2 conservatives, 2 positions for November

SCHENECTADY — Two conservative, white local men have found themselves on opposite sides in this year’s presidential campaign.

Chris Diedrich, a self-described independent who says “liberal” is a dirty word, is organizing Schenectady For Obama.

His counterpart, Republican J. Christopher Callaghan, is pulling together Sen. John McCain’s Capital Region campaign.

They are taking their groups in radically different directions as well.

Callaghan says he isn’t going to try to convince anyone to vote for McCain but will focus his efforts on getting out the vote in the 72 hours before Election Day.

The group for Sen. Barack Obama, on the other hand, is running at least two events every week. In many weeks, they have four or more events planned for the Schenectady area alone.

Demand for Obama yard signs, shirts and other materials has been so high that one member recently offered his garage for storage.

Callaghan is still waiting for McCain yard signs to arrive.

But he isn’t worried about the wait. He doesn’t plan to energize local Republicans until the first day of November.

“We have to show some support, but basically people will make up their own minds,” he said. “Seventy-two hours before the election is the important part, to make sure they’re enthused to go out to vote.”

Obama enthusiasm

Diedrich’s group is already counting down the days — there are just 87 left — and time seems to be slipping away. They’re trying to ramp up the pace so they can get more done in the few months remaining.

Even the simplest issue — like a recent shortage of bumper stickers — has to be addressed immediately, they say.

“We can’t wait till next week. A week is a long time,” said Jeanette Bearzi at one of the group’s meetings.

The group is running voter registration tables at nearly every city event, from the farmers market days to Jazz on Jay concerts and Jerry Burrell Park basketball tournament games. They plan to start walking the streets on Saturdays, knocking on doors and talking up Obama.

They’re most enthusiastic about his foreign policy. Even his speech to Germans drew their adoration — not because of what he said but because 100,000 foreigners were waving American flags instead of burning them.

“The U.S. used to be a place everyone wanted to live. It was nice to see he was well-received,” Bearzi said.

Kathy Nye added, “Our reputation abroad is awful right now.” Obama, she said, will restore the country’s good name.

They’re also telling their neighbors that in Obama, voters finally have a politician they can trust.

Rallying GOP support

Republicans aren’t quite as energized about McCain. Callaghan, for example, disagrees vehemently with one of McCain’s signature pieces of legislation, the McCain-Feingold Act regulating campaign finance. Callaghan thinks it violates freedom of speech guarantees.

He’s not happy with McCain’s stance on stem cell research, either. (McCain wants to ban it.)

“I don’t agree with him on every issue,” he said. “If I were designing a perfect candidate, he’d be a little younger than John McCain, he’d be a little more conservative than John McCain. But we have pretty good raw material here.”

He has heard grumbling from some Republicans in the region, most of whom strongly supported Rudy Giuliani during the primaries and then turned to the more conservative choices after Giuliani dropped out.

“We have in our party true believers,” Callaghan said. “They’d rather lose an election than compromise a principle. But we don’t need a president who will be a doctrinaire with regards to one position — you can’t govern effectively. You need someone who will bring everyone together.”

And that, he said, is McCain’s greatest strength.

“Even with McCain-Feingold, which I disagree with, he had the courage to reach across the aisle and come up with a solution. I agree campaign finance is a problem,” Callaghan said.

He also likes McCain’s stick-to-itiveness.

“Supporting the surge last year was a political death wish. The conventional wisdom was to stay away from the war if you want to get elected president of the United States,” Callaghan said.

That trait, he thinks, will win over Republicans who wanted a more conservative candidate.

“There’s no one saying he’s not honorable, he’s not candid. No one is concerned about his character,” Callaghan said. “The character traits: courage, integrity. And consistency, which I think is a gotcha for Obama.”

Pragmatic approaches

Both Callaghan and the coordinator for McCain’s New York/New Jersey campaign first responded to questions about why they wanted to vote for McCain by saying that they don’t want Obama.

Other Republicans also said they have deep concerns about Obama.

“John McCain has the background. You can look and say he has demonstrated good character,” said Tom Buchanan, chairman of the Schenectady County Republican Committee. “Obama may or may not have good character. It’s a risk, and at the end of the day, I think he’s too risky.”

State Sen. Hugh Farley, R-Niskayuna, agreed: “I’m concerned about the lack of experience with Sen. Obama,” he said.

He added that he has concerns about McCain, too, but respects him anyway. “He’s not the normal politician — he stands up for what he believes in, not what is popular. You have to admire that even if you don’t agree with him on everything,” Farley said.

