The Foreign Service Journal, October 2008

A couple of days afterward, Jim and I drove 40 miles to Concord to talk to a state party official. The three of us walked to the secretary of state’s office in the capitol build- ing to file for the election. Asked to produce $2 for the fil- ing fee, I was chagrined to find nothing but a dead moth in my wallet and ended up borrowing the money from the party official. I signed a pledge to limit my campaign spend- ing to 50 cents per registered voter for the upcoming prima- ry (I was unopposed, but the Republicans had two candi- dates) and the same for the subsequent general election. This came to about $2,400, more than I would spend. I was not going to tap special interests or Hollywood celebrities for hefty dona- tions. In addition to $500 from Julie and me, an unexpected like amount from the New Hampshire Committee to Elect Democrats, and some financial help from the state party, I raised $717. Name recognition was very impor- tant because independents in the dis- trict outnumber Republicans, who out- number Democrats. So my first outlay was $395 for lawn signs, the local equivalent of TV ads. I assigned to myself the job of putting them up and, in the process, got much better acquainted with Brentwood’s 17 square miles of rolling hills. I have to admit I felt a rush, albeit a mild and controlled one (as one would expect from a former FSO), from seeing the countryside dotted with signs — in red, white and blue, of course: DON PETTERSON State Rep Brentwood Using his computer, Jim produced hundreds of colored fliers featuring my smiling face with leafy green trees in the background, which went well with one of my campaign pledges: “Preserve the rural character of Brentwood.” Other stated objectives included affordable and accessible health care, improved education opportunities for all New Hampshire children, and a “bipartisan approach in resolving tough issues” (often lacking in the state legislature). The state party paid for the printing of three “Elect Don Petterson” postcards. That message was emblazoned on the front of the card, while the reverse was a paean to Governor John Lynch and the Democratic Party, with a subtext that I would work with them to “Help Continue to Deliver Results.” One card had a picture of me with the governor. He had a practiced politician’s wide smile, while I looked as if I suddenly realized my fly was open. My campaign fund paid for the postage, and party workers affixed address labels to the cards and saw to their mailing. Retail Politics Perhaps the most important part of our campaigning was knocking on doors (Brentwood’s 4,000 residents live in about 1,300 houses). I originally planned to cover every house myself, but it didn’t take very long for me to realize how impractical that idea was. Fortunately, an energetic party official named Kari Thurman organized the can- vassers, who included young volunteers from the Obama campaign. All this extraordinary assistance for a candidate for the state legislature came about because of New Hamp- shire’s presidential primary, which took place less than two months after Brentwood’s Nov. 13, 2007, special election. The state was swarming with volunteers and staffers for the many presidential hopefuls. Some of them, as well as the two major parties, want- ed to help determine the outcome of the Brentwood election, the only one in the state. My opponent, the winner of the Republican primary, declared he wanted to go to Concord to protect the rights of gun owners and the sanctity of the home. In a letter, he charged that I was “a career political Clinton appointee” and would “likely rubber stamp vote with the liberal and tax happy Democrats in charge in Concord.” Responding, I wrote a letter to the area’s newspaper pointing out that there was nothing political about any of my U.S. government appoint- ments and explaining how I had become a career Foreign Service officer. And I declared: “I am not now, nor have I ever been, anybody’s rubber stamp.” Otherwise, the cam- paign was pretty tame stuff. On Election Day, I showed up at the community center polling place shortly before it opened at 8 a.m. Following New Hampshire custom, a few of my supporters and I stood in near-freezing weather holding one of my signs until the voting ended at 7 p.m., leaving only for a lunch break. By most standards the voter turnout of 664 that day might seem small, but Brentwood had never had that many people — 27 percent of registered voters — vote in an off- cycle special election. Once the voting closed, my opponent and I and our respective entourages traipsed into the warmth of the polling station, and about 20 minutes later the town clerk announced the result: 372 to 292 in my favor. “Now,” I joked, “what do I do?” My erstwhile opponent did not seem amused. O C T O B E R 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 53 When approached to run for a vacant seat in the state legislature, I replied: “You’ve got the wrong guy.”