Belief in Ron Paul rallies young Iowa volunteers

By KEN HERMAN
Cox News Servi
Published on: 12/31/07

BOONE, Iowa — The polls say one thing. The Pauls say another.

Despite surveys indicating a Ron Paul presidency is about as likely as a balmy January day in Iowa, young supporters who have flocked to his campaign remain upbeat as Thursday's Iowa caucuses approach.

"Do I expect him to be president? I think so," said John Zambenini, a 22-year-old Dayton, Ohio native who became the campaign's Iowa spokesman in October, a month after he first heard the name Ron Paul. "I think the more Americans know about Ron Paul they will realize we cannot afford not to have him as president."

Paul's Iowa campaign claims more than 300 volunteers from 39 states and four foreign countries. Most are bivouacked at seven camps around the state and driven into towns for door-to-door campaigning.

"It's like herding cats," said Jeff Frazee, a Houston native and Texas A&M graduate who is Paul's national youth coordinator.

At a YMCA Camp in Boone rented by the campaign, Frazee on Sunday gave the 8:30 a.m. pep talk to volunteers who signed up for "Ron Paul's Christmas Vacation in Iowa." Participants were reminded in advance to bring "bathroom supplies (toothbrush, deodorant, soap, shampoo, etc. — medication" and "warm/nice clothes ? you will be representing Ron Paul to Iowans, don't be a slob."

A "What NOT to bring" list included "alcohol/drugs" and "guns, knives, fireworks."

Many, like University of Georgia senior Andrew Pierson of Atlanta, are doing something they never saw themselves doing.

"It's 70 degrees back in Georgia," he said Sunday (overshooting the actual Atlanta high by about 20 degrees) as he headed out on a 14-degree morning to go door to door in Des Moines. "Why am I here? I'm here for Ron Paul."

For Pierson, 21 and already "disgusted with politicians and politics," Paul is someone to believe in.

"I thought they were all corrupt. And then I heard about Ron Paul and he really just made me rethink everything," said Pierson, sporting a University of Georgia sweatshirt as one of his layers of clothing against the cold.

After the Thursday caucuses, Pierson will make a 24-hour Greyhound bus trip back to Atlanta.

For Texan Brittney Lowery, 20, the Paul camp is a combination of love and politics. It is, she said, "sort of our honeymoon." Lowery and Adam Weibling, who's also here, got married Oct. 5.

"I've never done anything like this before," Lowery, a University of Houston student, said of campaigning for Paul.

In the face of polls that say otherwise, the young people who gathered here Sunday before fanning out to knock on doors are convinced President Ron Paul will take the oath in January 2009.

"The thing that nobody notices in the polls is that 60 percent of the people have still never heard of him," said 19-year-old Matt Strunk of Vero Beach, Fla., who first saw Paul on "The Colbert Report." "So once his message gets out, that's really all it takes for him to win."

Texas Tech senior Kevin McBride of Bridgeport, Texas, says Paul will win because "the alternative is unacceptable."

The enthusiasm is stoked by a campaign that says the stakes are high.

"Iowa is a key state in the political process," according to the campaign's in-house guide to the caucuses, "and Ron Paul may be our last hope for America."

Dayton native Zambenini came to Iowa with recent experience in accomplishing uphill goals a little at a time. After graduating from Asbury College in Kentucky last May, he got on his bike in Norfolk, Va., and pedaled until he reached San Francisco 53 days later.

At 22, he typifies Pauldom, categorizing himself as a Republican who is "quite disenfranchised with the war and things like that" and fed up with President Bush, who he brands a "tax-and-spend politician."

"Finally," he said of Paul, "a candidate I felt like I could get behind."

I found this article at http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/12/31/caucuspaul_1230.html