(DUBUQUE, Iowa) — While sitting in a room littered with campaign pamphlets, streamers and posters supporting 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, Mikel Szyman had just a few words to sum up her feelings on the presidential hopeful’s campaign: “This could be the beginning to the country going back to how I’d like it to be.”
Syzman, a student at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, and busloads of other Wisconsinites traveled to Dubuque, Iowa, and various other locations throughout the state to show their enthusiasm for the Dean campaign in the days preceding the Iowa caucus.
According to Ald. Austin King, District 8, approximately 100 people, including college students from throughout the UW System and from other Wisconsin universities, many of them members of Students for Dean, along with numerous adults, headed to the political hotbed over the weekend.
“It’s definitely a humongous presence,” King said.
From there, the supporters, nicknamed “Stormers,” bombarded Dubuque County, which many have dubbed “the most competitive county in Iowa,” in the days leading up to the Monday voting session. With flaming orange hats that read “Iowa, the Perfect Storm,” the supporters set out to spread the word via telephone or door-to-door canvassing.
For Ryan Alexander, a sophomore at Marquette University and president of the Marquette Students for Dean, such tactics as a “more personal approach” help make the Dean campaign unique. He hopes such one-on-one methods will not only set up a basis for communication and clarification, but also give people a face from which to relate to the Dean campaign as a whole.
Dean supporter Alex Lampros noted that on Friday alone, the supporters paid visits to more than 4,000 homes, which was double the number expected for one day. It was estimated the group would reach as many as 8,000 homes by the time the weekend came to a close.
In Alexander’s mind, the presence of so many active student politicos marks another unique quality of the Dean campaign. As he pointed out, the number of students in his organization continues to grow as the importance of students’ votes becomes more and more evident as the electoral process proceeds.
“It is amazing. When I started this group, my goal was (to get) 50 people so I could call to get people to do something,” he said, adding that Dean has helped to create a stronger Democratic voice on the Marquette campus. “I expect our membership to at least double in the next month.”
As Monday, the final day of campaigning, came upon the Wisconsin group, students and adults alike set out to make themselves as “visible” as possible. While some stood near highways waving giant Dean posters, others walked throughout Dubuque trying to recruit last-minute voters. Still others paid visit to the city’s three college campuses in hopes of appealing to the student crowd.
When the final hours leading up to the 7 p.m. caucus deadline neared, the groups scattered throughout various city voting precincts and lined up side-by-side with supporters of fellow presidential hopefuls. And when the last voters finally filed into the caucus rooms, the supporters proudly looked back on the past few days’ activities, ones that they feel not only affected the caucuses, but will also impact the primaries in the upcoming months.
“It was an amazing turnout. It was a great thing that people came together to help determine the future of the country,” UW-Madison freshman and Students for Dean member Brian Shactman said. “It’s democracy at its best.”
