Candidates get a little help from their friends
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - When campaigning for president in a country as large as the United States, it helps to have famous friends to share the campaigning.
With exhausted candidates hopscotching between 24 states as far apart as New York, California and Alaska voting in primaries and caucuses on Tuesday, the help is all the more valuable.
For months, stars of local and national politics and celebrities have campaigned for the Democrat and Republican candidates, but ahead of the busiest day of the primary season called Super Tuesday, the pace has intensified.
Massachusetts Sen. Edward Kennedy, brother of slain President John Kennedy, held rallies and fundraisers for Democrat Barack Obama, trying to pass the luster of his family's name to the Illinois senator.
"The Kennedy dynasty is ending, so I think this is their way of saying this is our last hope for change," Rita Celidonio, 58, said at a Kennedy rally in Oakland on Friday. "They're passing the mantle."
Several attendees said an endorsement by John Kennedy's only surviving child, Caroline Kennedy, helped solidify their vote for Obama. "That was a key editorial and became my point of no return," said Drew Hess, 34, a real estate investor, said of Kennedy's opinion column in the New York Times last week.
Obama is hoping Kennedy and others could contribute to a major upset in California, the nation's most populous state and biggest electoral prize, where he is running neck-and-neck with Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York in polls. Obama is spending the days before Tuesday's vote in other states.
FRIENDS AND FAMILY
Former President Bill Clinton is the biggest star in his wife's surrogate arsenal. His two terms saw prosperity, but he is also highly controversial as his impeachment following a tryst with an intern angered many party faithful, and he has irritated some voters with negative remarks about Obama.
Politicians with local support if not the famed Clinton name have also lent a hand.
"It lends credibility to a campaign," said San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who campaigned for Clinton, a Democrat, in California, Nevada and Iowa. "It does help motivate staff and volunteers to see someone they recognize."
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has sent his five adult children and wife off to remote states such as Alaska, Montana and North Dakota.
"I tell you, one of the reasons I love family is they've been working for me in this campaign," joked Romney, who has stressed family values as a political issue.
Action film star Chuck Norris has helped attract attention to a previously little known former Gov. Mike Huckabee, who won the Republican Iowa caucus. When another actor known for his brawn, Sylvester Stallone, declared his support for John McCain, the Arizona senator enthusiastically responded: "Yeah! Rambo versus Chuck Norris!"
Sometimes, surrogates may say things that the campaign does not publicly embrace. At a recent debate, Huckabee explained that he did not agree with tough-guy Norris' statement that McCain was too old.
"I didn't disagree with him at the time, because I was standing next to him," he said to laughter. "This is a guy who can put this foot on that side of my face."
Celebrity talk show host Oprah Winfrey was scheduled to rally voters alongside Caroline Kennedy and Obama's wife Michelle in Los Angeles on Sunday.
Even the surviving band members of the Grateful Dead said they would give their first concert since 2004 for Obama on Monday night.
Do people listen to celebrities? It depends. "Normally, I'd say you shouldn't pay attention to celebrities doing political stuff, but tonight's different," actor Ted Danson said in introducing Clinton in San Francisco on Friday.
Newsom said in reality he has probably only convinced a small amount of voters to back Clinton. "But if you multiple those numbers by the hundreds of surrogates, you've got real numbers," he said.
(Additional reporting by Amanda Beck, Steve Holland, Tim Gaynor, Jeff Mason and Claudia Parsons)
