A Force to Reckon With

ONE (poverty), PrioritiesNH (federal spending), and our organization, ServeNext.org (national service), set foot in New Hampshire long ago. Back in the spring and summer, candidates held house parties and town hall meetings with 30 or 40 folks. The candidates were not only accessible for handshakes and photos, but ready to hear ideas and talk. The ONE Campaign, PrioritiesNH and we saw this time as an opportunity to organize a network of New Hampshire constituents to attend campaign events, engage the candidates about our issues, and work towards securing the candidates’ commitments (for us that meant having them sign the ServeNext.org Pledge to Expand National Service). From afar, it might seem nuts to think that following and questioning presidential candidates (a process known as bird-dogging) to barbecues and backyards in New Hampshire will make any difference in our national politics. But it works! Here a few success stories from the campaign trail:

• When we first engaged Governor Richardson, his national service ideas were extremely raw and unspecific. In fact, he didn't know or didn't remember there was an AmeriCorps education award. As he was leaving a house party we asked him to sign our Pledge. He took out his glasses, read it over, asked a few questions, and signed! With just a little bit of grassroots organizing, Gov. Richardson committed to expand AmeriCorps to 170,000 annual members. Plus, he has been only one of three candidates to make a national service policy speech, as well as bring it up in nearly every national debate.

• From Day One, Senator Edwards and his campaign said he would not sign any pledges—no exceptions. He had agreed to expand AmeriCorps at a town hall meeting when asked by a New Hampshire resident, but we wanted a firm commitment, a signature. Our members continued to bird-dog him and he continued to resist signing. Eventually, after asking him nearly 10 times at 10 different events, he signed.

Thus far, nine presidential hopefuls have signed and NH constituents have engaged them and their campaigns roughly 300 times about national service. Some candidates commit quickly; others need to be challenged repeatedly. And in all cases it is critical to have a combination of constituents and grass-tops voices engaging candidates and elected officials...constantly!

It is time for citizens who believe in the work of national service and social entrepreneurship not to see themselves just as consumers of politics, but participants in the process. If we do that, if we come together, if we each take a few modest actions—e-mail a Senator, bird-dog a candidate, visit the Hill— the aggregate of such actions will be a force to reckon with.

Zach Maurin and Aaron Marquez are citizen-advocates for national service with ServeNext.org. They are also the founders. You can see more of the ServeNext.org NH Campaign on their blog.