Most Syracuse University students were still asleep at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 28. But even though it was Halloween weekend, Dan Hetzel and Paul Alberry were outside Swallow’s Bar on South Avenue in the pouring rain, preparing to campaign for Jim Walsh.

‘It’s not fun,’ said Alberry, a freshman political science and policy studies major. ‘Especially when you look out the window and it’s just raining. Just coming here got me out of bed.’

With the election fast approaching, political campaigns, such as the battle between Walsh and Dan Maffei for Congress, rely heavily on volunteers to bring voters to the polls on Nov. 7. Jennifer Hibit, the field director for the Maffei campaign, said the coordinators appreciate volunteers throughout the campaign, but need them even more as the election draws near. College students provide valuable hours because they usually have more flexibility than people who work 40 hours a week.

‘We have a few students who come in three or four days a week,’ Hibit said. ‘They are part of the community, and college students are very willing to give their time.’

Alberry said he participates in a lot of extracurricular activities. He usually volunteers with the campaign every Saturday but increases his commitment to about seven to ten hours a week in the last month leading up to the election.

Hetzel and Alberry were two of the approximately 15 volunteers at Swallow’s Bar on that rainy Saturday; another group assembled at a volunteer’s house. The plan was to spread Walsh’s name to registered voters by dropping literature off at residences.

‘We do a lot of get-out-the-vote stuff,’ Alberry said. ‘The better the voter turnout the more likely the candidate is to win.’

Nathan Thomas, a senior international relations major, volunteers for the Walsh campaign and also works to increase voter turnout. He makes phone calls, sends e-mails and knocks on doors to convince people to vote for Walsh. The coordinators give him a script with the major themes they want him to push, including Walsh’s stance on the Iraq war, Medicare and cuts to federal student aid.

Thomas said he has great experiences almost every day when he deals with potential voters, but he also said he can encounter difficulties. Not everyone has the time or desire to talk to volunteers like Thomas, and some of them let him know about their displeasure.

‘You’ll always have people who are upset to be bothered,’ Thomas said. ‘The first time it happened I was a little bit taken aback. After a while it just rolls off.’

Alberry and Thomas are both majoring in fields related to politics. Thomas has volunteered in campaigns for years and Alberry is using his first campaign as a way of building experience and networking. But Hetzel, a senior aerospace engineering major and volunteer for the Maffei campaign, is not pursuing a career that is directly related to politics. Still, he has volunteered every year he’s been in college, participating in town board races, supervisor races, assembly races and even Jeff Brown’s state senate campaign this year.

‘I enjoy being involved in something not involving engineering as a way to keep me sane,’ Hetzel said. ‘I’m probably a lot more rounded than some of my peers.’

Volunteers aren’t the only ones who knock on doors during political campaigns. Thomas said Maffei frequently speaks to registered voters to increase his name recognition and boost voter turnout.

Maffei also takes advice from the volunteers because they are contacting voters every day. Thomas said whenever he has met the congressional candidate, Maffei has tried to gauge what he thinks of the campaign.

Jim Walsh also meets with his volunteers during the campaign. Alberry said he has met Walsh on many occasions and always receives praise from the congressman.

‘Every time I see him he shakes my hand and thanks me for what I’m doing,’ Alberry said.

The volunteers have a vested interest in the success of the campaign because of the work they put into it. Thomas stressed every vote could make a difference on Election Day.

‘We don’t want to wake up on Nov. 8, down two or three votes and have to look back at what we could have done,’ Thomas said. ‘If we win by just a few votes each of us can look back and see every time we put in a little extra effort. And if we win by a lot we know it was a team effort.’

Published on November 4, 2006 at 12:00 pm