Dr. Paul in NH August 18th-20th
Posted August 14th, 2007 by Jane Aitken
Well my friends, we here in Hillsborough and Strafford Counties are gearing up for a long-awaited visit from Dr. Paul this weekend and it's going to be a blast!
First, we will march with him in the Londonderry Old Home Day Parade, which is a part of the Londonderry Old Home Day festival. The local GOP will have a weekend booth there and I've arranged with one of our state reps for me to drop off plenty of literature and a sign up sheet for people to order lawn signs delivered if they wish.
Ordinarily I or someone else would attend the booth for a few hours to do our share (there are other candidates literature there too) but we will all be following Dr. Paul to the next stop which is the Strafford County GOP Picnic and Straw Poll. I heard it's going to be at a beautiful location out near the coast so I'm very excited about this. There will be a large welcoming committee there as well.
The next morning, after attending church, Dr. Paul will head over to the Hillsborough County BBQ where he will find even more supporters to greet him.
The next day, Dr. Paul will have lunch at Martha's Exchange in downtown Nashua where he will meet and greet supporters.
Then he will visit Papergraphics, a business in Merrimack.
And in case you wonder what we all do here to promote Dr. Paul when Dr. Paul is NOT here, see this video of the 3-day booth I set up at the Hudson Old Home Day festival for August 10-12. The GOP did not have a booth there this year, so when the party has no booth, some candidates do their own. (Hillary and Obama always do their own -- they never go with the Democrat booth)
NH is full of these events all summer and fall and at this one I was stationed right between a Rudy and a Hillary booth, the only other candidates whose workers were there! (I say workers because these are college kids who are trucked in from other states and paid) If you don't show up for your candidate, believe me, the others notice! They don't think you have a campaign if you aren't at every one of these!
In any case, watch this video that Will's wife took on her cell phone and you will see that I was having a blast. I was helped by Will, Jon M and Andy from the two NH Meetups...Will set up his computer to loop a Ron Paul promotional video so we had music to attract curious people to whom we handed out literature, stickers and pins...I gave out quite a few lawn signs as well.
That weekend there were about 11 such places to have a 'booth' or table, or to join one in progress, and my friend Dave took charge of one over in Epsom.
OK I usually hate myself in videos, but here it is...for the cause! For doing this kind of thing we need at least 12 - 16 people to fan out over the state each weekend. It's not that hard, you only need two people per booth if you do your own (to help set up, and mind the booth to give each other some breaktime) It's even better if the GOP already has a booth, because you can simply join them or leave your stuff there and they will gladly hand it out to the MOSTLY UNDECIDED VOTERS!
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Update on boothing....
In NH we will soon have a website section for Ron Paul off the official site that will allow you to sign up and work with me on these booths that I organize.
One of the ideas I had was to give away free balloons to the children with Ron Paul words on them, so they can be walking ads for Ron Paul!
And yesterday another person said she spontaneously had the same idea and would help me!
This is cheap enough to do and works better than candy which some parents don't want their kids to have....
Yesterday the RP Chair in Strafford worked with the HQ people to have a booth and get signs distributed and the one in Londonderry was manned by a volunteer after I left, that I had no idea about, so you see how the rule of 'just do it' works here? That person was not able to get out to the picnic so he knew I was going to have to leave the booth at around noon and stepped up to the plate. It's always better if someone is there to sell the goods, even though the GOP was happy to have the materials there at their generic booth.
Straw Poll results.
Here are the results from the Strafford straw poll from today!
http://www.youtube.com/wa...
Live Free or Die.
Cool beans
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Hi Jane - man, I wish I could be with you, back in my old stamping grounds of southern New Hamster. I am sure you will do very well. I hope you and The Good Doctor will have a photo taken together and that you will post it.
Maybe you can have a sculptor friend chisel Dr. Paul's profile on the mountain in Franconia Notch? (I wouldn't call Dr. Paul an old man, but people would look up and exclaim, "Look Enid! Isn't that Ron Paul's profile up they-uh?").
Very good!
Yes he deserves to be etched in stone!
Usually I'm running around so frazzled, wearing my hair under a hat, trying to help make things happen, that I'm not fit for having a photo taken...maybe at today's event I will be presentable enough!
Yesterday it was windy and I felt like I had grit in my teeth from the dust blowing...and I bring my cars to the car wash regularly after doing the fairs on the weekends!
My photo is on the Nashua Meetup if you're that curious! :-)
Adventures in county fairs...
I really enjoyed your comments and observations about taking advantage of the county fairs. Our meetup group just did a 3 1/2 fair. It was better than I ever expected. This is Romney country (Southern Utah) but surprisingly most people are willing to learn about another candidate. We had a excellent turnout from our group, an average of 10 people at any given time volunteered at the booth. We had some excellent people who were polite but confident enough to speak to strangers about this amazing campaign. Our excitement really wore off on a lot of others. In fact EVERY booth around us really like what we had to say. We got kudo's from the Democratic booth, and the GOP booth. I feel this experience has trained me to be a great Paulunteer at future events (the local gun show is next!)
Excellent!
This is great news! These events are there for you...so use them!
