Clinton Volunteer in Iowa Has Such a Bad Experience That He Switches to Obama

Plenty of volunteers have crappy experiences in campaign offices, because that’s just how it goes.  Once you agree to volunteer, campaigns don’t put as much effort into making friends with you because they assume you have already drunk the Kool-Aid.  Unfortunately, when there are few clear distinctions between candidates and a long, contentious primary, staff can’t take volunteers’ support for granted.  Case in point, this Des Moines Register letter to the editor:

I came to Iowa as a die-hard Hillary Clinton supporter/volunteer, who was ready to help elect the first woman president of the United States.

I had extra time to spend in Iowa before a trip to Fargo, so I decided to volunteer for a week before I went to Fargo and for two weeks afterward.

Within the first couple of days of arriving, I had seen three field workers cry because of the abuse they took. The volunteers were segregated and treated like second-class citizens. I left after my first week, hoping things would change, but they did not.

I was ignored, even though I asked many people for work to do. So I decided to leave the campaign as a volunteer, knowing that I have been supporting the wrong candidate.

As a former state president of College Democrats and having worked on numerous campaigns, I have never seen people treated so badly. I have officially changed my views: I believe Barack Obama will be the best president of United States.

- James Henson,
Oklahoma City, Okla.

I have trouble with the idea that the way campaign staff on the ground in Iowa treat volunteers has any bearing on how good a president a candidate will be; but, if Clinton staff is being driven to tears on a regular basis, there are going to be bigger problems for them to deal with.  Maybe the “We’re going to win, so don’t mess this up” message puts a little too much pressure on the field organizers who likely hear it on a daily basis.

Hat-tip to Matt Ortega, who did a better job following this story — in my own backyard — than I did this weekend.