So Long New Hampshire.

Well.... the trip is pretty much over. I have to say I really liked it up here..... working, meeting interesting people, the beautiful [cold] weather.....  

Today we arrived at the office fairly early and made some phone calls reminding people to vote and such. Later George and I with some other random volunteers went canvassing in a town called Exeter. Interesting place. I didn't see the "downtown" area but I thought the surrounding neighborhoods were beautiful. And the weather was absolutely perfect. About 50 degrees!

Afterwards, back to the phones. Ridiculousness there. We were [pretty much] made to call people up until 7:30 pm. Yeah.... we were mad. the people being called were mad. it was just not a fun situation. 

Later was the primary party. After only 10% of the ballots were called in, Fox News claimed McCain the winner. Not the outcome anyone there wanted but it wasn't horrible either. Romney ended up with 32% of the votes and 4 delegates while McCain received 37% of the votes and 7 delegates. 

while Romney was speaking

new friend from NYC

a Romney staffer, Tom

So now we're on our way back home to Florida. The end of one short race, on to another! 

Why are you calling me Doug?

SUNDAY

Went to work pretty early and after about an hour of making phone calls we found out we were going to get to go to another rally! Our favorite staffer Mr. Thomas DeRosa decided last minute to bring us along to put up Romney signs and give directions to people going to the event. It was a successful event with over 500 people in attendance (I think that's what someone was saying)! Anyways, it was great to get out and see the supporters and the crazy volunteers again..... 

MONDAY

Today I woke up reeeaaaallllyyy early and was picked up around seven to go to MaryAnne's Diner in Derry where Governor Romney was going to say hi and meet some locals. I got another shot at getting to meet him and I got a really good picture with him......

pretty good, right?

After that I went to the Portsmouth Romney Office for a day of relaxation. Well.... sort of. I still made lots of calls but with not quite the stress of the other office. The Manchester office is constantly moving with at least 60 people there at a time! 

Portsmouth is a very pretty place. We walked down to lunch and I got to see all of the cute shops. Here's a quick picture of the town. 

Tonight Governor Romney came to the Manchester office to meet and thank his staff, interns, and volunteers. Not much room in there! Lots of press were there, too.

Well, tomorrow is the big day...... I'm ready for a win! Go Mitt!

"Iowa picks corn..... New Hampshire picks presidents"

Wow. That's all I can say right now! I'm a bit delirious from sleep deprivation.

THURSDAY

We basically made phone calls until it was dinner time (yeah, about seven hours of calls!!!) and then we started watching the Iowa Caucuses. Although Romney ended up only getting 25% of the state, we all thought he did really well- I especially loved his response on Fox News... "It's the first inning in a fifty inning game...."

FRIDAY (BASICALLY)

After that a few of us interns went to our supervisor's house and grabbed some hot chocolate and headed out to welcome MITT ROMNEY! He arrived at about 3:30 am in a huge Jet Blue airplane with a bunch of press and his family. It was so much fun! I was right in the front during his little thank you speech. I also got to meet him and get a picture with him.

We got back to Lauren's house at around 4:45 am and I think I got about an hour of sleep. Lauren had to get back to the office at 8:00 for a staff meeting... craziness. We ended up being able to make it to meet Bill Richardson and go on the field trip to the State Capitol in Concord.

Later we just made calls and then we staffed a town hall meeting in Manchester. That was great! It was so fun to see all of the local people and their excitement... Not to mention being considered "staff" for a night.

TODAY

Today was quite an insane day. Started out normal. We met the author of the book we have been reading for this class, Dante Scala.

While we were meeting with him the fire alarms started going off..... our hotel had caught on fire!! So, instead of helping out at the Romney office and going canvassing, we had to wait until about 3:00 to get our luggage out. Anyways, the hotel was a mess when we finally got in so we were put up in a new (and much, much nicer) hotel about 15 miles away in Massachusetts. Oh, and we were definitely in the local news for that! haha

THREE DAYS TO GO!

"Hi, this is Laura calling from the Mitt Romney office..."

umm... so basically I know all of the phone numbers, addresses, times and dates for all of the Romney events occurring in the next six days. I have a wealth of useful information. : )

So after talking to Scott and George, we all came to the conclusion that even though we were on the phones all day (excluding our venture to wave signs in 10 degree weather) it was definitely the best day so far! Probably the fact that even more new (younger) people were there and we were getting to know the staff better. 

So: coffee, water, a cell phone, and never-ending lists of voters to call! All part of the life of a campaign volunteer/intern.

We actually didn't arrive at the Romney office until about 1:30 because we spent the morning on a field trip in Concord. 

The New Hampshire State Library

The Gallery we visited- New Hampshire: A Proven Primary Tradition

(some fun political memorabilia)

The beautiful state capitol building!

The meeting at the Democratic Party Office and director of New Hamshire.

The Republican Party Office and director of New Hampshire.

I had a great time learning about New Hampshire's history and Parties in addition to getting to work at the campaign later! 

All I have to say at this point....... Vote for Romney!

Oh, the weather outside is frightful!

but I still love it! 

Today was just another day calling angry people.... yikes! At least they were alleged Romney supporters?? Still.... most were angry. But I didn't have to do that for long because I got to go put some Romney signs in people's yards around town. 

It was perfect! I rode around with a local college student, Katie, and it was great to talk to her and get to hear what she thought about New Hampshire, politics, etc....  It was also snowing really hard at one point.... Big, fluffy snowflakes! It was also great because I got to actually see Manchester and their old, beautiful clapboard houses and churches!

Guess what I did when I got back to the office?? Yep, those darn phone calls again. At least this was to ask them to volunteer (well, that's a bit rough) & invite them to an event.....

On to another day! Tomorrow we're taking a detour to take a field trip to Concord! Interesting....

Happy New Year!

Woke up to some beautiful snow this morning! Love it!

            

Today we got started with a short meeting over some breakfast and a few pictures. (http://rtwhphotos.blogspot.com) Instead of going directly to our own campaigns we went to each campaign to see where everyone was placed. A majority of the campaigns are located here in Nashua where we are staying. The campaign I'm working for, Romney, is located in Manchester which is about 20 minutes away (and where we flew into) so we were close to the end. We ended up getting to the office at around 12:30.

Once we arrived, we met most of the staff and got right to work! Our first (and in reality a never-ending) assignment was to call people. We called registered Republicans and independents who voted for Republicans in the last two elections. 

Anyways..... many angry voters on the phone saying they had been bombarded with a ton of calls today. A few supporters mixed in, too. 

After a few hours of "phone banking" we waved some signs..... in the snow of course. 

             

Kind of a nice change from getting hung up on repetitively...... 

Let's see.... after that we started painting a banner for the welcome rally for Romney which is taking place on Friday at 2 am! It's kind of far away for us but hopefully we'll be there!

Oh yeah........ happy new years! 

We're here!!

So after an exhausting day of traveling over 1400 miles, lugging heavy coat and boot filled luggage, and making a quick trip to Walmart.... we have arrived!           "the Romney crew"  

It's pretty cold outside too- a chilling (for someone living in Florida) temperature of 28 degrees. Not to mention "heavy snow" on the forecast for tonight! Oh, the excitement of a temperature change.  (and the fact that most of the people here have never seen snow!)

Tomorrow will be our first day "on the job" meeting our supervisors of the campaigns and such. I am so excited about being a part of a campaign and being able to see exactly how a presidential campaign works in contrast to smaller political campaigns. It will also be great to meet and work with other people with common goals. Anyways, I just checked the polls and it seems Romney is at the top [barely] with McCain pushing up in a close second. 

I better get some rest before tomorrow! Good night.