Note: This transcript was adapted from a radio script. It may contain grammar errors and format quirks that certain readers find offensive.
From New Hampshire Public Radio, this is Stranglehold - an investigation into the power and people behind New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary. I’m Jack Rodolico.
CLINTON: Let me say that, while the evening is young and while we don’t yet know what the final tally will be, I think we know enough to say with some certainty that New Hampshire, tonight, has made Bill Clinton the comeback kid.
This is a speech that made political history. It was 1992, and Bill Clinton came in a surprise second place in the N.H. primary. And those words - the comeback kid - they did as much for N.H. as they did for Clinton. They further cemented this little state’s reputation as a place that can catapult a candidate to the White House.
But that story - it has been told. There’s another part of the speech I wanna tell you about. A part that’s proforma - something your ears are trained to tune out.
CLINTON: I want you to let me thank just a few people.
This bit coming up. It’s an important part of the primary machinery. Thanking the local officials who endorsed Clinton - the people who helped him claim that title - the comeback kid.
CLINTON: First my state co-chairs…
So this night was kind of a high water mark for what a N.H. politico could get in return for endorsing a presidential candidate. A small handful of these people went on to pretty plumb assignments in the Clinton administration. In this crowd at a N.H. hotel in 1992 - there are two future U.S. ambassadors to tropical countries. Not a bad return on investment for endorsing a candidate in the N.H. primary.
CLINTON: This has been a tough campaign. But at least I’ve proved one thing. I can take a punch.
[DRUMS]
This time on Stranglehold, we’re gonna take a look at one of the most purely transactional parts of any political campaign. Endorsements. One politician vouching publicly for another. We wanna know: what does an endorser really get for their support? Because ambassadorships? That’s the exception, not the rule. This transaction isn’t always so black and white.
HELMS: I don’t think endorsements generally make much of a difference.
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CASEY: Why do you think the campaigns spend so much time courting you then?
CALLI-PITTS: Because they want a good show from the state they’re in. It’s like guilt by association.
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CASTILLO: You really work hard for somebody and then win or lose they just send you to the curb. And then two years later they bring you back to life.
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RODOLICO: Well this whole wall is Kennedy.
D'ALESSANDRO: Right. I would have endorsed him. He would’ve gotten my endorsement!
[MUSIC]
Let’s start where a lot of great stories from the N.H. primary start - memory lane.
D’ALLESANDRO: I was in the audience there when John Kennedy was speaking at UNH when I was an underclassman. I met him, he shook my hand he said hi I’m John Kennedy. I said hi I’m Lou D’Allesandro! I’m Lou D’Allesandro.
MUSIC?
Lou D’Allesandro. He’s 81 years old and currently the longest serving state senator in New Hampshire. And his office -- it’s like a monument to his own political durability.
D’ALLESANDRO: This is an example of the tough part of politics. That was a cartoon that was in the Union Leader that my kids had to see.
JACK: “D’Allesandro decapitated.”
D’ALLESANDRO: Right, right.
JACK: My god. That’s brutal.
D’ALLESANDRO: Is that pretty vicious? I would say.
JACK: Do you even remember what that was over?
D’ALLESANDRO: Yeah I was running for governor. And they didn’t like me.
JACK: Yeah, they’re calling you Liberal Lou.
D’ALLESANDRO: Liberal Lou. My social agena. How bout this one? They were bashing me over the head?
At the time these editorial cartoons ran in the ‘80s, Lou was a Republican. Now, he’s a Democrat.
D’ALLESANDRO: You gotta be tough in this business. [speaks Italian] You gotta be tough. If you’re not you’re in trouble. That’s how I’ve survived I think in this business.
JACK: And when you find yourself standing next to Joe Biden, or previously Hillary Clinton, do you pinch yourself and say, “How did I get here?”
D’ALLESANDRO: I pinch myself all the time. I walk into this building, I pinch myself and I say, I’m a N.H. state senator. How good does it get? How good does it get? I’m one lucky guy.
MUSIC
D’ALLESANDRO: It is my privilege to introduce to you, my friend, Senator John Edwards!
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D’ALLESANDRO: It is an honor and a privilege to introduce the United States Senator from Delaware, Joseph Biden.
Lou D’Allesandro has never been named an ambassador. He’s never been handed a White House job. But he has been courted - for years - by presidential hopefuls looking for his endorsement. In 2008, Bill Clinton personally called him to ask him to support Hillary.
