August 1, 2004: Headlines: COS - Liberia: Election2004 - McNally: Hartford Courant: Shaun McNally, who got just enough votes at the party nominating convention to force a primary, is taking a page from the Howard Dean campaign manual, portraying himself as a mad-as-hell, grassroots candidate with the guts to buck his own party.

Peace Corps Online: Directory: Liberia: Special Report: Liberia RPCV Shaun McNally, Candidate for Congress in Connecticut: August 1, 2004: Headlines: COS - Liberia: Election2004 - McNally: Hartford Courant: Shaun McNally, who got just enough votes at the party nominating convention to force a primary, is taking a page from the Howard Dean campaign manual, portraying himself as a mad-as-hell, grassroots candidate with the guts to buck his own party.

By Admin1 (admin) (pool-151-196-239-147.balt.east.verizon.net - 151.196.239.147) on Tuesday, August 17, 2004 - 10:52 am: Edit Post

Shaun McNally, who got just enough votes at the party nominating convention to force a primary, is taking a page from the Howard Dean campaign manual, portraying himself as a mad-as-hell, grassroots candidate with the guts to buck his own party.

Shaun McNally, who got just enough votes at the party nominating convention to force a primary, is taking a page from the Howard Dean campaign manual, portraying himself as a mad-as-hell, grassroots candidate with the guts to buck his own party.

Shaun McNally, who got just enough votes at the party nominating convention to force a primary, is taking a page from the Howard Dean campaign manual, portraying himself as a mad-as-hell, grassroots candidate with the guts to buck his own party.

August Voting Not In Season
Democratic Rivals Try To Get Attention

August 1, 2004
By PENELOPE OVERTON, Courant Staff Writer

COLCHESTER -- Sharon Palmer, president of one of the state's teachers' unions, sat in a folding chair in the shade last month, in the middle of a wildly popular local car show, talking antique roadsters and politics.

The Democrats are having a primary in August to pick a candidate for Congress, Palmer told car buffs at Cruise Night. Many stopped to chat in front of her 1959, sky blue Cadillac. If you're a Democrat in the 2nd Congressional District, you should vote, she said.

People nodded, then asked Palmer questions. They didn't ask whom Palmer's union, the Connecticut Federation of Educational and Professional Employees, was backing. They wanted to know where she bought her snazzy chrome rims.

"Oh, who am I kidding?" Palmer said. "People aren't used to an August primary. It's out of place. Everybody's either on vacation, just getting back from one or about to take one. It's summertime. Voting is the last thing on anybody's mind."

As a foot soldier in the Democrats' campaign to beat Rob Simmons, the two-term Republican representing eastern Connecticut, Palmer is one of many trying to figure out how to tackle the Aug. 10 primary to choose a Democrat to compete against him.

Jim Sullivan and Shaun McNally, the two candidates, may have spent the last year shaping their messages, but spreading them in summer, a time of vacations and hot pennant races, has been tough. This will be the first August primary in Connecticut since the 1970s, a fact that has yet to trickle down to many dedicated primary voters. The McNally campaign has even put the primary date on its lawn signs.

Limited fund-raising, coupled with the need to inspire and mobilize the distracted voters, has propelled the campaigns into different specific tactics, but in general, they're both waging on-the-ground, one-on-one campaigns. So far, both campaigns have skipped the costly media and mailing blitzes, but they will both run TV commercials next week. They are also using campaign websites and e-mail to publicize appearances, position statements and campaign news and solicit financial contributions.

Sullivan is tapping into the party structure, including labor unions such as Palmer's, for help reaching known primary voters. For example, Palmer may not have had much luck wooing passersby at Cruise Night, but she, like other union leaders, is getting good feedback from pro-Sullivan mailings to members, both current and retired.

Labor unions, senior citizens and town committees in such key towns as Windham, New London and Norwich carry the Sullivan message, packaged as a two-friends-just-chatting recruitment drive, to as many known primary voters as possible. In Chaplin, for example, First Selectman Rusty Lanzit is calling every Democrat on Sullivan's behalf.

Sullivan is asking his political friends to reach out to their constituencies. When Sullivan visits the Willimantic senior center, he takes along state Sen. Edith Prague, who is a hero to the senior community, where she introduces him as "my guy Jimmy."

McNally, who got just enough votes at the party nominating convention to force a primary, is taking a page from the Howard Dean campaign manual, portraying himself as a mad-as-hell, grassroots candidate with the guts to buck his own party. The campaign favors intimate house parties and street fairs over wooing out-of-touch town committees.

He uses his Peace Corps service in Liberia to bolster his liberal credentials and his anti-war platform. The former congressional aide in him knows how to seek out, help, and capitalize on angry constituents, such as Navy wives living in ramshackle housing.

