As the primary season moves on from New Hampshire, loyal Dean campaign volunteers are still wondering what happened.
Throughout the primary season, political observers criticized Dean's weblog, online fundraising, and internet "meet-ups", saying the campaign was more virtual than real.
But as NHPR's Raquel Maria Dillon reports, the energy on the ground in New Hampshire was real, but will it last?
A little more than a week ago, Elaine and Howard Roundy?s kitchen was headquarters for a major get-out-the-vote effort in Concord?s Ward 10.
ELAINE :15 my day started at 4am. My house was the staging area. I went to Dunkin Donuts picked up coffee and donuts and came back to meet the people who were coming at 4:30 to do a leaflet drop.
Elaine Roundy says it was the biggest party she?s thrown in years ? and all for her chosen candidate former Vermont Governor Howard Dean. Later on primary night, the Roundys realized all their efforts weren?t enough.
ELAINE :13 Suddenly, after the election was over we felt kinda lost, lost souls, like where do we go from here? A real let down because there was suddenly nothing there.
After several intense months, what was supposed to be the grassroots campaign?s finest hour turned out to be a significant win for Massachusetts Senator John Kerry. Dean?s New Hampshire organization ? built on house meetings held in supporter?s homes and fed by Democrats? anger at President Bush ? was supposed to bring out new voters and energize new political activists and elect Howard Dean. Elaine Roundy and her husband Howard are still wondering what went wrong.
HOWARD :22 when it came down to about 2 weeks before, it didn?t seem to keep on mushrooming.
ELAINE there were some things we couldn?t control. What happened in Iowa hurt him a great deal. Organization here couldn?t make up for it.
FAUCHEAUX :04 I think ultimately it was a failing of the candidate, not of the campaign.
Ron Faucheaux (foe-shay) is a former editor of Campaigns and Elections magazine. He says Dean?s poor showing in Iowa and his missteps in the weeks leading up to the Primary did in his campaign.
FAUCHEAUX :13 I think the Dean org was real in terms of having real supporters who were really committed and wanted to help the candidate but they were either not in position to or not able to deliver other people to vote.
Faucheaux says those dedicated supporters didn?t abandon their candidate. But in the face of Dean?s flagging momentum, they couldn?t win over undecided voters.
Dean?s campaign managers did not return several phone calls. But campaign advisor Marshall Ganz did. He teaches political organizing at Harvard?s Kennedy School of Government. He says exit polls show that organizers locked up a strong base of support for Dean early on, last summer and fall. He says they succeeded by person-to-person organizing at hundreds of small ?house meetings?. And says Ganz, winning is only one way to measure the success of an organization.
GANZ :23 But another is did you bring a community into existence that didn?t exist before? Did you strengthen the organizational capacity of people who?s values led them to become involved in campaign in 1st place. Yes, networks formed, leadership developed, people activated across the state that hadn?t happened since I don?t know when.
Charlie Stewart says that?s what he saw among his fellow Dean supporters in Derry.
STEWART :15 we were meeting with people 4 or 5 in their living rooms, talking politics and Dean and showing videos. Then we?d get them out to see Dean. The grassroots organization that went on is something that hasn?t been seen in this country for a long time.
Stewart believes that in-person organizing energized the Democratic base better than any television ad or mailing. And that, he says, what will help the eventual nominee take the state in November. Like the Roundys, Stewart?s fellow campaigners in Derry got out the vote on Primary Day, but all that organizing miscalculated all the undecideds and independents who voted in the record turnout primary.
LEVINE :06 if you asked me a month ago do you think it?ll work I?d say yeah, there?s a lot of evidence that face to face organizing works nowadays.
Peter Levine studies political involvement and the internet at the University of Maryland?s Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.
LEVINE :15 the dean campaign energized young people to vote in Iowa, although they didn?t vote for Dean, they made a choice for Kerry. Then when Dean seemed to falter ? in national press anyway ? possibly a lot of them got turned off from the entire process.
Elaine Roundy wasn?t turned off. She says her new Dean contacts have become friends.
ELAINE :12 I received a phone call from one of the other unit leaders she says I dunno about you but I really feel lost, well how about we get together on Tuesday night and watch the results from my house.
Charlie Stewart?s group of organizers is already starting small ? with the local school board in Derry.
STEWART :20 a whole group of this core of dean people went and had their voices heard at this school board meeting. these were all people who were previously not involved in politics. I was never involved, I voted. There was something about Dean?s message and meeting him and this org that got us all pumped and involved.
Whether they stay ?pumped? and involved is another question. Longtime New Hampshire Democratic activist Jim Demers says the answer is up to the state Democratic party.
DEMERS :18 There is a whole new network of people that hopefully as lists are shared, there are people who?ve enjoyed the experiences that they have decide they might want to run for State Legislature and that they wanna stay involved in campaigns.
Demers backed Missouri Representative Dick Gephardt but now that the primary?s over, he?s hoping New Hampshire Democrats of all stripes can refocus and unite to unseat President Bush in November.
For NHPR News, I?m RMD.
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