Scalia and Avery discuss campaigning

by Caitlyn Blood
The Presidency and Press

For the last day of the Presidency and Press program, the student reporters met with two field directors, a Democrat and Republican, to discuss campaigning.

After describing their experience on different campaigns, the two opened the discussion up for questions.

The field directors, Derek Scalia, the Democrat, and Jacob Avery, the Republican, opened up about their political “battle scars.”

Scalia described a time he’d accidently spilled his opinions to a reporter while escorting her to her car. The next morning he woke up to a headline on a online blog that said: Scalia supports his candidate(and not in the way you’d think!) He didn’t get in trouble, but said he had learned to be more careful of what he talks about.

Then the media was brought up. “It’s kind of a love and hate relationship,” Scalia said on the relationship the campaigners had with the media. “The local media will always send at least one person to fully cover the story.”

A question of day-to-day routine was asked. “The week went seven days. There was no break for me,” Avery said.

“There is a point where campaign work is nonstop and basically 24/7,” said Scalia.

Corresponding with the every day work of campaigners, the discussion turned to campaigning the right way in New Hampshire.

“New Hampshire is different than the rest,” said Scalia. “There is an expectation to meet the candidates. When your calling on the phone, you want to be the last and most consistent call.”

The discussion ended with one final quote. “ At the end of the day, all we care about is pulling through,” said Avery.