He is counting on support from the populist movement that fueled Dean and more recently the "Fahrenheit 9/11" craze, which generated round-the-block lines at the little arts cinema in Madison, the westernmost town in this 65-town district. In June, McNally co-sponsored an online conference call with "Fahrenheit 9/11" filmmaker Michael Moore, drawing about 90 people to the home of a Haddam supporter.

To Sullivan, McNally is a right-wing Democrat waging guerrilla war against his own party. Sullivan's staff ridicules McNally's campaign tactics - standing on the side of the road waving at commuters? Amateur. Turning down union money? Sour grapes.

To McNally, Sullivan is the ultimate party insider, someone McNallyalleges cut a backroom deal with Democratic bosses to bow out of the 2002 2nd District race in exchange for support in 2004. Sullivan is politics as usual, he says. Been there, lost that.

In the meantime, both the Sullivan and McNally camps are spending the last week of the primary campaign trying to prepare for the unknown. They don't know how many voters will show up on Aug. 10 or how turnout will affect the results. But they know it's an uphill struggle.

At the Tall Ships Environmental Festival in New London last month, McNally worked the crowd, many of whom were from out of town, with his earnest, intellectual pitch. A few locals, however, shook their heads. It's too early, a Noank man said. A Niantic woman smiled, but then steered her kids toward the soft serve.

Taking a break from a day of house parties last month, where he fielded questions all day but never ate, Sullivan relished the anonymity of slipping into a blue-collar Clinton bar for a cold beer. The bartender didn't recognize Sullivan and carded his intern.

"I think I'll skip the big get-out-the-vote speech this time," Sullivan said, looking around at the darkened bar with a chuckle. "It's probably the one time I'm actually glad someone doesn't know about the primary."

Registrars of voters in towns like Ellington, Colchester and East Lyme expect the turnout to be low, but Common Cause Connecticut, which supported the new primary law that moved the primary from September to August, said other states that hold August primaries, such as Rhode Island and Kansas, enjoy stable, strong voter turnout.

With an eye toward the calendar, both campaigns are handing out absentee ballot applications, urging people who may be heading out of town, and even those who may simply not feel like standing in line to vote on a summer day, to vote on their own time. McNally's campaign website has a link for those who want an absentee application.

Based on the recent presidential primary figures, both campaigns expect 18,000 to 20,000 people to vote, although they say weather and news of the day will sway the final numbers. Both say the race will be decided by who votes, not how many.

Sullivan, who has collected more political endorsements, raised more money and captured more party delegates than McNally, is the party darling. A high turnout often benefits the favorite, said University of Connecticut politics professor Ken Dautrich.

A low turnout could do the same, because it might mean party loyalists Sullivan has wooed through town committees would prevail. But a low turnout doesn't signal strength to the national Democrats Sullivan needs to mount a successful general election campaign.

"I've thought about this a lot, and it could work either way," Sullivan said. "It's a brand new world out there. A primary is a big if and nobody likes that. I figure the best thing to do is to just concentrate on beating Rob Simmons."

McNally is also struggling to figure out which turnout scenario would benefit him. His anti-war message could resonate with armchair pacifists, inspiring Democrats to run to the polls. Or Sullivan's "politics as usual" message could fall flat.

"Democrats are angry at Bush because of the war and angry at people in the party who bow to Bush or special interests," said Malea Stenzel, McNally's campaign manager. "Mad at Bush, high turnout. Mad at Sullivan, low turnout. We could do well either way."





When this story was prepared, this was the front page of PCOL magazine:

This Month's Issue: August 2004 This Month's Issue: August 2004
Teresa Heinz Kerry celebrates the Peace Corps Volunteer as one of the best faces America has ever projected in a speech to the Democratic Convention. The National Review disagreed and said that Heinz's celebration of the PCV was "truly offensive." What's your opinion and who can come up with the funniest caption for our Current Events Funny?

Exclusive: Director Vasquez speaks out in an op-ed published exclusively on the web by Peace Corps Online saying the Dayton Daily News' portrayal of Peace Corps "doesn't jibe with facts."

In other news, the NPCA makes the case for improving governance and explains the challenges facing the organization, RPCV Bob Shaconis says Peace Corps has been a "sacred cow", RPCV Shaun McNally picks up support for his Aug 10 primary and has a plan to win in Connecticut, and the movie "Open Water" based on the negligent deaths of two RPCVs in Australia opens August 6. Op-ed's by RPCVs: Cops of the World is not a good goal and Peace Corps must emphasize community development.





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Story Source: Hartford Courant

This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Liberia; Election2004 - McNally

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