The Las Vegas Experience; MSNBC - Enemy of Democracy

After I spent almost a month in New Hampshire I went to Las Vegas, Nevada to work on the Kucinich campaign. As most of you may know Nevada has a caucus system, and not a primary. Because Nevada had a caucus my tactics in trying to get support for Kucinich were different than New Hampshire.

I had never been to Las Vega before until now, and before I continue let me say that Las Vegas may be one of the worst places to campaign in the country because it's very hard to distinguish tourists from residents. Because of this obstacle I spent most of my time on the phones speaking to potential caucus goers instead of staying on the streets. Around the time I arrived in Las Vegas the campaign got notice that Dennis Kucinich was going to be excluded from the NBC debate after he was originally invited and sent an invitation. The Kucinich campaign ended up taking NBC to court and winning a court injunction to allow him in the day before the debate. NBC decided to appeal the decision to the Nevada Supreme Court. Before the decision was made many Kucinich supporters like myself protested outside of the Cashman Center(where the debate was to take place, see picture) to show our support for Dennis Kucinich. Every campaign was forced into pig pen areas called "Free Speech Zones". Since when did our freedom of speech become restricted to zones? While every other campaign seemed not to care that their freedom of speech was being trampled on, our Kucinich contingent made it immediately known that this was a direct violation of the U.S. Constitution. We chanted "MSNBC - ENEMY OF DEMOCRACY" for their attempt to silence Dennis Kucinich.

About 1 hour before the debate was to start Dennis Kuicnich came out to address his supporters telling us that he was ready to enter the debate if a decision wasn't made in time, or if a decision was made in our favor. About 30 minutes before the debate was to start the Nevada Supreme Court decided in favor of NBC to exclude Dennis Kucinich from the debate, and at the same time causing devastation among many Kucinich supporters. Kucinich came out to address his supporters again after the decision to explain how undemocratic NBC was, and the connection between General Electric and NBC(see picture). This was a major blow to our campaign because it prevented our message from getting out, but it may also have been a blessing in disguise. This Nevada Supreme Court decision gave the Kucinich campaign the most media coverage of the entire campaign.

As I mentioned in the beginning, because of the caucus system the campaign had to change the tactics in getting the message out to voters. We had to rely on phone banking and visibility(signs and sign waving). For the rest of the week until the caucus I spoke to at least 500-1,000 caucus goers in the Nevada. A large percentage of the people I talked to were aware that Dennis Kucinich was excluded from the NBC debate. The one issue that turned on a lot of voters about Kucinich was his single-payer not-for-profit health care position. A LOT of the people I talked to on the phone were unaware of what this was, and after explaining to them everything they were immediately interested. A lot of other people were also part of the "I like Kucinich, but..." crowd. I managed to get a lot of people to at least strongly consider supporting Kucinich in the 1st alignment, and if he did not make it out of the 1st alignment then they could choose someone else in the 2nd alignment.

At the end of the Nevada caucus Hillary Clinton emerged as the winner, but not without a few observations of the caucus system itself...More on that in my next blog.

Dre

Back from New Hampshire (and Nevada)

Back from another long break of blogging. Please forgive me. I was actually in New Hampshire and Nevada campaigning for Dennis Kucinich. It was a great experience for me because I had never worked on a Presidential campaign before, and I had never been to New Hampshire or Nevada before.

New Hampshire was absolutely insane because it was the first primary in the country. I talked to a lot of people on the streets and they were very nice. Even people from other campaigns like Ron Paul, John McCain, Mike Huckabee, Barack Obama, and John Edwards were very fun to talk to on the streets even though we had our political disagreements. (I avoided Hillary supporters at all costs....) I was based in Concord, New Hampshire, and did a lot of canvassing there. I would say of everyone I talked to about 85% of them agreed with Dennis Kucinich on the issues, but every one of those people refused to vote for him based on "electability". I don't understand why someone would not want to vote for someone they agree with. I always tried to explain to people that Kucinich can't win if you don't vote for him, but most of them don't budge.

During the time in New Hampshire I met Dennis Kucinich, and I have to say he is a VERY VERY nice person. Before coming to New Hampshire I had never heard him speak before, but the first time I heard him speak in person it was very inspirational. It's hard to explain through text without experiencing it yourself, but when you hear him speak in person you can immediately feel as though he cares about you, and that he's not like the rest of politicians in Washington. After one of his speeches he actually brought a Ron Paul supporter to tears.

Oscar nominated actor Viggo Mortensen came to New Hampshire to help out Dennis Kucinich once he learned that Kucinich was excluded from the ABC debate at St. Anselm's College. Viggo was very nice to everyone, and the day before the election he managed to convert an Edwards supporter to a Kucinich supporter. The Edwards supporter traded his button for Viggo Mortensen's Kucinich button. (see picture!)

Even though Dennis Kucinich was excluded from the ABC Presidential debate at St. Anselm's college, and many people I spoke to while canvassing refused to vote for Dennis Kucinich it never brought me down. The New Hampshire experience was fun, but frustrating at the same time. It tested my limits as to how far I was willing to go for Dennis Kucinich based on terrain, and weather conditions. Every time I saw that I had to walk up a hill to get to just one house while canvassing I kept telling myself, "This is for Dennis Kucinich". Every time a door slammed in my face it never kept me from going on to the next house.

I'm proud to have worked on the Kucinich campaign in New Hampshire, and I would do it again for him in 2012 if asked. I'll talk about my Nevada experience in another blog later.

If you have any questions about my New Hampshire experience feel free to ask. Leave a comment and I will gladly answer!

Dre