Rhode Islanders campaign in swing states

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Rhode Island has the same number of electoral votes as New Hampshire, but residents here, like Dolores Gaess of East Providence, aren’t being courted as fervently by presidential candidates as their northern neighbors.

So on weekends, Gaess – and dozens like her – drive up Interstate 95 from Rhode Island, considered firmly in Democratic Sen. John Kerry’s corner. They go to do volunteer work for Kerry in New Hampshire, one of a handful of states up for grabs in the presidential race.

“There’s nothing for us to do in Rhode Island because they think Rhode Island is already set,” said Gaess, 77.

In this year’s closely fought presidential contest, there are the blurry states – neither red or blue and gushed over by the candidates – and the solid states, where strong leads leave voters there largely ignored, but often motivated to take their message elsewhere.

Californians go to Nevada. Indiana residents head to Ohio. And Rhode Islanders, both Republicans and Democrats, drive to New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Maine.

“If they feel I’m more valuable in New Hampshire, then I’m willing to go to New Hampshire. I’ll go anywhere they need me,” Gaess said.

The campaigns call this volunteer recruitment to swing states “exporting.” It’s not new to 2004, but Richard Eannarino, the Rhode Island coordinator for President Bush’s re-election, says this year’s crop of volunteers seems more willing than ever to travel.

“It’s definitely more aggressive this year,” he said. “People don’t want to just sit and watch this tight election go by. And you could in Rhode Island.”

Rhode Island has four electoral votes that have gone to the Democratic candidate in four of the last five presidential contests. Vice President Al Gore defeated the Republican Bush in 2000 in the state, with more than 60 percent of the vote.

Meanwhile, President Bush won New Hampshire four years ago by only one percentage point. Pennsylvania and Maine went to Gore by only slim margins, as well.

About 40 Republicans, including East Providence-resident Edmund Leather, boarded a bus to Derry, N.H., last weekend to volunteer for the Bush-Cheney campaign. He and the others knocked on doors, asked Bush supporters if they needed rides to the polls on Election Day and canvassed undecided voters.

“I wanted to aid the Bush campaign in Rhode Island, but it’s Rhode Island, so they’re not really doing anything here,” said Leather, 65.

Even the GOP state chairman, Gov. Don Carcieri, left Rhode Island to stump for the president.

“Where I’m from, it’s tough. There aren’t a lot of Republicans,” Carcieri said at a recent campaign stop in Westbrook, Maine. “But you here – it was close during the last election – and you can make a difference.”

The Kerry trips north started three weeks ago; Bush supporters began their treks last weekend. Volunteers for both campaigns meet at the Statehouse in Providence and board buses or car pool to the battlegrounds for one or two-day trips.

Mary Livingston, a field coordinator for the Democratic hopeful, said each one-day trip, usually on Saturdays, averages 60 to 100 people. Eannarino said about 40 Bush supporters were exported for the campaign’s two-day effort last week.

“Because the Democrats have so much support here, we can spare the time, we can send the money,” Livingston said.

The weekend before the election, more than a dozen Republican supporters will head to Pennsylvania, which has 21 electoral votes, the fifth-largest amount. A candidate needs 270 electoral votes to win the presidency.

“I go because I have a determination and dedication to the team,” said GOP supporter Raymond McKay, 44, of Warwick. McKay also volunteered for the Bush campaign in 2000.

Volunteers get their marching orders from the national campaigns and local committees in the towns they visit. The trips include meals and, when needed, lodging.

Kevin Conroy, an organizer for the Kerry campaign, said besides canvassing neighborhoods of undecided voters, volunteers also work in phone banks at a campaign office in the battleground state or here at home.

“I think people are brooding for an opportunity to be involved,” Livingston said. “That may be the only thing uniting the red and blue states.”