by Jim Hightower
At the age of 90, she walked clear across America to rally public support for election reform. Four years later, she's not just walking -- she's running!
She is Doris Haddock, known to millions as Granny D, and now this indefatigable champion for political integrity is running for the U.S. Senate in her home state of New Hampshire. Imagine Granny D in the Senate -- Washington would never be the same.
Start with money. She says, "I will not take one dollar of special interest money in my campaign. I will accept no financial support from any group, left, right or middle. My time will not be spent with lobbyists or fund-raising, but will be spent with and for the people of New Hampshire, so we can try a little democracy for a change."
She gets even more blunt: "If they approach me to suggest that they might have donations for me if I vote the 'right' way, I will insist that they be arrested under the loneliest law in Washington: the federal bribery statute."
Sharp and feisty as ever, Doris is crisscrossing New Hampshire on foot, engaging people all along the way, and urging them to join her in standing up to politics-as-usual. "Don't worry that I'm too old," she says. "I can (and have) run circles around those old boys in the Senate."
What a scrapper! When petty Republican election officials said that she could not list her famous nickname of Granny D on the ballot, even though other candidates use their nicknames, she simply went to court and had her middle name legally changed to "Granny D" -- so now they must list her like that.
She's having fun, including using a series of "road rhymes" along New Hampshire highways, in the style of the Old Burma Shave signs. As one shouts out: "Make a statement / With your vote! / Send Granny D / To Rock the Boat!"
Publication date: 10/14/04
At the age of 90, she walked clear across America to rally public support for election reform. Four years later, she's not just walking -- she's running!
She is Doris Haddock, known to millions as Granny D, and now this indefatigable champion for political integrity is running for the U.S. Senate in her home state of New Hampshire. Imagine Granny D in the Senate -- Washington would never be the same.
Start with money. She says, "I will not take one dollar of special interest money in my campaign. I will accept no financial support from any group, left, right or middle. My time will not be spent with lobbyists or fund-raising, but will be spent with and for the people of New Hampshire, so we can try a little democracy for a change."
She gets even more blunt: "If they approach me to suggest that they might have donations for me if I vote the 'right' way, I will insist that they be arrested under the loneliest law in Washington: the federal bribery statute."
Sharp and feisty as ever, Doris is crisscrossing New Hampshire on foot, engaging people all along the way, and urging them to join her in standing up to politics-as-usual. "Don't worry that I'm too old," she says. "I can (and have) run circles around those old boys in the Senate."
What a scrapper! When petty Republican election officials said that she could not list her famous nickname of Granny D on the ballot, even though other candidates use their nicknames, she simply went to court and had her middle name legally changed to "Granny D" -- so now they must list her like that.
She's having fun, including using a series of "road rhymes" along New Hampshire highways, in the style of the Old Burma Shave signs. As one shouts out: "Make a statement / With your vote! / Send Granny D / To Rock the Boat!"
Publication date: 10/14/04