Farley was an enthusiastic Giuliani supporter but said he’s switched his allegiance and his enthusiasm over to McCain. Other Republicans, he said, are more subdued in their support.

“It’s a very strange election,” Farley said. “I find Democrats saying, ‘I’m going to vote for John McCain.’ I see Republicans not enthusiastic but they’re going to vote for him.”

As for his own decision, he said it’s partly pragmatic. “I’ll tell you why I’m enthusiastic: I think he’s probably the one Republican who could win this year,” Farley said.

Despite the lukewarm support locally, Republican insiders insisted that their party is not “settling” for a “second-choice candidate,” as one insider put it. Buchanan in particular spoke glowingly of McCain.

“I think John McCain’s a reliable conservative. Is he independent? Absolutely. But I think that’s what makes John McCain special and unique,” Buchanan said. “John McCain has shown a willingness to stand up for what’s right. John McCain is not afraid to say something that may not be political. I think at the end of the day, people are going to trust John McCain.”

Even the man’s stance on fighting to victory in Iraq will help him win votes, Buchanan argued. “While people may like, in the abstract, the U.S. to withdraw from the war, the American people don’t want to see defeat in Iraq and they don’t want to see chaos descend on Iraq,” Buchanan said. “Take Vietnam. They didn’t put in a dove candidate in 1968; they put in Nixon. They called Ronald Reagan a warmonger with the ‘Take down this wall’ [speech]. People wanted peace. If people want peace, they’re going to want peace from a strong nation.”

Independent backing

While Republicans seem to be coalescing around McCain, Obama has drawn many Capital District residents who are straddling the fence when it comes to party affiliation. That’s been done many times before, but it’s unusual for a non-Democrat to organize a local campaign, particularly in Schenectady, which is heavily Democratic.

It’s because of Diedrich that Schenectady For Obama meets at a coffee house, rather than a political office.

Diedrich doesn’t feel comfortable supporting other Democratic candidates, and he figures that the Obama group is more likely to draw a bipartisan membership if Republicans and independents aren’t asked to gather in offices festooned with banners for local Democrats.

“We’re not a partisan group,” Diedrich said firmly when members pointed out that retiring Democratic Congressman Mike McNulty’s office is a lot quieter and more organized than their circle of chairs at the Muddy Cup.

“Look, our mission is to elect Obama,” Diedrich said. “I’m not sure we can connect ourselves to the Democratic Party directly. We don’t have a lot of them, but I’m finding some Republicans are supporting Obama. And some independents. We do have some. My sole purpose is to elect Obama and unify people to do so.”

There’s no way to mistake Diedrich for a staunch Democrat. He believes in a strong military — although he doesn’t like the war in Iraq. He thinks liberals (“That dirty word that starts with L,” he said) are ruining society. Today’s children need more discipline, especially in school, he says.

‘Breath of fresh air’

In many respects, he admitted, he sounds like a conservative — the sort of voter that Republicans hope to count on each year.

But in many ways, Diedrich also looks like the typical Obama rallier. He’s never been this involved in politics before and can only name one presidential candidate for whom he ever felt much excitement. He distrusts Washington politics and hates it when candidates resort to mud-slinging.

“Obama brings a breath of fresh air,” Diedrich said. “He uses words like ‘unity’ and ‘communication.’ ”

He was so moved that he started Schenectady For Obama without any idea of how to negotiate the hurdles of campaign finance, electioneering laws or the basics of leading a group of headstrong adults. The task was made more complicated by the fact that most local Democrats were ardent supporters of Sen. Hillary Clinton.

But they all appear to have moved to Obama’s side. Even Schenectady Mayor Brian U. Stratton, who was one of the first politicians in the nation to endorse Clinton, said he’ll campaign for Obama — because Clinton asked him to.

“I’m supporting Sen. Clinton’s support for Sen. Obama,” Stratton said. “She is an outstanding leader. I wish that she were the nominee. I still believe she would be the best leader possible.”

But unlike the disappointed conservative Republicans, Stratton thinks Obama is nearly as good as Clinton. “Of course, he espouses the Democratic themes we all support, like an immediate end to the war,” Stratton said.

At a recent meeting with mayors, Obama won Stratton over by promising support for federal programs to help rebuild city sewer and water systems, fund energy efficiency projects and increase funding for the Community Development Block Grant program that has been reduced in recent years.