Campaigns dispatch volunteers

Just because none of the Democratic presidential candidates was in South Carolina on Saturday doesn’t mean the state wasn’t a hubbub of campaign activity.

While most of the candidates were trolling for votes in other states with Tuesday primaries or caucuses, hundreds of volunteers — representing all seven campaigns — fanned across South Carolina to plead their candidates’ cases.

“Veterans for John Kerry” manned phone banks, calling S.C. veterans and stressing the U.S. senator’s two tours in Vietnam.

World War II veteran Norman White, 81, of Richmond, Va., strolled through Five Points handing out Kerry fliers. He bragged of his fellow veterans’ ability to lasso voters for the Massachusetts senator.

“We’re cool,” White said. “We are really cool.”

A similar spirit of optimism surged through the camp of U.S. Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, headquartered on Gervais Street in the Vista.

Edwards campaign staff members greeted dozens of volunteers with bagels and orange juice before dispatching them to numerous Columbia neighborhoods.

Atlantan Geoff Pope, 36, a trial lawyer like Edwards, began knocking on doors in Meadowlake, a predominantly black area with a very high rate of voter participation that the campaign considers fertile ground.

At the first 15 houses he hit, three residents did not seem to be at home, one was voting for U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, one said she would vote for Edwards, and the rest were sleeping or in their pajamas and disinclined to discuss politics at 11 a.m. on a Saturday.

“The 16-year-old was the most interesting person I talked to,” Pope said. “She seemed really interested in politics. Too bad she can’t vote yet.”

Back downtown, supporters of retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark shouted his praises outside the State House, across the street from their Columbia headquarters.

Supporters of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean were just across the street, chanting his name.

About 300 to 400 Dean volunteers deployed from the candidate’s Charleston, Columbia, Greenville, Florence and Orangeburg offices, Dean spokeswoman Delacey Skinner said.

Some 100 Lieberman supporters also hit the pavement, hoping to pull voters toward the U.S. senator from Connecticut, who spent the day observing the Jewish Sabbath at his Washington, D.C., home.

U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio doesn’t have the volunteer force of candidates who are faring better in the polls.

“It’s not a major outreach,” Kucinich state coordinator Michael Berg said, “but they are committed.”

Those few but passionate Kucinich fans spent the day on the phones, asking likely Democratic voters to consider an alternative to the front-runners.

Efforts to reach the Al Sharpton campaign were unsuccessful Saturday.

Reach Markoe at (202) 383-6023 or lmarkoe@krwashington.com.