A Volunteer's Cold Feat
John Edwards Staffer Warms to a Daunting Task
By Hanna Rosin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 4, 2004; Page D01
One in a series of reports from the New Hampshire primary campaign
NASHUA, N.H. -- The bottoms of her pant legs are soaked from the snow and her fingers are turning a purplish red. But Bailey Wolfstead's complaints are not for herself. "The papers are getting totally wet," she says, referring to her precious cargo, "Real Solutions for America," the booklet she is determined to slip past every door on this street so the neighbors will know why John Edwards will be the next president.
Half an hour earlier, Wolfstead had listened to Edwards -- "Here! In our little office!" -- make the stakes clear. A reporter had asked how he could possibly win New Hampshire, given that polls showed him stuck in the single digits, and Edwards had lain the burden for turnaround on foot soldiers like Wolfstead: "We're going to leave here and we're going to go knock on some doors. People of New Hampshire want close and personal contact, and we're going to give them that."
Now here she is, on this dead-end suburban street dusted with snow, no sign of life save the distant barking of dogs. So she and her canvassing partner, Mary Peterson, check the first name on their list and set out to navigate around the ice patches.
Less than a month until the nation's first primary, just enough time for the Democratic candidates who are behind to convince themselves that a miracle is possible. On this weekend Edwards will travel up north and take hope in a packed coffeehouse in Conway, John Kerry will play hockey in Hooksett, and Joe Lieberman will schmooze diners in Manchester, all hoping to break through. Yet none of them is polling within 20 points of Howard Dean, who is also in the state.
The reality comes home to Edwards as soon as he leaves the campaign office; as an inspiration to his canvassers the candidate himself knocks on a few doors, with his wife, Elizabeth, and two youngest children trailing him. At his first stop, he gets a taste of New England bluntness.
"This is good for you. This is how you get the votes," says the man who answers. "But you just started out. You haven't got 30, 40 years like some of those other guys. Best of luck to you." And then he closes the door.
When the odds are against them it's easy for the campaign volunteers to falter: They work long hours for no pay, licking envelopes, calling strangers or going door-to-door in the freezing cold. It takes a special type of person to check the polls the evening before and still get out there an hour before the candidate arrives at the office, as did Wolfstead, and stand at the traffic circle and lead the cheers of: "We love John Edwards! He'll win New Hampshire! He'll take the White House in 2004!"
"Polls?" she says. "Here's my feeling on polls. We're 25 days out and it could still go any which way. And honestly, I don't care if he's down negative-five. I believe in what he has to say to people. And I believe people will go to the voting booth and they'll make the right decision."
Wolfstead is 19 and a freshman at New York University. She grew up in Florida; this is her first Northeast winter and it shows -- her shoes are insubstantial and her wool coat too elegant for her task. She's here because she saw Edwards speak in New York last year and "it was like life-altering. I can't describe it any other way. He was like a mix between JFK and Bill Clinton. And I thought, 'This is the guy who has to be president.' "
To most people, Edwards's booklet "Real Solutions" is a list of policy prescriptions: relieving the tax burden, health care for every child, increased education funding, stronger environmental protections, as well as his defense strategy.
To Wolfstead, it's more like a self-help book. She's copied out her favorite portions and framed them on color paper all over the walls of the Nashua office: "Everyone should have a chance to work hard, save, and build a future for their children," interspersed with inspirational quotes from Anne Frank, Aesop, Edith Cavell.
When Wolfstead is feeling discouraged, say, a caller's been rude or she's knocked on 20 doors and no one was home, she comes back to the office and reads one of Edwards's phrases above her desk. "It keeps you going; it reminds you why you're doing this," she says.
Wolfstead's affinity seems to lie with the underdog. On the wall over her desk are two Ziggy cartoons. The inscription for one begins: "The view from the top may be great but when you're the little guy looking up from the bottom, you can see where they've stumbled." Her favorite show is "Sex and the City." She pays deference, of course, to Carrie, the main character, played by Sarah Jessica Parker, but her heart is with Miranda, the redhead who rarely has a boyfriend.
"You want to know what really keeps her going," jokes Clarinda Landeros, the field director for Nashua. Wolfstead goes over to her computer where she keeps a cutout of Edwards, a little newspaper clip of him in his high school football uniform, his silken bangs just touching his lashes, an unattainable hunk. "It's a hot commodity with us girls on the campaign," Wolfstead says.
This week she was supposed to be on vacation in the Bahamas with her mom but the campaign called and asked for her help, so she's here instead, giving up a week at the beach to walk the streets in "the coldest place in the world."
"I think we're looking for number 14," she says to Peterson, an intern from the Manchester office who came down to help her for the day. Before they'd started, Wolfstead gave her own pep talk. "This is a lot of fun," she says. "When you tell people about John Edwards, people get really excited. They get really pumped up and buzzed about the race."
She rings the bell and walks down a few steps, to avoid being whacked by the door. A man answers, shushes a dog in the background.
"Hi, I'm Bailey, and I'm with John Edwards."
"Right."
"I just want to drop off his 'Real Solutions.' It's a book of what he wants to do and how he'll pay for it."
"All right. Okay."
"He'll be at City Hall tomorrow at 3. You can mix and mingle. We'd love it if you pop by."
"All right. Okay."
"Thank you very much."
Over the course of the weekday lunch hour they will see 12 people or so. A couple will be uninviting and basically slam the door. One will be positive: "I just saw him on TV. I love his accent." A couple have dogs, even a puppy, which is a highlight. "Puppies, puppies!," the women coo. "If we were after the dog population we would definitely win."
But most will be like No. 14, or No. 22, neither here nor there.
"Hi, how are you?"
"Not bad."
"My name's Bailey. I'm with the John Edwards campaign. He'll be here tomorrow at 3 in City Hall and we'd love it . . . "
"I have to work."
"Well, it won't be the same without you."
If no one is home the interns leave a booklet with a handwritten note, "Sorry to have missed you," with a smiley face. "People have called the office to say how much they appreciate the smiley faces. It's like a personal touch." Wolfstead says.
At one point Wolfstead nearly slips on the ice. "I wouldn't do this for anyone other than John Edwards," she says when she regains her balance. Peterson, who is from North Carolina, says she misses sweet tea and barbecue. Wolfstead misses Hanukah, her roommates and her mom.
Toward the end, they are standing on someone's stoop, deep into explaining why they like John Edwards above the other Democrats. "In half their speeches they're bashing each other," says Wolfstead. "But he doesn't do that."
"If you're a happy, positive person he's like a flashing light saying, 'Be great, do great things, be positive,' " says Peterson.
"Yeah, nine out of 10 people would get really excited to see John Edwards," says Wolfstead.
Just then the woman opens her door. "I don't do political polls," she says, and shuts it again.
"Have a good day, ma'am."
Wolfstead doesn't lose heart. Once, what she thought was her worst customer turned out to be her best.
"I was out canvassing and I had a guy say to me, 'You got 30 seconds to tell me why I should vote for this guy.' I went through this policy and that policy" and then suddenly the ultimate reasons he should vote for Edwards became clear to her:
"When it comes down to it, I'm from Florida," she told him. "I miss my friends and I miss my family and I'm out here in the freezing cold because I believe in John Edwards that much. Don't settle for a candidate you can live with. Support a candidate you can't live without."
And it worked.
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