Every four years, Hanover seems to attract national attention as candidates flock to campus in anticipation of the New Hampshire primaries. Despite tremendous buzz for this year's big event, not all of the debates at Dartmouth garnered quite the same fanfare -- just four years ago, the political showdown turned out to be more of a late-term letdown.
In January 2004, Dartmouth hosted a forum sponsored by ABC's "Good Morning America" and the Lifetime channel that focused on women's issues. The forum did not elicit as much attention as many of the other events Dartmouth has held, according to Linda Fowler, a government professor and former director of the Rockefeller Center.
"In 2004, the stakes were a lot lower, the media were less interested, and we had a great deal of difficulty attracting candidates," Fowler said in a BlitzMail message.
Only three of the presidential candidates -- former Vermont governor Howard Dean, Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn. and Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio -- participated in the event. Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and John Edwards, D-N.C., declined to attend.
Brian Martin '06, who worked on former general Wesley Clark's primary campaign, said that candidates were not as interested in participating in the 2004 debates because they were scheduled only two days before the New Hampshire primary. By the time of the debate, he said, many candidates were more worried about Iowa than New Hampshire and that an earlier debate would have presented greater opportunities for fundraising and for attracting student volunteers. Because only three candidates were present, students were not as excited about the event as they might have been, Martin recounted.
"Getting a seat wasn't really very difficult because they held [the debate] in January and because it wasn't a full debate," Martin said. "It was a conversation that was held in the middle of the day. ... It didn't have sort of the crazy momentum that a full debate has in September."
The debate was held in Moore Theater, which is smaller than the 2007 debate venue, Spaulding Auditorium. ABC's Claire Shipman moderated the event.
Dartmouth also hosted two town meetings in 1999, one for Democratic candidates and one for Republican candidates, which Fowler said were more successful than the later 2004 event.
"It was the first match-up between [Bill] Bradley and [Al] Gore, and it also took place when [John] McCain was beginning to surge," Fowler said. "There was a huge amount of media interest, with satellite trucks completely ringing the green."
Then Vice President Al Gore and former Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., participated in the Democratic event, held on Oct. 27. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, Steve Forbes, Gary Bauer and Alan Keyes participated in the Republican forum, which was held on Oct. 29. George W. Bush, who was already the Republican frontrunner, did not participate in the event.
CNN and Manchester-based TV station WMUR sponsored the two forums, which were held in Moore Theater.
While the 2004 and 1999 events attracted differing levels of media attention, both had high levels of student participation, according to Fowler.
"Students were actively engaged in planning, in working with the media on production and filing stories from the press room," Fowler said.