And why do they call him ? Perhaps it’s because D’Allesandro can give them access to a city - a city he has lived in since the 70s and represented as a senator since 1998.
LOU: The Queen City, Manchester, New Hampshire! Let’s not forget that.
Manchester, New Hampshire. Biggest city in the state. Traditionally, pretty working class. And it’s got a fair amount of swing voters.
ROGERS: Ya know, Lou D’Allesandro is somebody who really came up in Manchester politics and that informs his approach to doing what he does.
Josh Rogers is NHPR’s Senior Political reporter and he’s covered N.H. politics for a long time. He’s watched D'alessandro in action for years.
ROGERS: He’s somebody whose politics are very tactile.
RODOLICO: What does that mean?
ROGERS: He’s a very sort of physical guy. He’ll clap you on the back. He’s eager to shake hands. He /// you know he notices who walks into the room and you can expect him to acknowledge them in some way.
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D’ALLESANDRO: Willie, and Marissa, and Pat, so wonderful to see you. /// Joyce who’s the Mayor of Manchester who… /// Billy who played for me at Bishop Bradley High School. /// Start mentioning names and you get in trouble. /// Helen Chi-pop-polous. /// Jimmy Ja-joo-gah. /// All of you have a place in my heart, the beautiful June Craig.
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ROGERS: And I don’t know if we need to describe him. I mean it’s like a thick former college football player. He’s got a broken finger from playing football. His pinky is out at some weird angle. Don’t know what happened to it but it doesn’t look like -- it must not have been pleasant when it did happen. You know, he was a basketball coach for years so he can really flip into this kind of yelling mode.
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D’ALLESANDRO: Business and industry has said to us without equivocation: we need workers!
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ROGERS: It’s a more bull-necked brand of Democratic politics is typical these days.
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D’ALLESANDRO: Anybody hired a plumber lately? Hundred bucks an hour. One hundred dollars! I couldn’t debate the issue. If he comes back tomorrow it might be a hundred and ten!
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ROGERS: He’s someone who works to deliver policies that benefit the people who he really sees as his true constituents, which are middle and lower middle class people from his district and from the city of Manchester.
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JACK: Tell me about his stance on endorsing. How does he view his role?
ROGERS: He views a role significantly seriously enough that he actually - I’m not sure he’d say he authored this book, I’m holding, it’s called Lou D’Allesandro. Lion of the N.H. Senate. Thoughts for Presidential Hopefuls. It’s kind of a mouthful.
Lou D’Allesandro. Lion of the New Hampshire Senate. Thoughts for Presidential Hopefuls. It was published in the spring of 2018.
ROGERS: This was kind of an as-told-to book compiled after conversations at a Dunkin Donuts equidistant between Manchester and Leominster, Massachusetts where the book’s author lived.
JACK: Ok…
ROGERS: And he’s someone who takes his public discernment process quite seriously. In the book and as he said kind of what put him on the map as an endorser was 2004 - there was a profile of him written in the Washington Post by reporter Mark Leibovich that talked about essentially when is Lou D’Allesandro gonna make up his mind that his endorsement was coveted. I mean, 2004 was a crowded year in the Democratic primary. Ultimately Senator D'Allesandro went with John Edwards.
Josh went to one of Senator D’Allesandro’s book signings, where he talked about this profile in the Post.
D’ALLESANDRO: So Leibovich writes that if you’re gonna be the president, you actually gotta get Lou D’Allesandro’s endorsement in New Hampshire
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D’ALLESANDRO: It’s interesting to think about that we’re talking about somebody who was deep into his 60s by the time his endorsement was perceived as being significant. And if you actually read the article that the Senator would cite as what set him on his path as being perceived as kind of a kingmaker -- ya know it’s an article that seems to convey that he’s a likeable guy but also mocks him as a kind of archetype of early voting states, the courted local official, whose significance is probably ultimately pretty small.
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JACK: What’s Lou discernment process like?
ROGERS: I mean he would tell you he spends a lot of time thinking about who to endorse and viewing it from the outside it seems pretty clear when he makes a case for whomever he endorses, what it tends to boil down to is, I believe this candidate, I believe that he or she could best represent the interests of the people I represent. The candidate he tends to gravitate towards is the candidate who has the coalition that includes working class, lower middle class voters.
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D’ALLESANDRO: But the Senator is without question one of the real rising stars in politics. Great public policy person. Person who cares about you, cares about what your life is gonna be all about. And without further ado, Senator John Edwards.
