Bernie Sanders draws a crowd at Concord campaign stop

By ELLA NILSEN

Monitor staff



Last modified: 5/28/2015 4:48:01 PM

Eighty-year-old Marlene Gilman stood for more than a half-hour in a sweltering, cramped room on Main Street in Concord with about a hundred others, waiting for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to emerge.



The lack of air conditioning and large crowd certainly wasn’t helping with the heat, but it didn’t matter to the New Boston resident. Seeing Sanders speak was worth it.



“I love him,” Gilman said. “Love, love, love him.”



Gilman called Sanders an “honest politician,” one of the few left in the United States, in her opinion.



“I call him the reincarnation of FDR, here to save us,” she said, referring to the president responsible for sweeping social programs including Social Security and the New Deal.



Sanders kicked off his presidential campaign Tuesday in Burlington, Vt., on the shores of Lake Champlain, and promptly headed across the border to meet voters in New Hampshire.



In Concord, they came out in scores to see him; Sanders’s campaign estimated 300 people were in attendance. It was standing-room only at New England College’s Concord office on Main Street, as people packed in to hear Sanders, and dozens more waited in Eagle Square, where he stopped briefly after.



Sanders, an independent Vermont senator and avowed socialist (he is affiliated with the Democratic Party for his presidential campaign), focused largely on the economy, lowering student debt and getting money out of politics.



He advocated for the United States to become more like Europe when it comes to health care and higher education, talking at length about student debt.



Sanders called it an “absurdity that thousands of bright young people have given up the dream of going to college” because of the cost, and said he was equally disappointed that many of those who do go to college leave “deeply, deeply in debt.”



To illustrate his point, Sanders was joined by New England College students who talked about leaving school thousands of dollars in debt. Some said they knew other students who had to abandon college because they couldn’t afford it.



The other big focus of Sanders’s speech was railing against the country’s wealthiest. He often mentioned Charles and David Koch, the billionaire brothers who have poured money into conservative political campaigns over the past few years, and took more jabs at them than he did at his main Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.



“I do not believe American democracy is about billionaires buying elections,” he said. “One person, one vote is what American democracy is supposed to be about.”



Sanders criticized Clinton by name rarely. At one point, he criticized her recent refusal to take a stance on President Obama’s proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement until it is final.



“I just don’t know how you don’t have an opinion on this enormously important issue, which is her view,” Sanders said.



One audience member had harsher words for Clinton.



“I don’t want to be just the party that takes away from Hillary,” said Jeanny Aldrich of Chesterfield. “I want to be able to kick her butt. Why can’t we ask Hillary to give up her spot and give it to you?”



While Sanders is still seen as an underdog in the Democratic race for president, he is starting to build a New Hampshire campaign in earnest.



Last week, his camp hired veteran New Hampshire labor organizer Kurt Ehrenberg, who most recently headed up Run Warren Run, a campaign to draft Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts to run for president.



Warren has repeatedly said she won’t enter the race, and after months of receiving the same answer, Ehrenberg said he decided to work for Sanders, whom he has known for years.



“He’s courageous, he’s probably the most progressive member of the U.S. Senate,” Ehrenberg said in an interview Tuesday. “Bernie’s the true package, he’s authentic.”



Ehrenberg is currently the only staff member of Sanders’s New Hampshire operation, and he said the campaign will have to rely on committed volunteers to win state’s primary.



“We need a real, strong grassroots campaign, and we’re going to build that,” he said.



While Sanders doesn’t have the spending power of Clinton, officials in his campaign have been quick to tout the $1.5 million raised in the day after his initial announcement. The average donation to that sum is a little more than $40, they said.



The crowd that gathered in Concord yesterday was made up of some loyal Sanders fans who chanted, “Bernie! Bernie!” after he finished making a point, but a few who showed up were still undecided.



Concord resident Nancy Wood said she was there to hear what Sanders had to say, but she would also be paying attention to Clinton and likely candidate Martin O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland. O’Malley is expected to announce a presidential run this weekend.



“Bernie sounds interesting,” Wood said. “I’m glad someone is speaking against Wall Street.”



She added she was happy to see someone challenge Clinton for the Democratic nomination.



“At the very minimum, it will bring out the issues,” she said.



Though Wood’s vote is still up for grabs, she said Sanders would be getting a financial boost from her.



She plans to send his campaign some money, figuring he needs it more than Clinton.







(Ella Nilsen can be reached at 369-3322, enilsen@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @ella_nilsen.)





