Actress Rachel Dratch '88 brought some of her Saturday Night Live humor to Hanover on Sunday afternoon, greeting volunteers from the Dartmouth College Democrats in the Hinman Forum of the Rockefeller Center. Dratch gave the volunteers a pep talk as they prepared their campaign efforts for Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama and former New Hampshire governor Jeanne Shaheen, the state's Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate.
Dratch admitted that she had not paid much attention to politics when she was a student at Dartmouth, but stressed the importance of taking part in this election.
"You think of college campuses as this big political scene, but it's easy to get into this idyllic bubble and not care," she said.
The 2008 election is the first time she has campaigned for a candidate, Dratch said. She was motivated to get involved by number of political issues, such as energy and environmental policy, reproductive rights and the Patriot Act's infringement on civil liberties, she added.
While she never played a political personality during her seven-year stint on Saturday Night Live, Dratch pointed to the political activism of her former colleagues, Darrell Hammond and Tina Fey, who impersonate Republican presidential candidate Senator John McCain and his running mate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin on SNL.
"The stuff they're doing pokes fun at important issues around McCain and Palin without being mean," she said. "Hopefully some young people will get hooked in when they see that."
After her speech, Dratch canvassed on campus with co-director of Dartmouth for Obama Beau Trudel '10, making a point to visit her freshman dorm room in Hitchcock Hall, Trudel said.
"A lot of people were definitely surprised to see her on a Sunday," Trudel said. "She was really funny and handled it well when we ran into McCain supporters."
Dratch asked whether students had registered to vote and reminded them they could register on Election Day, Trudel said.
"Having her helps make students extra aware this is a really important election," he said.
Dratch is one of several surrogates that have campaigned for Obama at Dartmouth this year. Actors Kal Penn, Justin Long and Olivia Wilde visited the College on October 13th, and Long has since returned to help with canvassing efforts. Dartmouth attracts such celebrity surrogates because the Obama campaign knows that it is one of the most important colleges campuses in the state, Trudel said.
At the Sunday meeting, Shaheen's daughter, Molly Shaheen, spoke to volunteers, campaigning on behalf of her mother. Obama needs a Democratic ally in Congress in order to be an effective leader, she said.
"If we don't win the Senate, it's like having the captain without the team," she said.
Marc Wayshak, a local field organizer for the Obama campaign, also addressed the group of students. Although canvassers have already identified 70 percent of on-campus voters at Dartmouth, Wayshak said, the race has tightened recently and it is crucial that volunteers "finish the job."
The volunteers assembled to prepare for a campus-wide canvass and begin a "Get Out the Vote" effort in the final days before the Nov. 4 election. Dartmouth College Democrats president David Imamura '10 said volunteers would be positioned across campus, talking to students and giving out fliers, posters, free water bottles and other campaign items.
Canvassing efforts have been far more successful than they were in 2006, Imamura added.
"Dartmouth students know our country is at a crossroads," he said. "No one we talk to is saying, 'I'm not interested in the election.'"
