign. No problem or personality seemed too difficult to resolve or accommodate. When the key broke in the door to the second El Paso office, Devon (the organic farmer) went to find a pair of pliers to pull out the fragment while a Yale-educated lawyer called the landlord to bring over a new key to be duplicated. Both smiled throughout the difficulty.
No personality was too complex for staffers to accommodate. Take, for example, the woman with four names and three phone numbers who I was assigned to drive to the first training session on Saturday morning. When five minutes had passed from our appointed time to meet, I called her. I waved to her from the parking lot as she promised to be down in one minute. Eight minutes passed and I called her again. She appeared with one of her cell phones pasted against her ear and carrying a full bag of make-up. On the drive over, I asked if she could keep a look out for a street name. She chose to apply make-up instead. We missed our turn and took a substantial detour. When we finally arrived, she lit out of the car immediately. I parked, went upstairs, and took a seat. She was nowhere to be found in the training room. She eventually arrived, sat next to me for 10 minutes before taking a phone call and disappearing for the remainder of the session.
I tell you this story to give you a sense of one of the trickier personalities who showed up to volunteer and how deftly the Barack staffers handled her. When she asked to have the campaign pay for her airline ticket, they politely declined. When she decided to come anyway, staffers found her complementary housing and transportation (e.g. me!). When she announced that she was not going to the Rock the Vote rally but instead would stay and catch the second training session, they said "fine." The staffers were at all times polite and considerate.
That the relatively unknown first-term senator has managed to win more delegates than Sen. Hillary Clinton is due at least in part to staffers like Ian, who put his Chicago law practice on hold to organize El Paso. And then, there is Carrie, an acting teacher from Hollywood, who stayed up till midnight Friday to prepare a flier and awoke at 7 a.m. Saturday to get it copied at Kinko's.
While canvassing voters, I met enough black and Hispanic Republicans to hold a micro-mini convention. Several were retired military, and they were interested in talking about the candidates. In some instances, I finally had to just thank them for their service to the country so that I could move on to finish my rounds before nightfall.
These conversations were not wasted, because in Texas, Republicans and independents can chose whether to vote in the Republican or Democratic primaries.
Another thing that doesn't get wasted in the campaign is money. There were no Dunkin' Donut runs and no putting people up in luxurious hotel rooms. Volunteers were placed in housing provided by Texans or in hotel rooms shared by other helpers. Snacks were bought at the local grocery stores.
So impressed was I by the frugal running of the campaign on the ground and the enthusiasm of the diverse volunteers and staffers that after returning from El Paso, I wrote another small check to Obama for America.
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