Dan D'Ambrosio

Free Press Staff Writer

A small group of Bernie Sanders supporters gathered in a Burlington home Saturday afternoon to call voters in Iowa ahead of the all-important caucus on Feb. 1 and urged them to consider supporting the Vermont senator in the Democratic presidential race.

Thomas Hunt, a local comedian and "rickshaw driver," with a day job doing data entry, organized the phone bank party ahead of Sunday night's Democratic debate in an effort to further Sanders' standing in Iowa, where he said the candidate is within a few points of presumed Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

RealClear Politics had Sanders up by 6.2 percentage points in New Hampshire, and Clinton up by 4 percentage points in Iowa on its website Saturday.

"Right now we are at a crucial point, behind in Iowa within the margin of error," Hunt said. "We want to get the word out so people realize this is a viable candidate, an alternative to Hillary who has been fighting for common people his entire career."

Hunt said he had also gone door to door in New Hampshire for Sanders three times, where RealClear Politics showed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump with a lead of 17.6 percentage points in the Republican primary.

"We haven't encountered hostility as much as stonewalling," Hunt said of his time in New Hampshire. "Someone opened a window and said 'Don't bother, turn around and keep walking,' and we got a few angry looks. We inconvenience a few people but this is something very important to us and the country. We do ourselves a disservice by not being informed voters."

Kit Andrews, who lives in Burlington and is retired, was preparing to work the phones on Saturday at Thomas' house. Andrews said she has been a Sanders supporter since 1984 when she moved to Burlington and Sanders was mayor.

"First of all his record goes all the way back to 1981, and he's never tried to check the polls first, then said what he thinks," Andrews said. "All of us who've known him all along, we know he's been talking the same program for working class people his entire career, and all of his actions have followed his words. He's consistent."

Melissa Ham-Ellis was already working her cellphone, using an auto-dialing program provided by the Sanders campaign. She said there's a fine line between trying to be enthusiastic and not overwhelming people who may not want to spend a lot of time talking on the phone about Sanders.

"A lot of times people want to talk about themselves," Ham-Ellis said. "They just need to be heard. Of course there's not a lot I can do from my tiny apartment in Essex Junction."

Ham-Ellis said she struggles with feeling bad about bothering people on their day off. But then she thinks about what Sanders means to her.

"Bernie has this energy I haven't seen in other candidates," Ham-Ellis said. "I have witnessed Sen. Sanders fighting for the Vermont spirit. If you work hard, you should have something to show for it."

This story was first published on Jan. 16, 2016. Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosio@freepressmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DanDambrosioVT.

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