Presidential Advance (Part 3)

Jesse Cornett

After leaving Florida to make way for Hurricane Jeanne, my next stop on the campaign trail was Weirton, West Virginia for a town hall meeting.  Weirton is a small steel town about 45 minutes from Pittsburgh, and in a tiny sliver of the state about two minutes in one direction from Pennsylvania, and two minutes the other direction from Ohio.  The largest suitable venue in Weirton fit about 400 people, and needless to say, our event was packed.  This trip was great to help me understand that you don’t need a 50,000 person outdoor rally in order to be successful.  Personally, I thought finding a venue for more than 400 would have been great, but I was satisfied.  Our “message” for the town hall related to the war in Iraq, which, in the larger scale of the campaign, was an important subject.  For Weirton, a gritty steel mill town where they partially filmed “The Deer Hunter”, a jobs message would have been a stronger message.  The event went off without a hitch, though.

After Weirton we went out for the evening, as is tradition with most advance teams after the candidate leaves.  As the evening wore on, most knew where their next port of call (as the Irish volunteer from our advance desk in DC called them) would be.  We were 45 minutes from the closest airport, and I was one of two team members without a rental car, I started getting really nervous by midday (approaching 24 hours since our game time) and I didn’t know where I was going next. When all was said and done, I “borrowed” a car and hit the road for myself, though not to the airport.  By now it’s lunchtime on Thursday.

I arrived in Des Moines, Iowa the next Tuesday, and boy I was excited to be there.  The day after Weirton, I didn’t know where I was going or what the plan was, but had decided unless I was going directly back into action (which I doubted because I hadn’t yet been notified), that I was going to try to drive down to my dad’s place in Kentucky, about a five hour drive from Weirton.  I arrived in Kentucky Thursday afternoon.  We did a few fun things in Kentucky, but after four full days I was ready to get back out on the road.  Yes, I was excited to go to Des Moines, Iowa.  I was also excited to be in Des Moines because it was the heart of the state where the Caucuses had reigned supreme, just a few months earlier.

As we arrived in Des Moines, we learned that both candidates and their spouses would be coming back to Des Moines, and doing a big rally in the hotel where we were staying.  So, within a couple days of our arrival, the hotel began filling up with Kerry-Edwards staffers.  We found out that they were all coming to Des Moines not because we were connected, but because we talked to the hotel staff.  You see, hotel staff were the best source of information.  If you arrived at a hotel and didn’t know when your game day was, just show up to your hotel, ask what date you are checking out, subtract one day and you know what day your event will be on.

Though we stayed in Des Moines, our event was a few cornfields way, in a town called Newton.  Newton was a fun, large town hall that went off without any problems.  There were two things that struck me about this event.  First, Senator Edwards referred to the dominant season the football team, the Cardinals, were having (the event was at the local high school).  Bad advance work was to blame for the many confused faces that followed, because it turns out they were having the worst season in recent memory (a thought I would carry forward and remember to ask in future high school appearances, not that I would ever remember to pass the information along to my Lead). 

Second, two protestors joined us in Newton.  They were around at the back of the school, where the entrance to our event was.  One had a cutout of an ambulance, and the other was well-dressed in a suit with a briefcase that had an Edward’s bumper sticker on it.  One was chasing the other around and they were both making siren sounds with their voices.  Ambulance chasers.  It was clever, I thought (apparently Sen. Edwards motorcade passed them on the way in and he too thought it was clever).

As I went out back and noticed them, the Newton PD had already approached them.  The officer then came to me and basically asked what we should do.  I dealt with press, not protestors, and had no idea.  After thinking for a couple minutes, realizing the guy in the suit seemed reasonable, I invited them to leave the school grounds and suggested that nobody could say a thing to them if they were off school grounds.  The other inquired whether the school principal had “ordered their removal.”  No, I told them, there was no reason to bother her with this issue and make her make that decision.  I could and likely would get them kicked out, I assured them, in which case I would pursue getting them as far away from the school as possible, or they could just go a few hundred feet away and we’d all have a good day.  They agreed and left.  I don’t always know if I have the best confrontational skills, and was proud of the ease of the battle.

As I left the event (I often left early to get back to the airport for any press that showed up to shoot the arrival), I drove by the protestors and noted that the only thing more clever than their get-up would be to place a Dick Cheney in front of the ambulance (c’mon Edwards chasing an ambulance chasing Cheney!).

Newton was tiring.  The traveling party (Edwards, his kids, media, etc.) stayed overnight in the hotel the previous night, meaning there was additional work to make sure that the traveling press’ rooms were ready, they had schedules for the next day, and then connecting with them upon arrival in the off-chance they needed anything (which none did).  They arrived at 11.  I had to be over in Newton by 4:30 in the morning to let in any local press who hoped to do live shots for their broadcasts starting at 5 a.m.  Luckily, this was my shortest night of the entire experience.

My next post will be about heading back to Florida.  Stay tuned.

Read Part 1 -- Read Part 2 -- Read Part 4 -- Read Part 5

By Jesse Cornett Dec. 08, 2004