Fritz Mondale, Some New Hampshire Politics, and Start with Dwight Eisenhower

4/20/2021 Some Personal History of Fritz Mondale, Presidential Politics, and New Hampshire Walter “Fritz” Mondale and his family represented the kind of caring and community committed politics we see (for many including myself surprisingly) embodied in Joe Biden this year. First saw Mondale at a Democratic state convention about 1968 in Maine a the “Democratic” noontime reception in the downtown hotel, the Sheraton Eastland, owned by the Dunfey family which would also would own the Sheraton in Bedford, NH which for many years also was the home of all would be presidential contenders from the 1970s through the end of the century—you would even see at lunch the likes of Pat Robertson who ran in the Republican primaries once. At the Sheraton in Bedford, NH experienced locals would shun the presidential parade which always seems a sideshow except, of course, for the candidate you and your family supported! Fritz was a young looking 40ish at that point with a crewcut and relaxed manner (did Mondale every have a different look?) as moved around with fellow and far more senior Senator Ed Muskie of Maine who was moving towards a presidential candidacy of his own. This immediate post-Great Society period had shifted to the Vietnam War as an increasingly dominant issue—and Muskie’s campaign lost the anti-Vietnam college fuel ultimately causing his campaign to hit the rocks. Muskie’s plan for the 1972 presidential nomination was derailed, a victim of the anti-Vietnam insurgency and Democratic Party structure upheaval which hit the simultaneous ceiling and rock bottom with Nixon landsliding into re-election followed by a first ever resignation of the presidency from massive personal and White House staffers lawbreaking. Senator George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic candidate, was as honest and forthright as Nixon was the opposite. Mondale went on to be vice-president under Carter who lost to Reagan in 1980. During the 1980-1984 period my encounter with Mondale shifted to my home state of New Hampshire. I saw Mondale, by then a former vice-president, in a noontime speech to a social service event in Washington, DC while on a conference. Living in Concord, NH then 7 miles away in Allenstown from 1976-1988, was active in Democratic politics. Allenstown located mid-way between Manchester and Concord was a mix of the two communities, half with roots from Concord’s English population heritage and the half Franco-Canadian which dominates Manchester. Not only was Allenstown the poorest in the state in terms of property valuation per student in the schools, it was considered a bellwether in politics, as Allenstown went in elections so would the State of New Hampshire as it contained a cross section of the State’s population—particularly that of the Democratic Party! My one elective office, a ten-year term representing Allenstown in the mandated NH Constitutional Convention was of note for my initiative on behalf of Allenstown to have the Constitution require the State to fund half of all local public education and half of the cost of state colleges. It lost, of course, but garnered a significant vote of about 40%. It would be years after that the NH Supreme Court required equal funding for each public school student—still a difficult task to carry out by the legislature. In the 1984 primary campaign I was involved in what was then a questionable role in unions from several states providing funds aiding the election of Mondale delegates—it is chronicled in the Germond and Witcover book “Wake Us When It’s Over.” Even as a life-long union person, it is my least proud actions in politics before or since. At the Democratic State Convention in 1982 to the best of my recollection Mondale was in full steam ahead mode for the 1984 nomination. I distinctly recall approaching him on behalf of a petition group seeking support for a state issue. To my surprise, Mondale took the petition placed on the adjacent table and carefully read it in its entirety leaving me quite nervous thinking it meant I would fail my appointed task. At that time I certainly was naive to think a former vice-president would simply sign any ordinary petition! Suffice to say the petition language satisfied the vice-president and he added his John Hancock. To say in those days seeing dozens of candidates for the Democratic nomination in the proverbial living room chats at the home of Mary Louise Hancock in Concord, former state planning director and state senator from Merrimack County, candidates for president were considered ordinary acquaintances and approachable and wanting to be approached like a super friendly young dog. New Hampshire voters were the candy they sought—everyone had their presidential candidate run in and story to tell. My Mom would often relate the time when she was a teacher in Colebrook, NH—she was as lifelong Republican—meeting as she was walking along Main Street Ronald Reagan and saying that she was not very much impressed by him. In fact my first in-person presidential contact came when during Boys State in 1955 we were bused to Concord from UNH to see President Eisenhower. We know now that was a campaign visit in preparation for the primary election election in early 1956. Eisenhower won the New Hampshire Republican Primary—the first ever— beating the party leader Robert Taft, himself the son of President William Howard Taft. That Eisenhower victory was crucial in his getting the Republican nomination in a process still strongly controlled by party leaders in most states. Of course I was only 17 at the time and would not be voting in the 1956 elections—21 was the voting age at that time. As an aside, I did receive an autograph on a Norwich University commencement luncheon program about 1950—my Grandfather George Lovell got it, perhaps I was there I do not recall—the General wrote, “Good Luck Tony, Dwight Eisenhower.” Must admit his autograph may have been clairvoyant. But, of course, Mondale did not win the New Hampshire primary—but he did carry Allenstown by about seven votes including two from my household. Supporting Mondale also meant phone banking in Allenstown and that brought both Mondale’s wonderful wife Joan and her daughter Eleanor to a long time community leader for a weekend of calling. I met them and their commitment to him helped energize us all. And on election day it was driving snow and sleet which by late afternoon was 2-3 inches deep as our volunteer crew went door to door in the February dark to pull voters who had not been tallied out to vote by our “poll watchers.” And, of course, some of us had gone to the speech by Gary Hart on the Friday night before the election in Concord, outside across from the State House on an unusually warm evening. We saw first hand the charisma and strength of Hart and could feel the momentum sufficient to carry over the finish line—he would likely and did upset Mondale. Even in those days the last weekend of a presidential primary were well known to result in shifts of 20-30 points and more from poll predictions. So, while I was on the Mondale slate of delegates to the national convention I would have gone only if he won by a large margin. Then came 1988 with work for Michael Dukakis in Allenstown and Jerry Brown in Montpelier, VT—but that is a story for another time, and Ted Kennedy, and Jimmy Carter and being key in winning a Maine governorship. All in all, Walter Mondale contributed a sense that one could be for all that is good, all that can benefit all of society and also do so with integrity and honesty.