denomination. I
worked the South: Florida*
South Carolina* Louisiana* and Georgia. Florida was important* because its December 15 straw poll at the Democratic convention wouldthe first contested vote. President Bush was beginning to slip in the polls and didn’t help himself by saying that the economy was in
good shape. I spoke to the National Education Association and the annual meeting of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington. I went south again to North Carolina* Texas* and Georgia. In the West* I made stops in Colorado and South Dakota; in Wyoming* where Governor Mike Sullivan endorsedme; and in the Republican stronghold of Orange County* California* where I picked up the support of Republican telecommunications executive Roger Johnson and others who were disillusioned with President Bush’s economic policy.argument that his military record and his popularity in conservative Republican Nebraskamade him the most electable Democrat against President Bush.I ran poorly there* I might not do well enough in the states that followed to last until Super Tuesday. Though I was running dead last in the polls in mid-November* I liked my chances. New Hampshire is a small
state* less than half the size of Arkansas* with very well-informed primary voters who take seriously their responsibility to carefully evaluate the candidates antheir positions. To compete effectively* a good organization and persuasive television adnecessary* but nowhere near sufficient. You must also do well in an endless stream of smallhouse parties* town meetings* rallies* and unscheduled handshaking. A lot of New Hampshicitizens won’t vote for anyone who hasn’t personally asked for their support. After all my years in Arkansas politics* that kind of campaigning was second nature to me.trauma it spawned made me feel at home in New Hampshire. It was like Arkansas ten years earlier. After prospering throughout the 1980s* New Hampshire had the nation’s fastest-growing welfare and food-stamp
rolls* and the highest rate of bankruptcies. Factories were closing and banks were in trouble. Lots of people were unemployed and genuinely afraidafraid of losing their homes and their health insurance. They didn’t know if they would be able to send their kids to college. They doubted Sosituations. And I thought I knew what needed to be done to turn things around. The campaign organization began with two gifted young people* Mitchell Schwartz and Wendy Smith* who moved to Manchester and opened the state headquarters. They were sojoined by Michael Whouley* a Boston Irishman and world-class organizer* and my friend offorty years Patty Howe Criner* who moved up
from Little Rock to explain and defend me anmy record. Before long we had a big steering committee co-chaired by two lawyers I’d met through the DLC* John Broderick and Terry Schumaker* whose office* fortuitously* was in thsame building that more than a century earlier had housed the law office of Governor FranklinPierce. The competition was stiff. All the announced candidates were running hard in New Hampshire. Senator Bob Kerrey* the Medal of Honor winner and former Nebraska governor*attracted a lot
of interest because he was a political maverick: a fiscal conservativcoverage for all Americans* a big issue in a state where the number of people losing thehealth insurance was rising daily after a decade in which the cost of health insurance nationally had risen at three times the overall rate of inflation. Kerrey also had a p
denomination> I worked the South