A heated presidential campaign has already inspired such acts of passion as the party convention protests and a surge of newly-registered voters. But some Dartmouth alumni are going a step beyond by temporarily leaving their jobs and stumping for either Sen. John Kerry or President Bush.
Recent graduates from the College are leaving relatively new jobs to make sure their candidate is sitting in the Oval Office this January. Adrian Durbin '98 and Brooke Lierman '01 are two alums fighting hard for the Democratic cause. However, others, including Eric Dahlberg '00 are hoping to put Republicans in power this November.
Adrian Durbin '98 left his public relations firm in Boston to become a Florida Democratic Party press secretary in the Orlando region.Durbin felt motivated to invest all of his energy into Kerry's campaign. He said the low pay typical of campaign workers doesn't bother him.
"It's nice that I'm able to get paid something for my efforts so that I don't have to go into debt, but money was not a motivating factor in this decision," Durbin said.
Durbin views the outcome of November's election as his current top professional priority.
"I've worked on a number of campaigns during my lifetime, and I've never felt that there's been an election as important as this one," Durbin said.
Like Durbin, Brooke Lierman '01 cited a pressing need to put Kerry in office as a reason for switching jobs. Lierman was employed at The Center for American Progress, a liberal Washington, D.C. think tank, when the Kerry radar found her.
Lierman was no less exuberant than Durban in her efforts on behalf of the Democratic ticket. Though she initially began her efforts to defeat President Bush by working on the Dean campaign last year, she has united with the rest of the Democratic party around Kerry.
"I want Kerry elected and George Bush out. It's as simple as that," Lierman said.
Luckily for many alumni who have jumped ship at their old jobs, their employers have been accommodating about leaves of absence. Lierman and Durbin were both granted leaves -- albeit without compensation.
"They told me they're going to welcome me back -- fortunately," Durbin said.
Several other alumni have felt strongly enough about the campaign's outcome to put their jobs on hold.
But Lierman's situation is only one of many 9 to 5-ers working for Get Out the Vote across the country.
"People all over the country who have quote unquote 'normal' jobs take leave for the last month of the campaign to help run GOTV," Lierman said.
Dahlberg was unavailable for comment, but presently works for Bush in the battleground state of Michigan.
