Alumnus works for Clark campaign

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Driving to Gen. Wesley Clark's election night party in New Hampshire Jan. 27, Dan Wachtell '02 received a call from the campaign's national headquarters in Little Rock. He still had a job the next day.

Wachtell, who was nursing a cold on two-and-a-half hours of sleep, was "incredibly psyched" to learn he was headed to Albuquerque to continue as a full-time staffer for Clark's campaign.

"I was expecting to have a couple of days to go home to New York, chill out, sleep, watch the Super Bowl, but as it turns out I'm flying to New Mexico at 9:20 in the morning," he said later that evening.

After the New Mexico caucuses the following Tuesday, Wachtell flew back to New Hampshire to get his car and belongings and drive to Tennessee, where he is stationed through Tuesday's primary.

Wachtell is among legions of young campaign staffers who follow the election calendar from state to state, staying for weeks at a time in the homes of local supporters and working long hours in tiny offices to oversee local campaign efforts.

Their fortunes rise and fall with those of their candidates; they may find their meager paychecks halted or be out of a job altogether following a disappointing showing in a state. But the full-time staffers coordinate the effort, and they thrive on the roller-coaster excitement of the campaign.

"There are incredible highs and lows — incredible adrenaline rushes and big valleys when things don't always work out," Wachtell said. "But I want to stay on as long as possible, through the end, until he gets to the White House."

Hours after Clark announced his candidacy, Wachtell picked up the phone and called the campaign's Little Rock headquarters seeking a full-time position. The day after Thanksgiving, Wachtell left his New York apartment and headed for New Hampshire, where he would spend the next eight weeks.

"I should probably have had jobs many months before I got this one, but I was fortunate enough to be in a position where I was able to pass things up," said Wachtell, whose activities since graduating two years ago have included producing a movie, traveling cross-country and running a state treasurer's reelection campaign.

When the opportunity to work for the Clark campaign came up, Wachtell knew he wanted to pursue it. "I get bored by tedious things easily, and I knew from previous experience that the day-today of a campaign is constantly changing," he said.

Wachtell's political activism dates back to college, when he led 25 Princeton students to New Hampshire to spend two weeks campaigning for Bill Bradley before the 2000 primary.

Four years later, Wachtell was back — this time working as the regional coordinator of Clark's Concord office. As one of two full-time staffers there, his role included party-planning, advertising, telemarketing, debating, politicking and writing.

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"It's a combination of about five jobs that, if you asked me to do them individually, I would never do in a million years," Wachtell said. "Put together, it's just an unbelievable job."

He routinely worked 15-hour days, but as the New Hampshire primary drew closer, he found himself staying in the office up to 20 hours a day to finish what needed to be done.

"You really don't want to leave anything on the table," he said, watching the results come in the night of the election. "It looks like we're going to beat Edwards by less than a thousand votes, and that's probably pure phone calls I've made in the past week."

Wachtell said he could eventually see himself in politics, "but this sort of hectic, crazy, unbelievable campaign work is not really something you make a career out of."

Almost all of the campaign staffers are under 25, unmarried and from wealthy upbringings, Wachtell explained. "They can afford to work obscene hours, fly to New Mexico at the drop of a hat, and not have to worry about making what essentially comes down to a daily stipend when you figure out how many hours you work and how much you get paid."

Although the job may not lead to a longterm career, Wachtell is savoring the uncertainty of the experience. "It's just something I'm enjoying for the time being," he said, "and I'm really enjoying just allowing myself to enjoy it and not worry about where it's going to lead."