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ROGERS: And when he campaigns with these individuals that’s the message he hammers home. You could see it - Hillary Clinton when he’s campaigned with her in 2008. Ya know, took her door to door on the west side of Manchester, his district, freezing day.
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CLINTON/D’ALLESANDRO: [Laughing] Mountain climbing….
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ROGERS: Taking her into the houses of normal voters. Not terribly well heeled.
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CLINTON: Thank you I’d love to have your consideration for the primary.
D’ALLESANDRO: Take care.
That was back in 2008. And then in 2016, he endorsed Clinton again.
CLINTON: And I thank him very much for his support and his friendship. Thank you Lou. [applause]
GPS: In 1,000 feet run left.
ROGERS: This just doesn’t look - oh Biden, there it is. Let’s just park here.
This time around, for the 2020 primary, Lou D’Allesandro is endorsing Joe Biden. Shortly after making the announcement this summer he told a local paper he felt endorsements still matter. “Local politicians feel the pulse of the people,” he said.
JACK: You went to see Lou in action working for the Biden campaign.
ROGERS: Yea.
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ROGERS: So are there any particular sorts of voters that are being targeted this evening?
STAFFER: I don’t think so. I could be wrong.
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ROGERS: This was an event where he was headlining a phone banking. I think there were maybe 12 volunteers of the campaign in all with flip phones provided by the campaign.
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SFX: phone bankers talking over each other
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ROGERS: This was taking place on a weeknight at around six o’clock.
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D'ALESSANDRO: Thank you, Happy Thanksgiving to you John and take care. Bye bye.
STAFFER: That one felt good. Was that a good one?
D’ALLESANDRO: Yeah that was strong.
ROGERS: How many times do you think you’ve phone banked in your life.
D’ALLESANDRO: Well it started in like 1975 so I’ve phone banked a lot. Yeah a lot. A lot. When we actually had phones. [laughs]
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ROGERS: You know the campaign said they weren’t targeting anyone on particular but I was looking over his shoulder at the list and lot of these people were older voters.
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D’ALLESANDRO: If you made this page you’re 60. That’s it. You had to be 60 otherwise I won’t talk to you.
ROGERS: Well we got a 41 year old there.
D’ALLESANDRO: 41. He’s out on the town. Out on the town living it up.
ROGERS: Will you take a crack at one of these so we can see how persuasive you are this evening.
D’ALLESANDRO: How well I do it. Ok. Suzanne. Should have got my last one. Cuz he was really with us.
MESSAGE: When you’re finished recording you may hang up or press one for more options.
D’ALLESANDRO: Everybody’s got you on their machines. Hello? They’re not answering.
STAFFER: It’s usually better luck. I don’t know.
D’ALLESANDRO: These are dead ends.
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D’ALLESANDRO: Hello? This is Lou D’Allesandro calling on behalf of the Biden campaign. How are things? With less than 100 days left before the primary we’re reaching out to hear what your thoughts are with regard to the primary. What do you think? How’s Senator Biden fit in your list of candidates. Sure, Senator Biden - running for the presidency. The primary’s 100 days out. What are you thinking about in terms of your voting in this primary? Good. Well we want you to think about Joe Biden. And tomorrow night Michelle Kwan is coming to Goffstown. You might want to drop in and see her. She’s the Olympic figure skating champion. Well, ok, well thanks a million and appreciate your thinking about us and we’ll look forward to seeing you on the road. Bye. We’re second choice.
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ROGERS: These are the sort of voters that Joe Biden will need to have in order to win and I don’t know if this is true but he believes that these people are best reached looking them in the eye at senior centers, at subsidized apartment complexes, at nursing homes. Looking them in the eye and saying, Joe Biden is the kind of guy who understands us, who will do what ought to be done.
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D’ALLESANDRO: They’re gonna vote, not by calling them, but by going to the Pariseau Apartment Building, by going to the Burns Apartment Building, by going to the Carpenter Center, and meeting these people like we used to in the old days, one on one, and asking for your vote. That’s where they congregate. That’s where I think these key votes are. But the whole - the world’s changing as you know. And this -- this is different.
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ROGERS: I think it’s an open question what local endorsements have ever meant to presidential campaigns. At least if we’re talking about within the political lifespan of somebody like Lou D’Allesandro. Any serious campaign has all sorts of sophisticated digital tools to micro target and really drill down on who they think they can persuade using more algorithmic approaches then like Lou D’Allesandro looking people in the eye and saying Joe’s a great guy.
