It's official, Kerry campaign worker Drew Richardson says. "John Kerry will be president."
The AU sophomore came to this conclusion after three months of toiling in the heart of the political machine: Sen. John Kerry's D.C. campaign headquarters.
Richardson's working relationship with the Massachusetts senator began with a simple phone call. It just so happened that a family friend knew somebody who knew somebody, and the rest is history.
Most volunteers reporting for work at the headquarters near McPherson are older than one might expect. At 20, Richardson was the youngest volunteer.
"There were a lot of older people, 60 to 70 years old." He said, "They would walk in and say, 'We're here to help. What can we do?'"
Richardson's main task was compiling spreadsheets to tally campaign fund raising, but he was also able to plan events, such as a dinner for ambassadors in Georgetown, and help with a Baltimore fund-raiser involving former President Bill Clinton. In August, the Kerry campaign needed Richardson in Boston for the Democratic National Convention.
The Eagle recently had the chance to ask him about Kerry's campaign.
Eagle: Did you get to meet John Kerry?
Richardson: First day I was working there, Kerry came into the office. He gave a speech and literally towered over the crowd. He talked about how much he appreciated everything we were doing. I got to meet him, shake his hand, talk with him.
Eagle: What's your impression of him?
Richardson: A lot of the time, he comes off very well in his speeches. When he's speaking to the campaign, occasionally it seemed like he was getting off on a tangent. He was very verbose. He was very statesman-like, let's put it that way.
I think in terms of, you know, being presidential material, he's pretty good. But people say he's not a "people person," and that sometimes comes across. Sometimes when he's talking to us, his campaign, he'd get off base and there would be a lull in the crowd and so he'd suddenly say, "And we're going to win in November!" and the crowd would cheer.
John Edwards is awesome, he's like a rock star. He came into the campaign one day and everybody ran to greet him. One of the women in the office fainted and [swooping down] he caught her and said, "You OK? How are you doing?" Very cool guy.
Eagle: Why should people vote for Kerry?
Richardson: Originally, I wasn't impressed by Kerry. I thought Howard Dean was the way to go, because he was so passionate. I jumped on the Kerry bandwagon a bit later.
On the one hand, anybody but Bush is the right choice. Unfortunately, the Republicans are very good at saying, "Kerry is a flip-flopper" and "Kerry is weak on Iraq." Something important to remember is this war in Iraq was optional. With Kerry in office, that's definitely not a war that would have happened.
In terms of voting for him, he's not the most liberal senator. Bush is really going too far to the right. Take, for instance, the assault-weapons ban. On many social issues, Kerry really represents more of the mainstream country. The Republicans have done a very good job of packaging Bush and getting out his conservative base and portraying Kerry as someone who is this ultra-liberal that wants a socialist state. People really need to become well-informed on a wide array of issues, not just one.
Eagle: How can Kerry defeat Bush?
Richardson: The debates are very important. He needs to come out strong on Bush's record of the last four years - point out that more jobs have been lost than created and that the war in Iraq was optional. Kerry needs to attack him on these issues because Bush has taken us in the wrong direction.
Eagle: What was the convention like?
Richardson: We met up with Mary Beth Cahill, the campaign manager for Kerry. She had a skybox, a suite right in front of the action. We got to work right in the box. I got to meet Jesse Jackson, Joe Lieberman, Dan Rather.
Eagle: Favorite speech?
Richardson: Barack Obama, by far. The cool thing about this speech was, for most speeches they hand out signs that say, "Go Kerry" or "Go Edwards." Well, they handed out the signs for Obama and people were like, "Who the heck is this guy?" So a lot of people were skeptical. But then he started speaking...
That was really the only speech of the entire convention where the wild cheers and applause were so genuine. I mean, people are going to cheer for Kerry and Edwards no matter what, but people were actually listening to what Obama had to say. His speech was so bipartisan and well-crafted, people really got behind the message. By the end, people were just cheering wildly. It was the most visceral feeling of the entire convention.
Eagle: Do you use Heinz ketchup?
Richardson: You know every single squirt, 5 cents goes to Theresa Heinz Kerry. She's getting all that money, man. Of course, I use it.
Eagle: Are you still involved in the campaign?
Richardson: Well, I still go back every now and then. I'm friends with AU College Democrats President Greg [Wasserstrom], and he mentioned that he needed some Kerry stuff. So I went to the office and picked up some bumper stickers, posters. It's also good to see my old co-workers. It was tough to leave, but they seemed to have everything under control.
Eagle: With all this knowledge of the inner workings of the Kerry campaign, are you tempted to go over to the [other] side?
Richardson: [The other volunteers and I] talked about that. We thought, we should all show up at the Bush campaign and intern for them and get secret information. We never considered going to their side, but we'd probably spy for our side.
