Bernie Sanders campaign opens office in downtown New Bedford
About 40 people show up on chilly Saturday to canvass, volunteer for fiery Democratic presidential candidate
Posted Feb. 13, 2016
NEW BEDFORD — Assonet resident Rick Fetters, standing Saturday morning in the newly opened Bernie Sanders campaign office in downtown New Bedford, said he hadn’t been actively involved in national politics in more than 40 years.
“The last real campaign I wanted to get involved in was Bobby Kennedy,” Fetters said, referring to the 1968 presidential bid by the U.S. senator from New York, who was assassinated in June that year.
Fetters, a retired, 67-year-old folk musician who used to work in hospice care on Cape Cod, said he appreciated Sanders’ push for universal, single-payer health care. Fetters also said Sanders’ “experience and consistency” appealed to him — and stirred a Kennedy-like inspiration that he last felt decades ago.
“It’s that kind of energy that I think he can instill in the country,” Fetters said of Sanders.
Fetters was one of about 40 people who showed up on a chilly Saturday to support the Vermont senator in downtown New Bedford, as campaign staff and volunteers opened a field office that will lead voter-outreach efforts in southeastern Massachusetts.
“I hope you guys are feeling the Bern, because it’s like 6 degrees outside,” Paul Feeney, Massachusetts director for the Sanders campaign, told the enthusiastic crowd gathered at 556 Pleasant Street, near the Union Street intersection.
“How about New Hampshire this week!” Feeney added moments later, earning cheers and referring to Sanders’ resounding victory Tuesday in New Hampshire’s primary, over former First Lady, U.S. senator and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Clinton got strong support in Massachusetts in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, when she received 56 percent of the vote, compared to 41 percent for Barack Obama.
Polling from November last year gave Clinton an edge of about 25 points over Sanders, according to RealClear Politics, but Sanders supporters gathered Saturday are hoping to change those numbers.
“We’ve got about two weeks before the primary, and we’ve got a lot of work to do,” field organizer Sam Stratton, a 23-year-old Westport resident, told the crowd.
Stratton and Feeney said the New Bedford office will coordinate canvassing, phone calls and other voter-outreach efforts across the region, including Cape Cod and the islands, ahead of the state’s March 1 primary.
Massachusetts voters will be part of “Super Tuesday,” which includes elections or caucuses in 14 states — and American Samoa — that day.
Stratton and 22-year-old Westport resident Morissa Vital, an intern on the Sanders campaign who will be working in the New Bedford office, reflect Sanders’ appeal to young voters.
Joe Caiazzo, state communications director for the Sanders campaign, said staff and interns weren’t able to speak on the record about the senator.
But several local college students and graduates had plenty to say in the office Saturday.
“As millennials, we could be the deciding vote for him,” said Jona Koka, a New Bedford resident studying chemistry at UMass Dartmouth.
Koka said Sanders’ call for sweeping reforms to college tuition and student loans was a top issue for her.
“Debt, debt, debt, debt,” Koka said, pointing, with each word, to herself and then to three friends standing next to her.
“Every month, it takes a little of my soul,” one of those friends, 24-year-old New Bedford resident Penny Cruz, said of her student loan payments.
Cruz said she has a bachelor’s degree in history and criminal justice from UMass Dartmouth, and paid more than $1,000 last year just on interest for her student loans, which she said total about $25,000.
Saturday’s event was briefly disrupted by two men who interrupted Feeney’s initial remarks, and attempted to draw attention with gaudy showmanship that involved no apparent purpose or position statement.
One of the men danced suggestively, stripped off outer layers of clothing and asked if attendees were really, “feeling the Bern.”
The two men left after a couple of minutes, objecting minimally and not physically, as Caiazzo led them outside.
“Being in New Bedford, I expected a little more rhythm,” Feeney joked to the crowd, upon retaking the microphone. Feeney then referred to the strange things that can happen on campaign trails.
“Welcome to my life,” he said, drawing laughter.
The New Bedford office is Sanders’ fifth in Massachusetts. In addition to state campaign headquarters in Charlestown, the Sanders team has offices in Worcester, Springfield and Lawrence.
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