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ROGERS: I mean obviously you weigh your decisions very seriously, a soberly when you’re trying to figure out who to support. I mean, do you think endorsements matter in this day any age.
D’ALLESANDRO: No I don’t. No I don’t. The one on one situation is so important. And we’re losing that. The great thing about the N.H. primary was that fact. And we’re losing that.
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D’ALLESANDRO: We’ll be there. Take care. Ok Josh.
ROGERS: Make it across the river.
D’ALLESANDRO: We gotta go across the river. We need a passport. Usually it’s a police escort but we’ve given that up. They’re too busy chasing crime.
D’Allesandro makes endorsing during the primary a big part of his political brand. But not every here who’s in a position to endorse feels the way he does.
CASTILLO: I’ve seen it all my life here and finally i said, you know what if I don’t speak up, people are not really gonna change and take us seriously. So I think right now it’s just my role to call it for what it is.
We’ll be right back.
MIDROLL ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So if you’re talking about endorsements in New Hampshire, it’s worth noting in the last primary - 2016 - two people who won here did so without any major local endorsements. Senator Bernie Sanders and now-president Donald Trump.
But that hasn’t stopped many of the 2020 candidates from fishing for endorsements here.
As evidenced by my colleague Casey McDermott’s inbox:
MCDERMOTT: This is kind of like a week in the life of a political reporter in New Hampshire. So Wednesday, November 20. Fifty Granite State legislators declare support for Elizabeth Warren.
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MCDERMOTT: We’ve got Monday December 2, Dover City Councillor Michelle Muffet-Lipinsky endorses Cory Booker for president.
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MCDERMOTT: We’ve got December 3. Cory Booker earns his 100th New Hampshire endorsement.
Ok, so you get the point. This is happening all the time. There’s a race behind the scenes of the 2020 primary to secure endorsements in the early states. Some people call it the invisible primary.
MCDERMOTT: What is really important to understand is that New Hampshire has the largest legislature in the country. And what that means is that there are 424 state reps and state senators. 400 state reps. 24 state senators. Not to mention the fact that we have hundreds of towns and cities across the state…
Casey did some reporting on what state reps make of all this. Like, do they think they’re worth all the attention and the press releases?
MCDERMOTT: Can I ask you a few questions as we wait for the elevator here?
BACKUS: Sure.
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MCDERMOTT: I asked around if I saw lawmakers at candidate filing events.
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MCDERMOTT: Excuse me representative, have you endorsed the vice president?
Here’s the first thing that stands out in the tape Casey brought back - the campaigns clearly value the endorsements of state lawmakers. Because, they are working for them.
TUCKER: Oh, close to fifty between email and phone.
MCDERMOTT: That’s a lot.
TUCKER: It’s a lot. Yeah. Because as you know there are 400 house members so presumably all of them are getting this kind of attention.
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MCDERMOTT: Have you heard from a lot of campaigns?
SCHULTZ: Yeah, phone calls, emails. I got a text from one of the candidates when I was in the hospital this summer. That was very nice.
At the height of the summer there were 20+ Democrats running for president - competing for the endorsements of 400+ state lawmakers. A text from the candidate? Nice touch.
Casey asked all the reps she spoke with: what value do you think your endorsement brings to the campaigns. And the answers you're about to hear are pretty consistent across the board. And they were surprising.
CALLI-PITTS: I think what the state reps bring is negligible. I mean, the state reps - I always felt that endorsements weren’t that important anyway.
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MCDERMOTT: What do you think your endorsement brings to a presidential campaign?
BACKUS: Frankly, not much. I don’t think endorsements generally make much of a difference in campaigns overall.
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MCDERMOTT: Why do you think the campaigns spend so much time courting you then?
CALLI-PITTS: Because they want a good show from the state they’re in. From the people who supposedly the people have already trusted, so now they, ya know -- it’s like guilt by association.
So most local politicians say they’re ambivalent about the endorsement transaction. A few admitted they liked the attention. It’s worth noting N.H. has a volunteer legislature. Lawmakers earn 100 bucks a year - before taxes.
But at least one person Casey spoke with - a person who’s in a position to endorse - seems jaded by endorsements.
MCDERMOTT: One of the most interesting conversations I had was actually with someone who said that she no longer endorses. So Eva Castillo is a local activist who does a lot of work around immigration issues.
CASTILLO: Or are we gonna stand up against xenophobia, and racism, and bigotry.
Here’s Castillo in 2015, protesting in front of the N.H. state house.
