Campaigns & Elections - August 2007 - (Page 52)

cover story the language, didn’t know his way around a hammer. He looked a little shell-shocked. But he was game. “He was hard-charging, he was ready to go,” remembered Peace Corps volunteer John Epler, who came out to greet Dodd when the van arrived. Until Epler left two months later, they worked together to help Moncion’s 4,000 residents, who eke out a living in the dry foothills of the Pico Duarte mountain range. Most newcomers stick close to the old-timers, but Dodd wanted to get out on his own. Rather than room with Epler, he found a 20x25-foot dwelling with a semi-wooden floor, cane roof and outhouse. The spigot (when it worked) wasn’t too far from the house. There was one phone, at the post office. Sometimes it worked. But the isolation didn’t seem to phase Dodd a bit. “I’m sure, deep down inside, he had some concerns. There are large expectations about what you should be doing and you’re always worried about whether you will be successful, but … he had a lot of confidence,” Epler said. “He was much more open and willing to communicate with people than most volunteers. And he would create a joke out of almost anything.” Sometimes, Epler said, he went too far; Dodd learned that village elders weren’t as eager to be teased as his college buddies. But most of his new friends were quickly charmed by the self-deprecating young American. When he’d first arrived in the country, a group of Peace Corps veterans welcomed all the newbies. Dodd stumbled through the few Spanish words he knew. “What he wanted to say was, ‘I want to speak with you all in Spanish, but I’m embarrassed.’ What he actually said was, ‘I want to speak with you all in Spanish, but I’m pregnant,” said Jim Smith, a longtime friend from law school. The last time Dodd visited Moncion, he arrived by helicopter. The whole town turned out to greet him as a native son. And he greeted them in fluent Spanish, by first name. The Call Chris Dodd was born with a call. Technically, it was a caul. But to his family, they are one and the same—medieval Irish legend says a baby born with the thin, shimmery membrane covering his face will become a true leader. “That was always a bit of family lore for us,” said his older sister, Martha Buonanno. “So we’ve always known he was destined for great things.” And this was a family with a pretty high bar. Thomas J. Dodd Sr. started the Justice Department’s Civil Rights “He wanted to say, ‘I want to speak with you all in Spanish, but I’m embarrassed.’ What he actually said was, ‘I want to speak with you all in Spanish, but I’m pregnant.’”—Jim Smith division, prosecuted Nazis at Nuremberg, won the presidential medal of freedom and served two Senate terms. He once told Poland it could keep a medal because accepting an honor from a tyrannical government would be like accepting one from the Nazis. “Our lives,” Martha said dryly, “were a little bit different than most of our friends.” Imagine six children at the dinner table learning about injustice from a man who prosecuted Klu Klux Klan cases in the 1930s. Martha said their father “made it clear to us that change was going to take place when people got involved.” The family called Chris “The Peacemaker.” The nickname started when he was very young, during a snowy car ride with his mother. “She was worried because she was slipping and sliding,” Martha said. “He said, ‘Don’t worry, Mother, we’ll make it.’ We kid him about it, but it is his nature. He’s a peacemaker.” So she wasn’t surprised when Chris joined Vietnam War protests during college and entered the Peace Corps after graduation. It was difficult timing, though. When Dodd flew to South America in 1966, his father was in hot water after taking $116,083 in campaign funds for his own use. The elder Dodd pled sloppy bookkeeping, but the Senate censured him on a 92-5 vote. (The family still views the censure as an injustice; Dodd’s colleagues say he still feels a strong loyalty to the five men who voted against the censure.) But in the Dominican, the senator’s son picked up a hammer and helped the village build a maternity clinic. He joked with village leaders over shots of rum, shared strong black island coffee with their wives. “He saw the poverty, and he saw the hopelessness,” his sister said. The experience, she says, spurred his entry into politics just a few years later. And when Dodd wrote the Family and Medical Leave Act, his friends say, he championed the fairly unpopu- 52 CAMPAIGNS & ELECTIONS 08.07

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Campaigns & Elections - August 2007

Cover Contents Editor’s Note Ames Straw Poll Cavalcade; Last Candidate Standing; The New Dollar-A-Year Guy; Web Videos That Can Change the Election Across State Lines: Campaign News from Around the Country People and Organizations Movers and Shakers: Ten Questions for Matthew Taylor and Philip de Vellis Campaign Consultant Sign-Ups Reel Time Cover Story: Building Blocks From Madison Avenue to K Street Money Can’t Buy Votes Dick Cheney: Roll Model for Millions Ames: Still Weird, Still Important How to Do Tougher, Quicker Crisis Management Online Cause-Based SocNets Lure Issue Voters The Great Exaggeration Why Primetime TV is Alive and Well, Politically Speaking Buyer’s Guide Tips for Toeing the Fine Line Between Employment, Friendship Managing Your Friend’s Campaign? Think ‘Consigliore’ Off The Record

Campaigns & Elections - August 2007

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.