Interview: The Politics of NH with Steve Marchand
On Thursday, May 28th, I went live with Steve Marchand on his show “The Politics of NH.” Here’s his short write up about the interview and a link to watch the show!
In our conversation yesterday, I pressed her a bit on differentiating her candidacy from the sprawling field of candidates. In early April, I was privileged to moderate a congressional forum in Barrington with five of the six primary candidates.
They generally did an excellent job - observing the entire field refine and strengthen their political skills over the past year has been fun to watch - but I noticed that the responses of the candidates have often converged over time. They’ve been spending a lot of time around each other, and speaking with the same core of Democratic activists around the first congressional district. Indeed, activists in my own events have told me they would like to understand the differences between the candidates, who they generally like as a group.
When pressed on it, Beriont did point out differences on a handful of issues within the field. In particular, I’d encourage you to listen to our discussion about health care, and “Medicare For All” vs. “Medicare For All Who Want It”. I think there are some important differences there, less in the ultimate goal, and more in the strategy for getting to expanded coverage.
However, a big takeaway for me from this conversation is that Beriont is making a pointed argument that it’s not necessarily in candidates’ five-point plans where voters will find the key differences. Rather, it is in the life experiences, and even how the candidates approach building their campaigns and coalitions, that provide the biggest clues about how each candidate will serve, if elected.
Beriont has a union organizing element to her background, and she easily quotes contemporary leaders in movement organizing, such as Emergent Strategies. In our conversation yesterday, Beriont described successful campaigns as moving “at the speed of trust”.
That jumped out at me. I have worked in politics and governance for almost 25 years - as an auditor of governments, as a mayor, as a statewide candidate, and an operative to candidates at every level of politics - and it never fails:
A new hire for a campaign from “away” will try to organize a town or a region for a candidate or a cause, and get frustrated when local leaders and activists don’t quickly “buy in”. But there’s no relationship, no track record of being there for each other - there’s no trust. And that takes time…which, in a campaign, is risky. There are 102 days until the state’s September 8th primary.
Beriont is working to build a campaign whose greatest asset is arguably the depth of commitment and trust she is building with her supporters. I’ve spoken with a number of activists and elected officials who really like Beriont, so she may be on to something. Meanwhile…102 days.
