Foot soldiers in the White House battle

There is a long summer - and winter - of campaigning to come
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It was cold, wet and miserable. But that wasn't enough to stop
campaigners for Hillary Clinton turning out in force with placards and
chants.
Elsewhere, supporters of Senator Joe Biden had been out planting the
roadsides with signs saying Biden for President and Biden, Yes!
Others wandered around Manchester, New Hampshire, bearing banners for
candidates Senator Chris Dodd and Representative Duncan Hunter, among
others.
The 2008 US presidential election is still 17 months away, yet in New
Hampshire, where the Democratic hopefuls held their latest televised
debate on Sunday and the Republican contenders square up on Tuesday,
local campaigning is well under way.
So what motivates people to get involved, and is there a danger their
energy could run dry on the long haul to November 2008?

Some are already in the swing of campaigning |
For grassroots campaigner Ann Balcom-Dadak, who lives a short drive
from Manchester, the motivation is partly belief in her chosen
candidate, Senator Biden from Delaware, and partly civic duty as a
resident of one of the key campaign states.
"I've lived in New Hampshire about 25 years and I've always felt how
lucky I was to be here because I could get involved - and shame on me if
I wasn't," she says.
Ann, 55, signed up to support Sen Biden's campaign late last year and
has been working hard ever since to convince people around her that he
is the best Democratic choice for America.
She admits the task is made harder by the media focus on the party's
"rock star" trio of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards.
Her husband, Paul Dadak, has come on board though, and was among
those who spent several hours on Sunday holding up signs in the rain
outside the debate venue. "It is a big commitment," Ann says. "But I
felt I was committed very, very early to Senator Biden. I think we need
someone with his experience and that's what drew me towards him."
As a grassroots campaigner, one of her jobs over the coming months
will be to help organise the many house parties where Mr Biden will meet
potential supporters face-to-face, a vital part of New Hampshire
campaigning.
The hard slog will come as she and others go door-to-door canvassing
for potential voters, especially as the primary season approaches in
early 2008 and the weather worsens.
Some people are understandably wary of getting involved too soon in
what may be a gruelling campaign.
Pat Yosha, a retired English teacher living in Exeter, New Hampshire,
knows who she plans to support - Hillary Clinton, whose performance at
Sunday's debate she describes as "superb".
She has seen her three times at campaign events in New Hampshire, at
one of which she was able to put a question to the New York senator and
former first lady in person.
But at the same time, she is not quite ready to throw herself into
full-scale campaigning.
"Eventually I will - the people from her campaign are asking me a lot
of questions about contacts, they are trying to get organised in this
area.
"I want to get involved in voter registration and eventually I will
start writing letters to the editor and so on.

People of New Hampshire are well used to election campaigns |
"But it's going to be a long haul - and that's why I don't want to
use all my energy now, although I'm accumulating all the information I
can."
Of all the states, New Hampshire can perhaps claim to feel the most
pressure, because it is the first in the US to nominate its candidates
to run for president - and this time round campaigning has started
exceptionally early.
But Dean Spiliotes, director of research for the New Hampshire
Institute of Politics, at St Anselm College in Manchester, says fatigue
among the state's campaigners - both Republicans and Democrats - is
unlikely to be a problem. "The reality is, for people who pay close
attention - the political elite here - this is nothing new for them," he
says.
"They are used to making these campaigns the long haul. The intensity
is a little more this time round, but people are used to a roughly
two-year primary cycle, so right after the mid-terms in November, people
started to gear up for the primary."
One resource the campaigns are able to draw on is a pool of hundreds
of student volunteers willing to carry out grassroots tasks like
leafleting, posting signs and supporting rallies.
Greg Boguslavsky, chairman of the New Hampshire College Republicans
group, says his recruits are "in for the long haul".
Frequent visits by candidates to state campuses, including one by
former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee last week, are helping to keep
the students - many of whom will be voting for the first time - highly
motivated, he adds.
"Students are very energetic and they get excited about the
opportunities to play a part, so we really are an important base for
politics in the state."
Ultimately, whether it is the Democrats or the Republicans who win,
it will be their countless dedicated grassroots campaigners they can
thank for turning out the vote. "I feel like it's a right but also a
responsibility," Ann Balcom-Dadak says.
"If I participate I can complain because I'm trying to do something
to change things. If I don't participate, I have no right to complain."
BBC
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