07 November 2004

Granny D's next project: Help candidates

PETERBOROUGH, N.H. (AP) -- Doris "Granny D" Haddock may have lost her bid for the U.S. Senate, but she already has launched the next phase in her campaign against the influence of special interest money in American democracy.

"What we have done over the past four months has been a labor of love for our country, its democracy and its people," Haddock, a Democrat, said to a roomful of supporters at her election night party in Peterborough.

Haddock's campaign got off to a late start after State Sen. Burt Cohen withdrew from the race unexpectedly in June. Haddock lost the election to Republican Sen. Judd Gregg, who was re-elected handily.

With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, Gregg won with 66 percent, 434,292 votes. Haddock received 34 percent, 221,011 votes.

But Haddock and her supporters see their campaign as the beginning of a movement consisting of candidates who run without accepting special interest money. Her new Web site, www.Grannyslist.us, is meant to help recruit and support such candidates, according to Dennis Burke, Haddock's campaign manager.

Burke said the campaign turned away potentially tens of thousands of dollars in PAC money from liberal groups. "This (campaign) was almost a trial run," he said.

"There are many Americans awake to the fact that representative government is slipping away from us," Haddock told her supporters. "This campaign was an opportunity to expand that awareness."

The petite, outspoken 94-year-old became famous several years ago for walking 3,200 miles across the United States in support of the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform bill.

It was when she reached the edge of the Mojavi desert in Arizona that Burke, who is also executive director of Common Cause in Arizona, first met Haddock.

"I got an e-mail saying, 'Heads up. There's a little old lady about to die in the desert for your issue,"' he said.

"We had a van that jumped ahead of her carrying water," Burke said. "Some of the sandstorms were unbelievable. Just keeping her in sight was hard to do."

Haddock has since attracted many more followers, including a New Hampshire-based acoustic dance band, called Tattoo, which has been accompanying her campaign since July and has written a few campaign theme songs, including "Go Granny Go."

"What I like is her relationship to the truth" said Fred Simmons, the band's trombone player, who is also a house-painting contractor. "She's not trying to spin it."

Haddock's interest in election reform began with the informal discussions of a group of retired women who call themselves the "Tuesday Morning Academy." The women have been meeting to dance, drink coffee, and discuss issues for about 20 years.

"The idea was to get letters from every state in the union," said member Mary Garland, describing the group's early election reform activism. "We collected about 4,000 signatures."

But Congress was not impressed, according to Garland, claiming the American public was not interested in campaign reform. That inspired Haddock to start training for her pilgrimage, also a way to celebrate her 90th birthday, Garland said. "I used to see her walking by my house, her pack on her back, in ghastly weather," she said. "Every day, she walked ten miles."

Jim Haddock, 69, said his mother may be 94, but she is "as reckless as a teenager" and has always been an activist. "At her age in life, spiritually she lives differently than most of us," he said.

"When I walked across the country, my son said, 'How in the hell do you think you're going to afford this? You're living on Social Security.' I said, 'I will travel as a pilgrim, walking until given shelter, fasting until given food,"' Haddock told her supporters. "And I never went without a meal, and I never went without a bed."

Haddock said she plans now to work on campaign finance reform on the state level. Among her top issues of concern are health care and what she sees as the encroachment of large corporations in the state such as Wal-Mart, at the expense of jobs that provide good salaries and benefits.

Though she praised Gregg for his politeness and humor during the campaign, Haddock does not appear optimistic about his leadership. "He cannot change, because he has taken the money," she said. But she issued an invitation to Gregg all the same to join her reform movement and refuse special interest money.

Haddock also had a message for fellow retirees. "I say, 'Get busy and have another career in which your interest will be something more than you and yourself, something altruistic. This is the time to be altruistic."'

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