Local volunteers spend time, money on presidential campaigns
By Daniel Wolowicz camarillo@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers DIALING UP VOTERS- Oak Park resident Erin Fairbanks, left, prepares a voters' phone list along with volunteers Ed Hansen, center, and Dave Tillett, right, as they begin to call registered Democrats with a friendly reminder to vote in California's Feb. 5 primary election. They joined others for a Barack Obama Open House on Jan. 13.

California voters, for the first time since 1972, are expected to have a real impact on choosing nominees during the hotly contested 2008 presidential primary race.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's decision in March to move the state's presidential primaries from June to Feb. 5 not only forces the candidates to schedule more California campaign stops, but gives Golden State voters a chance to head to the polls before the nominees are a foregone conclusion.

"There's been a change in the amount of public time that candidates have spent in this state," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a senior scholar with the School of Policy Planning and Development at USC. "Usually, they use this state as an ATM. They zip in, take money out of the ATM, and zip out."

But presidential hopefuls from both parties face a real challenge in California because of its size and its socially diverse population. Even for the better financed campaigns, experts say the cost of media saturation across the state is too costly and travel is too time consuming.

"We're such a large state that if you wanted to travel the state it would cost a fortune," Bebitch Jeffe said.

California's size and population are why campaign volunteers in the state's 53 Congressional districts will play an important role in establishing grass-roots traction for their candidates.

"They (volunteers) certainly help in terms of perception, in terms of motivation, in terms of enthusiasm," Bebitch Jeffe said.

Throughout Ventura County, volunteers for both GOP and Democratic hopefuls are lining up and spreading the word about their candidates. Volunteer have their own stories to tell- why they choose to not only give their vote but also their time and, quite often, their own money.

'You can make a difference'

Deborah Dent's morning begins at 7 a.m. with an in-box full of e-mails and a cellphone that will soon begin ringing almost nonstop with calls from Ventura and Santa Barbara county residents asking how they can get involved in the 2008 presidential election.

Dent, a Simi Valley housewife and mother of three, said she works upwards of 80 hours a week as a local volunteer for U.S. Sen. Barack Obama's (DIll.) presidential campaign.

The 24th Congressional District coordinator, Dent said she became involved with the Democratic hopeful's campaign six months ago and has since taken a crash course in grass-roots politics.

"It's exciting to realize that hard work can pay off and that you can make a difference," Dent said about her time as a volunteer and why she works such long hours.

A personal connection

When Denise Nielsen isn't organizing a local phone bank, answering a wave of new e-mails or speaking at living room gettogethers, the Santa Rosa Valley mother of five is in her car delivering lawn signs throughout the county.

The Central Coast regional chair for former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney's presidential run, Nielsen said she is helping to organize more than 600 volunteers throughout the region working for the GOP candidate.

Nielsen said she is motivated to spend countless hours and her own money working as a volunteer because of what Romney had done more than 10 years ago for Melissa Gay, Nielsen's niece.

Melissa, 14 at the time, had disappeared from New York City in the summer of 1996 following a late-night dance party, according to reports. At the time of the disappearance, Melissa's father, Robert Gay, was an executive working for Romney at his Boston-based investment firm Bain Capital

According to newspaper reports, Romney temporarily closed down Bain Capital and flew the company's 50 employees to New York to distribute fliers and search for the runaway teen. Melissa was eventually found in a New Jersey home shortly after the search began, news reports said.

Melissa's father, featured in a television commercial aired by the Romney campaign in December, said the former governor helped find his missing daughter.

"That just told me he definitely had his priorities in order," Nielsen said.

An Edwards man

Steve Kane joined John Edwards' presidential campaign in April after hearing the former North Carolina senator speak in San Diego.

"I just thought he had the best presentation," said the Thousand Oaks resident and Baxter employee. Kane said it's his first time working as a volunteer on a presidential primary, and he spends upwards of 20 hours a week on the campaign.

Kane, a campaign coordinator in the county, said he works with about 25 Edwards supporters on a regular basis and has made it a point to speak at local Democratic clubs throughout the county.

"I've been discussing with neighbors, colleagues, people at my church, everybody else that is possible . . . to promote Edwards," said Kane, who has also traveled to Nevada to help go door-to-door in the Las Vegas area for his candidate.

Campaign veteran

Neal Andrews knows the campaign trail.

Andrews has walked it as both a candidate- he is a twoterm Ventura City Council member- and as a volunteer on more than a dozen local, state and national runs for various Republican candidates.

Andrews, who heads the Ventura County offices for U.S. Sen. John McCain's (RAriz.) presidential campaign, said he hopes his experience will help the former Vietnam veteran win the Republican Party's nomination.

"I've always admired him and believed he was a statesman and a leader of significance," Andrews said when asked why he supports McCain. Andrews volunteered in 2000 when McCain lost his bid for nomination to incumbent President George W. Bush.

The retired management consultant became involved with McCain's campaign in November 2006 and said he helps steer a group of about 50 active county volunteers to raise money and help spread the word about the GOP candidate.

"We are attempting to place John's name in prominent play and in all arenas that we can place it in," Andrews said. "We will speak before all audiences that will hear us."

Andrews said the local McCain camp is optimistic about the California primary in February.

"I think we've run a very honorable and honest campaign," Andrews said, "and we're going to win it, and we're going win it with style."

The working mom

Marianne Coffey wasn't exactly sure what to expect when she first set up a table at the Ventura Farmers' Market in November to talk with weekend shoppers about the presidential candidate she believes will "help turn the nation around."

The Ventura grandmother of seven, a volunteer for U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton's (DN.Y.) campaign, said the experience talking with locals at the open-air market has "been a real history lesson."

Coffey, an audit manager with the state, was a working mother while raising her four children and said Clinton is someone who identifies with working women in the 21st century.

"I've seen a tremendous amount of progress for women over my lifetime, and I think Hillary has been a pioneer in that effort," said Coffey, who volunteers about six hours of her time a week for the campaign.

Coffey said this is her first time as a volunteer for a presidential campaign, and she was heartened by the interest people have been showing in the upcoming election.

"People seem to be super serious about this election," Coffey said. "They seem to want to cast the right vote for the right candidate. It's amazing how many people are really paying attention."