Emma Zehner Photo
Branford High School (BHS) senior Sasha Shpitalnik (pictured with Jared Carlson) is now working on her third political campaign. This one is unlike the others, she said.
In this campaign she is going door-to-door for Democrat Ted Kennedy Jr., who is seeking to become state senator from the 12th District.
The biggest difference for her, she said: the flood of young people into the campaign.
One recent day, she and Jared Carlson, another rising BHS senior, were out canvassing for Kennedy in a neighborhood near he center of town. Shpitalnik and Carlson are among 45 local high school and college students interning for Kennedy this summer as part of the “Students for Kennedy Leadership Program.” Most of them come from six towns in the 12th District.The program aims to teach interns about the electoral process as well as give them an opportunity to improve their leadership skills.
“I’ve never seen a race like this with such an active internship program,” Field Co-Director Eric Emanuelson said. Before joining Kennedy’s team, Emanuelson, 25, worked as state Sen. Ed Meyer’s aide and has also worked in varying capacities on several other campaigns.Sen. Meyer, a Democrat who has served the 12th District for a decade, announced his retirement last spring. Kennedy is now running for the seat against Republican Bruce H. Wilson, Jr. The 12th District includes Branford, Durham, Guilford, Killingworth, Madison and North Branford. Wilson told the Eagle Wednesday night he will be going door-to-door starting in August.
Kennedy’s unpaid interns are required to come in on a more regular basis than volunteers and are responsible for duties such as phone banking, canvassing, researching, and staffing fundraisers.
Kennedy Sits In
One recent Thursday afternoon, students met at the Kennedy campaign headquarters before taking to the trail.
Kennedy stopped by en route to a Guilford gathering. He sat down to talk with the interns, who were in the middle of a phone-banking shift.
“What types of comments are you hearing?” he asked the group.
One intern remarked that “everybody knows you. And they say you are at every event.”
According to Carlson, interns interact with Kennedy about once a week. Earlier in July, Kennedy ate lunch with the interns to listen to feedback about their experiences.
Co-Field Directors Emanuelson (left in photo), who studied at Emory University, and Will Kampfman, who attends College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Mass. (right in photo), quizzed the students on basic door-knocking etiquette. They reminded interns to avoid inaccessible buildings. Tthe field directors told them to follow “the mailman rule”: “If the mailman can get to the door, so can you.”
Following a last-minute debriefing, at 4 p.m., Shpitalnik and Carlson left headquarters and walked towards the center of town, directly behind Main Street, to knock on doors.
Going Door-to-Door
At the first house, there was no answer. The teenagers accepted this and spent time carefully balancing a pamphlet on the screen door.
They were not discouraged. After a month of volunteering, they were familiar with the situation.
Shpitalnik explained that on an average outing, five or six people will open the door and engage in a conversation. On this sunny afternoon, she said it might be harder to catch people at their homes.
On the third try, they got their first answer. A BHS teacher assured them that Kennedy had her vote and said she would consider volunteering depending on her schedule.
Shpitalnik said that a number of times the people she has talked to have referenced Kennedy as a “personal friend.”
She also stressed that “supporting the candidate, not the party, is really something that is emphasized” in this particular campaign.
Not all of the responses have been positive.
Shpitalnik recounted one time when the door was slammed in her face. The person took one look at her Kennedy shirt and said “No Way!” Another time, according to Carlson, a man at a condo complex explained that one of his biggest concerns was Democrats and proceeded to stop talking with him.
“But most of the time people are really nice, regardless of their vote,” Carlson explained.
At the next 13 houses, no one answered.
Between doors, Carlson explained that depending on the day, the field directors assign different scripts for talking to voters. On this particular shift, they were supposed to ask two simple questions: “Will you be voting for Ted Kennedy Jr. in the upcoming election?” And: “If so, would you like to volunteer to help with his campaign?”
On other days, they have asked people about any concerns they have in the district.
“They don’t expect you to ask them about the issues,” Shpitalnik said. “So when you tell them all you want to do is listen to their opinions and you aren’t trying to solicit them, people really like that.” Carlson said some conversations have lasted as long as 20 minutes.
Jobs & Taxes
Carlson said that, for the most part, people are concerned about taxes and job security. In addition, in recent weeks, he has talked with residents aboutimmigration.
A few weeks ago, Carlson walked around in a senior home and found residents more focused on Medicare and housing specifically for seniors.
At one of the next residences he and Shpitlanik hit last Thursday, a college professor answered. He was happy to talk.
“So what have the responses been like?” the professor asked them.
They explained that most people hadn’t come to the door.
He told them Kennedy has his vote and signed up to volunteer his time.
On the final street, the kids got one more response. A couple was willing to take literature about Kennedy, but wasn’t positive if they would be voting. If they did, though, they would vote Democrat.
On that note, the students walked back to the headquarters.
With at least one more volunteer for the count, Kampfman considered it a successful day on the Kennedy trail.
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