CASTILLO: So let’s shove it in their faces. We are home of the free. And we’re gonna remain that way.
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CASTILLO: I’ve gotten calls from a few campaigns, yes.
Casey interviewed Castillo at a union breakfast. She’s originally from Venezuela and she’s been in the U.S. since 1975, most of that time in New Hampshire.
MCDERMOTT: She has endorsed in the past but has felt that she’s been taken for granted, that she’s been used as a press release.
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CASTILLO: We tend to be just used as a face and so that’s why I don’t endorse anybody personally because I’m not the token anything for anybody. I’ve seen it all my life here and finally I said, you know what if I don’t speak up, people are not really gonna change and take us seriously. So I think right now it’s my role to just call it for what it is.
So Eva has been in one of those endorsement press releases that the campaigns send out. And she didn’t like it
CORY BOOKER: And so New Hampshire, will you stand with me?
But Casey also talked to another local politico who sees power in the presidential endorsement.
CANNON: I was scared at one time to do any sort of public service. I’ve also been someone who’s been eating cheese and peanut butter crackers for lunch and dinner because I was so poor.
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MCDERMOTT: That is state rep Gerri Cannon. Gerri is really well known for her activism on trans issues. She is transgender.
Gerri Cannon was an activist before she was a lawmaker. She’s also been a master carpenter and a long-haul truck driver. And she says she’s still facing discrimination all the time. She recently wrote an editorial about how, twice in a year, she was called a nasty slur while standing in front of her own home.
CANNON: Many transgender people and their supporters who have told me right outright I have become a role model for them. And so it’s because of leaders like Cory that believed in me and I have reconnected with people and find that I have a voice.
Gerri Cannon endorsed Cory Booker - and she feels good about it. But she shares that same concern with Eva Castillo - she doesn’t wanna be some symbol, or token.
CANNON: I’ve already let them know. I said I don’t want them to overuse me as a transgender representative. On the other hand, I know that’s important. There are transgender people who need to know they can stand up for a candidate. That they can be public.
MUSIC
So here’s one thing that pretty much every endorsement buys: proximity to power. Proximity to someone who, within a year, could be in the White House. It’s the kind of thing that can feel like a lot, without actually meaning a lot in practice. And it especially feels like a lot if you perform what amounts to a political ritual every time your party is selecting a nominee…
ROGERS: New Hampshire’s a place where, as somebody who covers politics here, it’s always remarkable what people, be they industry groups or lobbyists, or by extension, like a presidential candidate can get people to do for free. We have a legislature were people are willing to serve for like a hundred bucks a year, which, I don’t know if that predisposes our political culture to be one where the quid pro quo kind of stuff doesn’t really happen as much. Or the stakes are just incredibly low and parochial and provincial. Somebody will endorse you and if you get on their Christmas card list and they get to the White House that can be plenty.
There was one very well known Democratic party activist who my understanding kept a moldy cookie from a Christmas party they attended at the White House on their kitchen counter for months after the fact. It’s moldy, it’s in plastic and I do think that’s in some way emblematic of our political culture prizing access and putatively intimate relationships with people running for president or people who become president and really kind of leave it there in some ways. I mean some people may leverage it into business opportunities or the perception that they’re a needed person or a wise person. But by and large it’s hard to see real transactions beyond the conceptual when it comes to local politicians endorsing would-be presidents here.
[THEME MUSIC]
This episode of Stranglehold was reported by Josh Rogers and Casey McDermott. It was produced by me, Jack Rodolico and Maureen McMurray.
Edited by NHPR’s news director Dan Barrick and our Director of Content, Maureen McMurray with help from Casey McDermott, Josh Rogers, and Jason Moon.
Mixing by Rebecca Lavoie.
Original music also by Jason Moon and Lucas Anderson
Podcast graphics by Sara Plourde
Our website is strangleholdpodcast.org
Stranglehold is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.
ROGERS: Lou D’Allesandro. Lion of the N.H. Senate. Thoughts for Presidential Hopefuls. Written by Mark C. Bodanza. From interviews and personal conversations. “Lou’s rough and tumble was not limited to the football field that fall. He took up his duties on the lunch line with the cafeteria staff. When an insolent student made a disrespectful remark about the appearance of a lady staff member, Lou jumped over the counter and exacted some immediate justice. The unhesitating action won Lou great favor with the cafeteria staff. It was something they never forgot. Later those same ladies helped in Lou’s campaigns and joined with him in sponsoring a bill: The School Feeding and Nutrition Act.