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American Morning
Volunteers From Around Country Storm into Iowa
Aired January 15, 2004 - 07:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, volunteers from around the country have stormed into Iowa, hoping to bring their candidate to victory on caucus day. Campaign volunteers for Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt are working hard statewide, with some very different styles.
CNN's national correspondent Kelly Wallace has this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's coming right in.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It has the look and feel of a college campus. The place 19-year-old Santiago Stalker (ph) from northern California and a handful of other Dean volunteers call home.
(on camera): You come here living in cottages, not a lot of the comforts of home. Why? Why did you want to do it?
SANTIAGO STALKER: I thought it would be a lot of fun and I really wanted to get involved.
WALLACE (voice-over): His daily ritual, a 30 minute car ride to Dean headquarters downtown, with a mandatory pit stop along the way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you want a Rice Krispy treat?
STALKER: Yes.
WALLACE: After all, it will likely be another 12 hour day.
STALKER: If Ken comes down and he's looking for me, will you tell him I'm back at the database?
WALLACE: The Dean team calls it the perfect storm, more than 3,000 out of state volunteers, according to Dean aides, trying to get the attention of undecided voters, one door at a time.
STALKER: I'm a volunteer here in Des Moines with the Dean campaign.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.
STALKER: Can I talk to you for a minute?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't. I'm just the babysitter and I've got a sick baby. WALLACE: The teams...
STALKER: Just the babysitter.
MIKE GILLESPIE, GEPHARDT VOLUNTEER: Your caucus is at Cal's school.
WALLACE: Dueling with the Teamsters.
GILLESPIE: We're all supporting Gephardt. He's been there for us, you know, forever.
WALLACE: Cory Haslam is from Salt Lake City. Mike Gillespie is from Indianapolis. They travel around in a P.T. Cruiser, heading to homes of union members.
CORY HASLAM, GEPHARDT VOLUNTEER: We're a team. I don't know, in the car he's got the map, I'm doing the driving and we do...
WALLACE (on camera): So navigator, driver?
HASLAM: And we do a lot of U-turns.
GILLESPIE: Yes, we do a lot of them.
WALLACE (voice-over): They've never done this before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, Gephardt's the man!
UNIDENTIFIED GEPHARDT SUPPORTERS: Gephardt's the man!
WALLACE: They are part of a massive ground war operation spearheaded by unions to try and bring Dick Gephardt to victory.
GILLESPIE: I've got two kids and what I, I'm a third generation Teamster and it's changed a lot since my grandfather and my father. And I want what's happening now to stop.
WALLACE: Cory and Mike work through the afternoon. So do Santiago and his pal Simon.
SIMON: It's always nice when like a pretty girl opens the door or something like that.
WALLACE (on camera): You might score some dates out of this?
SIMON: Right. That's right.
WALLACE (voice-over): A bonus if their guy doesn't win.
Kelly Wallace, CNN, Des Moines.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Well, we're going to have to wait till Monday to see which campaign does a better job of bringing out supporters. We'll have, of course, complete coverage of that night right here on CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired January 15, 2004 - 07:37 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, volunteers from around the country have stormed into Iowa, hoping to bring their candidate to victory on caucus day. Campaign volunteers for Howard Dean and Dick Gephardt are working hard statewide, with some very different styles.
CNN's national correspondent Kelly Wallace has this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's coming right in.
KELLY WALLACE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It has the look and feel of a college campus. The place 19-year-old Santiago Stalker (ph) from northern California and a handful of other Dean volunteers call home.
(on camera): You come here living in cottages, not a lot of the comforts of home. Why? Why did you want to do it?
SANTIAGO STALKER: I thought it would be a lot of fun and I really wanted to get involved.
WALLACE (voice-over): His daily ritual, a 30 minute car ride to Dean headquarters downtown, with a mandatory pit stop along the way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you want a Rice Krispy treat?
STALKER: Yes.
WALLACE: After all, it will likely be another 12 hour day.
STALKER: If Ken comes down and he's looking for me, will you tell him I'm back at the database?
WALLACE: The Dean team calls it the perfect storm, more than 3,000 out of state volunteers, according to Dean aides, trying to get the attention of undecided voters, one door at a time.
STALKER: I'm a volunteer here in Des Moines with the Dean campaign.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.
STALKER: Can I talk to you for a minute?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't. I'm just the babysitter and I've got a sick baby. WALLACE: The teams...
STALKER: Just the babysitter.
MIKE GILLESPIE, GEPHARDT VOLUNTEER: Your caucus is at Cal's school.
WALLACE: Dueling with the Teamsters.
GILLESPIE: We're all supporting Gephardt. He's been there for us, you know, forever.
WALLACE: Cory Haslam is from Salt Lake City. Mike Gillespie is from Indianapolis. They travel around in a P.T. Cruiser, heading to homes of union members.
CORY HASLAM, GEPHARDT VOLUNTEER: We're a team. I don't know, in the car he's got the map, I'm doing the driving and we do...
WALLACE (on camera): So navigator, driver?
HASLAM: And we do a lot of U-turns.
GILLESPIE: Yes, we do a lot of them.
WALLACE (voice-over): They've never done this before.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, Gephardt's the man!
UNIDENTIFIED GEPHARDT SUPPORTERS: Gephardt's the man!
WALLACE: They are part of a massive ground war operation spearheaded by unions to try and bring Dick Gephardt to victory.
GILLESPIE: I've got two kids and what I, I'm a third generation Teamster and it's changed a lot since my grandfather and my father. And I want what's happening now to stop.
WALLACE: Cory and Mike work through the afternoon. So do Santiago and his pal Simon.
SIMON: It's always nice when like a pretty girl opens the door or something like that.
WALLACE (on camera): You might score some dates out of this?
SIMON: Right. That's right.
WALLACE (voice-over): A bonus if their guy doesn't win.
Kelly Wallace, CNN, Des Moines.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
O'BRIEN: Well, we're going to have to wait till Monday to see which campaign does a better job of bringing out supporters. We'll have, of course, complete coverage of that night right here on CNN.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
