September 06, 2008 08:14 pm
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By Debby Woodin
dwoodin@joplinglobe.com
Emery Hutson sees the election as a time to be part of something big.
“It’s just an exciting project,” says the Joplin campaign volunteer working at the Jasper County Democratic Headquarters.
He said the single most important message he wants to spread can be summed up in one word: “Vote.”
Like Hutson, Hollis Osborne, a Carthage farmer, has weighed in with his support in the form of a $500 donation to John McCain.
“I don’t know what I would say that would make a difference to anybody. Everybody ought to make up their own mind and everybody ought to vote. That’s it,” he said.
In the wake of vice presidential picks and the conventions, and with the election less than two months away, grassroots fervor is building, with volunteers and campaign contributors on both sides stepping up their support to sway the race.
Officials on both sides of the political divide say they have seen a burst of enthusiasm.
Jean Weinberg, regional press secretary for the Obama campaign in Springfield, said they are riding a wave of volunteers.
“People who aren’t traditionally involved in politics are walking through the door and asking what they can do to help,” she said. “We are seeing huge numbers of people who aren’t typically involved in politics but this election has energized them.”
John Putnam, chairman of the Jasper County Republican Central Committee, said support for McCain wasn’t strong initially in Southwest Missouri, as local Republicans leaned more toward Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney. But that is changing.
“Just this week, people have suddenly become positively energized behind the McCain campaign,” he said Thursday. “They are really on board with Sarah Palin. After her speech the other night, the number of women who have called is just phenomenal.”
The college try
Clint Rider, 21, of McCune, Kan., is a technology major in his second year as president of Campus Republicans at Pittsburg (Kan.) State University. His group is moving ahead with registration drives that Rider hopes will bring in votes for McCain and other GOP candidates.
Though young, he’s not inexperienced; he donated time to help Jim Ryun two years ago in a race against Nancy Boyda for the 2nd District congressional seat. Boyda won, but that hasn’t diminished Rider’s commitment to the GOP cause.
He supports McCain because of what he sees as McCain’s political and military experience.
McCain has “that confidence we look for in a leader,” Rider says.
“He’s a little bit more liberal than I would normally support,” he added, “but he’s got the basic understanding that it (the war in Iraq) is not an overnight thing.”
Lauren Oxendine, 22, of Joplin, has that same commitment as president of the College Democrats at Missouri Southern State University.
Like Rider, she is not new to campaigns, either. She worked on the John Kerry and Claire McCaskill campaigns, but said of the 20 hours she is putting in for Obama every week: “It’s definitely the most involved I’ve ever been.”
She is part of a team that has divided area counties into districts to canvass neighborhoods, and she has been working around Loma Linda.
“We just go around and talk to our neighbors about why we’re excited and why we think he’s the best candidate.”
A senior in international studies, she returned a few weeks ago from studying abroad in Japan for a year. She said the war in Iraq is not popular with informed people in Japan. She also agrees with Obama’s vision on global warming.
“The environment is the most important thing to me, and I think that’s what we need to be addressing, and I see the Republican Party as ignoring the problem,” she said. “They think we can just continue drilling for oil and that will fix these issues that we have. I just can’t agree with that.”
Local money
Just as the race between McCain and Obama is energizing volunteers, it also is generating contributions.
Virgil Jurgensmeyer, 79, of Miami, Okla., is a farmer and businessman who participates in every election, he said.
“I pay close attention,” says Jurgensmeyer, the co-owner of J&M Farms, a mushroom growing operation and vegetable distributor. “I do not pass up the opportunity to vote and express my opinion.”
This presidential campaign getting his money — a $1,000 contribution — is McCain’s.
He believes McCain will cut federal spending.
“We need more conservativeness in that area,” he said.
His reason for opposing Obama: “If it gets down to the final decision and some important decision needs to be made in the safety of this country, I have more confidence in John McCain making that important decision than his opponent. So I think issues of national security are probably the main point of my concern.”
He also said he is concerned that Obama will raise taxes.
“With that stimulus, we’re going to see a decline like we saw in the Jimmy Carter era, and I think that’s the wrong direction for this country.”
There are other factors that go into his decision, he said, adding: “I’m an NRA member. I believe in that.”
Fred Dalton, 63, of Joplin, is a retired Navy veteran who now works as an engineer at Premier Turbines in Neosho. He has given $550 to the Obama campaign. It is the first time he has donated.
“It’s a critical time in the history of our country, and I’m very much interested in peace and ending the war in Iraq, ” he said.
“I think that the economy has weakened a lot, and he (Obama) has much to offer the economy.”
Dalton spent 39 years in the U.S. Navy and that took him around the world. He spent time in the Middle East and in hot spots such as Pakistan.
“I’m very interested in our image in the world,” he said, adding that he believes Obama has the right foreign policy vision. “He is willing to talk to our so-called enemies in the world.”
Metro editor Andy Ostmeyer contributed to this story.
Big money
Barack Obama raised $389.4 million through the end of July, and John McCain raised $174.2 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. August reports come out Sept. 20.
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Photos
Globe/Garry Jeffries
Lauren Oxendine, 22, Joplin, president of the College Democrats at Missouri Southern State University, says she is committing 20 hours a week to Barack Obama’s campaign.
Globe/Gary Crow
Virgil Jurgensmeyer, 79, a Miami farmer and businessman who participates in every election, says the presidential race prompted him to make a $1,000 donation to John McCain.