WEST LAFAYETTE – Howard W. Hewitt -Brock Johnson ’07 was scrambling Friday afternoon to find a suitable location in Lafayette for a Monday Hillary Clinton campaign event. See photo album from Monday night’s rally here.
Johnson has worked for the Clinton Campaign since the Iowa caucuses. Monday’s event featured former President Bill Clinton. Johnson doesn’t normally do advance work for the President, but took on the assignment this past weekend so he could visit his family near Edinburgh for Easter.
That’s the chaotic and hectic lifestyle Johnson and Elliott Vice ’06 have embraced during this unusually long and competitive Democratic presidential primary campaign. Vice works as a field representative organizing and assisting turn-out-the-vote efforts form state to state. He ran off a long list of states as he crisscrossed the nation since joining Hillary’s campaign a year ago.
Nearly 2,000 people jammed West Lafayette High School’s gymnasium Monday night to hear President Clinton give what must be a standard campaign speech. He entered to a roar from the crowd and to Dolly Parton’s “Working 9 to 5.” It was Clinton’s fifth speech of the day in the Hoosier state in advance of the May 6 primary.
Johnson works as a member of the advance team for Hillary. He helps with details and arrangements for campaign events and assists handling the substantial press contingent at each event.
The audience was full of area Democratic officials, plenty of young people and senior citizens. For many it was clearly an once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see a U.S. President
There was a strong Wabash contingent in the crowd as well. An informal count totaled about 12 recognizable student faces. Some helped work the campaign event while others were just there to see Bill.
The fall issue of Wabash Magazine will feature Wabash men in politics. We have at least three graduates we’ll be visiting who are working in the national race. Jeremy Bird ‘00 is a field director for Barack Obama. He currently is leading those efforts in Pennsylvania.
In photos: Top right, johnson stops to visit briefly before the crowd swarms the gym. Bottom left, Vice talks with a security official. Photos by Clayton Craig ’08