Even if you don't have the tent, table etc to do your own booth, you can usually just join the GOP booth and put in some time there, but it always looks better if you have your own.
It's not hard work and you really only need a few people to cover for each other in case there is equipment you don't want to walk off or just for a break.
See if you can get your surplus volunteers to fan out and do the other venues. Look up on the internet calendars and town websites, and all the counties and see what they have going on for fairs, festivals, and old home celebrations. You can even bring your kids. It's fun!
This is nothing new or ingenious on my part -- this is what is done during primary time in NH, and always has been. I just have trouble convincing the Meetup people that they should help me do this. Remember, Rudy et al have paid little workers flown in from other states to work each event...they leave no stone unturned. Why can't we as volunteers do the same? Isn't that what this is about -- doing the right thing just because?
Even if you have to join the GOP table everyone is friendly and they will even hand out your Ron Paul stuff for you while you are at lunch or whatever. That is what your local GOP is for -- promoting the GOP candidates. Believe me, they want any one of them to win over any one of the Democrats so they are not going to exclude Ron, at least in NH they would never think of it.
I realize that I may be more comfy with this system because I've been in the NH political circles for years and know everyone but even if you are new, the GOP loves new people.
To quote one of the state reps who is running the GOP booth at the parade event where Ron will be on Sat after I asked him about leaving lit there:
"We welcome all Republicans, especially YOU Jane".
It made me feel good.
:-)
Good work!
We're having similar success getting the message out at fairs in Pennsylvania also. It is a wonderful and personal way to help the campaign. Thank you and good luck in the future.
I'm jealous
Wow, Jane, you must be so excited! God, I wish Ron Paul will come to Jersey. My parents said they might take me to a pay-per-plate dinner up in New York City, and just knowing that alone gets me through the night, haha.
The Retro Republican
WOW
We are fortunate to have such active folks in such a key state!! Any tips on boothing? I am doing my first at a festival here in Montana this weekend.
Booth bunnies...
I've been politically active for about 20 years here in NH...so here is what is usually done during primary season:
I keep a calendar of state events just so people can find fun things to do all year round, and summer and fall are very full. These are the places that the hired workers are sent to talk to the people.
I simply go over the list and divide them up by counties, since we have people in each county, who can try to get helpers to fan out with them.
So last weekend I determined that Hudson was going to be the biggest one of all in my assigned county, so I chose that. If there hadn't been one in my county I would have checked with the other persons and covered some other area. Then I called the nearest GOP and ask them if they were having a booth and if so, may I join them?
If I am going out alone or sending someone else alone, this is the easiest way to do it. Last weekend there were 11 events and sadly only two or three got covered. They are very welcoming and love having you. You are not tied to the booth the whole time and can share breaks, and they have the tent, table etc... you just bring your printed signs and literature. (I wouldn't bring revolution signs to a GOP booth but that's just my take -- I use regular campaign signs) This time they were not going to be there, as they are the same people having the BBQ on the 19th and so were all going to be busy...
So then if there is NO GOP, you can call the event organizers and ask if political candidates can have a booth -- sometimes the answer is no, but if it's yes, it also might cost a little something so be prepared for that... Then you have to bring a tent, table, chairs, lites for night time (I bought plastic drop lights and arranged for electricity) cooler of water for your helpers, a bowl of free candy for the kids (we had a sign that said, "Freedom is sweeter than free sweets") and if possible, a laptop and two speakers to loop videos for promoting Dr. Paul. (We used the Stop Dreaming video). Bring all your lit, lawns signs or whatever and then just sit there and talk to people! Instruct them on how to register to vote in the primary, etc...
One weekend I went out to the coast to do an "Independence Festival" in a very Democrat district. The local GOP had a tent and were glad to have me. I'd never met them before...Hillary was to our left, and Obama's was to our right and Romney has his own booth down the street. I had a LOT of interest. That same weekend I went out to another western NH destination and did TWO events, Swanzey Old Home Days and Walpole's GOP Picnic.
All the others were there hawking their candidates! 4 others joined me in Swanzey and I took another fellow with me to the Walpole party that was at someone's home. (All the GOPs have their summer socials throughout the season up to fall and sometimes during Christmas)
So, those are the events at which you must go shake hands, talk, hand out stuff....don't be afraid! They don't bite and they love to hear about all the candidates. Remember, only 8% of all republicans polled have their MINDS MADE UP.
If you have any other questions, email me... and I'll try to help you.
- Jane
Wonderful
Jane, you are doing a wonderful job and your advice is very helpful. Thanks and keep up the good work on behalf of liberty!
Thanks!
There are always going be naysayers who find fault with you when you are doing things and in forefront so be prepared for that, but don't let it bother you.
I realize I am not a boss, and I can't TELL people what to do, but I try to lead by example. If I can pull off some successful things, and show that I am willing to roll up my sleeves and do what is usually done to 'campaign' then maybe others will be willing to try it and join me.
I know that Will, the fellow who so generously lent me his laptop, worked a GOP fundraiser (the famous controversial machine gun shoot that made it onto Keith Olbermann's show) the week before and had such a good time he decided to help me with this booth.
I had arrived there alone but the people in the booth next to me helped me untelescope the tent canopy and the rest was easy.