87- strong Travelers crew hoofing N. H. for Clinton
Scores of Hillary Clinton supporters from Arkansas are trudging through snowy southern New Hampshire hoping to help push the Granite State into the win column today for the Democratic presidential candidate.
Some of the group, dubbed “the Arkansas Travelers,” have known Clinton for decades, tracing their friendship to her days as a University of Arkansas law school professor or her time as the state’s first lady.
Others don’t remember her time in Fayetteville and Little Rock; they know her as a former White House resident, U. S. senator from New York and U. S. secretary of state.
Sheila Bronfman, a political consultant and longtime friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton, said there are plenty of Arkansans eager to pitch in.
“Right now, we’ve got 87 up here. It’s a full crew. We’ve taken over the whole hotel,” she said by telephone during a break Sunday.
The group is staying at a Hampton Inn in Exeter, population 14,306, roughly 10 miles west of the Atlantic Ocean and 10 miles north of the Massachusetts state line.
But they’re dashing from one location to the next, searching for votes in Dover, Durham, Portsmouth, Roches-
ter and Manchester, 30 miles inland and the state’s largest city.
With the temperature dropping below 20 degrees some days, it’s necessary to bundle up. “We’re all wearing all of our newly bought coats and boots,” Bronfman said.
The group’s moniker is nearly as old as Arkansas itself.
“The Arkansas Traveler” is the title of a song dating back to the 1840s. There’s also a painting — The Arkansas Traveller — and a baseball team bearing the same name.
In New England, however, the term is synonymous with Democratic politics.
In 1992, another group of Arkansas Travelers traversed
the same territory, helping Bill Clinton to claim second place in that year’s New Hampshire presidential primary, a finish that helped propel him to the front of the pack and, eventually, the presidency.
Jean Hervey, a union representative from Plumerville, was one of those Travelers and said she’s glad to be reprising her role nearly a quarter- century later.
In 2016, she said, Hillary Clinton’s supporters are “very, very high energy.”
Like other Travelers, Hervey said she’s paying her own way.
“I’m on my own dime and my own time,” she said by telephone.
Noting that the other Democratic candidate, U. S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, lives in neighboring Vermont, Hervey said
the group is battling for votes at “Bernie’s back door.”
The polls say Sanders is leading in New Hampshire.
“He probably will do well, but I’m expecting my candidate to do well also,” she said. “I’m hoping the work we’re doing here will narrow the gap and maybe we’ll be successful. … We’re going to do our darnedest as Travelers to make it happen.”
On Monday, Little Rock Education Association President Cathy Koehler said all of the Travelers are eager to pitch in.
“We have done canvassing, phone banking, we’ve attended rallies, we’ve done visibility; anything and everything that’s needed, we’re willing to do it,” she said by telephone.
Flexibility is necessary. The schedule is fluid and the destinations are subject to change.
“They’ll have us going somewhere. We just don’t know where yet,” Fayetteville attorney Woody Bassett said as he waited at the Puritan Backroom restaurant in Manchester for his latest assignment Monday afternoon.
Despite the uncertainty, “we’re having a good time,” Bassett said in a phone interview. “We’re up here for a cause we believe in and a candidate we believe in so we’re having a lot of fun.”
Although the work is nearly nonstop, the Travelers did call a timeout Sunday evening; for a few hours, pigskin trumped politics.
“The Arkansas Travelers had a Super Bowl watch party and President Clinton was nice enough to come by and visit with everyone for an hour or so,” Bassett said. With the former president in the room, “most people weren’t paying much attention to the game during the first half, to be honest. We had a big time,” he said.
The break didn’t last long. By Monday morning, they were back in campaign mode, looking for persuadable New Hampshirites.
Another Traveler, former North Little Rock Mayor Pat Hays, said things look promising for Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire.
“We’re really optimistic, we’re excited and we’re working as hard as we can for every vote. … We’re very confident that she’s closed the gap,” he said.
If all goes well, Hays said, come Wednesday morning Hillary Clinton “will have Bernie in her rearview mirror.”