Election 2016

On the road, a 2016 political diary

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Editor’s note: Merokean David Stonehill served as a Hillary Clinton campaign volunteer during the primary season and is now volunteering for Clinton’s effort to defeat Donald Trump. Below is a diary of his experiences on the road.

I am a Democratic election attorney who has been involved with local, state and national politics since 1999. Not until this year, however, did I start to work on a presidential campaign. In my case, I support Hillary Clinton. My first campaign adventure, helping to get out the vote (GOTV), was for the New Hampshire primary. Having thoroughly enjoyed myself while helping the Clinton campaign, I decided to work on more primaries.

Feb. 29: The Massachusetts primary

The March 1 Super Tuesday election featured Democratic primary contests in 12 states and territories. I arranged to go to the Massachusetts primary, which turned out to be a nail-biter. My goals were GOTV and voter protection.
I arrived in Arlington, an affluent suburb north of Boston, just west of Cambridge (home of Harvard University), and not far from Lexington and Concord. I was assigned to attach Vote Clinton door hangers along a route of previously identified supporters. The hangers reminded people to vote in the primary. My target area was relatively small, comprising detached homes, some with views of the Boston skyline.

March 1: Boston legal
I coordinated with the Clinton campaign attorneys supervising election efforts. My role as an election monitor was to observe voting at Everett City Hall, a key location to the campaign, and point out problems to election officials, including voting machine malfunctions, electioneering inside the polling place and voter intimidation.

Everett is a city of 43,000 people north of the Charles River and close to Boston. It is a Democratic, working-class town and a Clinton stronghold.

Massachusetts uses optical scanning voting machines like New York, so voting procedures are much like Long Island’s. Massachusetts’s boards of election are non-partisan. When I explained to the election supervisor there about the two-party Nassau County Board of Elections, she roared with laughter.

I observed no major problems during the day, which is what you want in an election. Excitement is good after the voting is said and done, but you prefer things to go smoothly and quietly during the election.

Clinton won in Massachusetts. That night, I stopped by the state Clinton election party in a large eatery in South Boston. Boston Mayor Martin Walsh spoke briefly, thanking everyone for helping with the campaign.

March 15, Primary Day, Clinton
National Headquarters, Brooklyn

March 15 featured five primaries: Ohio, Illinois, North Carolina, Florida and Missouri. I volunteered to help staff Hillary’s national campaign headquarters in Brooklyn, providing telephone hotline assistance to voters in these states, as well as Arizona, which did early voting. We gave basic information to voters, leaving more detailed responses to staff attorneys. Although I was kept busy by calls, I managed to tour the two-story Clinton offices, which resemble a large business, with departments such as finance, technology and legal. Clinton won all five primaries.

April 19: New York’s primary
My task was to drive around former State Sen. Dean Skelos’s old district and watch for problems with the presidential primary and the special State Senate election to replace Skelos. (The Democratic candidate was Todd Kaminsky, who won.) 

I started the long day at several polling places in Oceanside and moved to sites in Malverne, Elmont, North Valley Stream, Valley Stream, Cedarhurst, Hewlett and Long Beach. I helped resolve minor incidents and deter what could have been major voter-suppression efforts by Republicans.

I briefly attended the Kaminsky election night party in Long Beach, and spoke with Long Beach City Councilmen Anthony Eramo and Paul Mandel, as well as with Nassau County Legislator Laura Curran. A double victory for Clinton and Kaminsky!

April 26: Philadelphia
Five states held primaries, with Pennsylvania being the biggest prize. Having lived in Philadelphia years ago, I took a personal interest in this one.

I went to five polling places in Philadelphia and nine in Montgomery County, an adjoining suburb, looking for problems and attempting to resolve them.

Fortunately, there were few, and voting generally went smoothly.

In the evening, I took the subway to the Philadelphia Convention Center to attend Clinton’s Pennsylvania election night rally. Large video screens reported Clinton’s triumph in Pennsylvania and three other states. Clinton spoke to the crowd for about 15 minutes, emphasizing the need for Democratic Party unity in the general election. She was joined on stage by her husband, former President Bill Clinton, former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and current Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney.


May 31, New York, N.Y.
I attended a Lawyers for Hillary fundraiser at the New York Sheraton in Manhattan. The emcee was actress Julianna Margulies from “The Good Wife.” Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder also spoke, as did Clinton, of course. Clinton and I chatted about the need for voter protection. I asked whether her staff could take a picture of the two of us. Clinton grabbed my cell phone and said, “I’ll take care of this,” and snapped a selfie.

June 7: ‘Glory Days’
The last major primaries were in New Jersey and California. I spent the New Jersey primary at a Democratic state command center in Hackensack, with two attorneys from the national Clinton campaign and a local attorney. We monitored field attorneys who were traveling around the Garden State. We also checked on election developments in California and other primary states.

That evening, I attended the Clinton’s state election night party in Little Falls. I munched on hot dogs while conversing with local elected leaders and reporters.

July 28: The convention
I stayed at home throughout the week to watch the Democratic National Convention on TV while sipping ice tea. Then another election attorney contacted me to say that he thought I could get credentials to attend the convention. Was I interested? Was I ever?

I drove to northeast Philadelphia and took a commuter train into Center City. Within hours, I was at the Wells Fargo Center, with a view of the convention.
And what a convention it was! The arena was packed with delegates, journalists and observers. It was a showcase of Democratic political talents. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo spoke briefly, and there were a number of private citizens who gave moving speeches, including Khizr Khan, who spoke about his Muslim son, Capt. Humayun Kahn, who died fighting for his country in Iraq.

Singers Carole King and Katy Perry provided the musical entertainment. Clinton followed with the main address. And as far as I was concerned, she said everything that I wanted to hear.

At a party after, I met New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Rep. Grace Meng, Rep. Kathleen Rice, New York State Assemblywoman Michaelle Solages and Town of Hempstead Democratic Leader Lauren Corcoran Doolin, among others. And I discussed voter protection with Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

As exciting and fascinating as the convention was, the real work of political organization, recruitment and publicity lies ahead. Voter protection will be crucial this fall.