SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS PRESS ISSUES IN NH

KEENE - At a retirement home here on a recent morning, a young man
asked presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., about federal
drug raids on people smoking marijuana for medical purposes.

Two hours later and 80 miles away on the campaign trail, another
concerned citizen waited patiently to ask former Vermont Gov. Howard
Dean that same question at a town meeting in Exeter.

That evening in Concord, the state capital, 10 protesters picketed the
local Comcast cable television office because the company refused
their ads outlining each presidential candidate's position on
marijuana issues.

One might think a full-blown marijuana movement had sprung up in
famously conservative New Hampshire. And that, said activist Aaron
Houston of the Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project, was the
point. "Everyone is paying attention now, and it gives us the
opportunity to get our message out," he said.

As the Jan. 27 presidential primary here nears, Houston's crew has
plenty of company along New Hampshire's other campaign trail.
Capitalizing on media attention - and the unrivaled access to
candidates the political culture here affords - interest groups are
waging a parallel drive to push their issues to the top of the
national political agenda.

Employing the same grass-roots tactics used by presidential campaigns
in this state - and in Iowa, where Democrats caucus one week earlier -
they distribute pamphlets door to door, advertise on television and
turn up at events to make sure that whenever and wherever the
presidential hopefuls appear, certain issues are discussed.

"The vast majority of people who show up are regular voters who want
to hear what (the candidates) have to say," said Jennifer Donahue, a
political analyst at Saint Anselm College's New Hampshire Institute of
Politics. "But there is a vocal, and very organized, subset, who are
there to push an agenda. This has exploded in the last two election
cycles."

"You know you're going to get asked about some things over and over
again," said Colin Van Ostern, Edwards' New Hampshire press secretary.
"You just get used to it."

During the 2000 campaign, a man in a rabbit costume soaked with fake
blood followed Vice President Al Gore around the state to protest
scientific testing on animals for the People for the Ethical Treatment
of Animals (PETA). Gore also generated national headlines when, in
response to a question from a Medical Marijuana Project volunteer, he
seemed to endorse pot smoking by terminally ill patients, a break with
Clinton administration policy.

This year, interest groups with paid staff in this state are more
sophisticated and involved then ever, veteran observers said. Most are
locally run branches of national organizations.

Perhaps most prominent are the ubiquitous, purple-T-shirt-clad
activists of New Hampshire for Health Care (and its affiliated
organization, Iowa for Health Care). Funded by the Service Employees
International Union (SEIU), which claims 750,000 health care workers
among its members, the group has placed signs in the Manchester
Airport that greet every arriving candidate with "Running for
President? Health care better be your priority."

New Hampshire for Health Care, which wants its issue to be preeminent
in the primary campaign, says it has signed up close to 50,000
supporters here and a team of 1,000 volunteers in their purple
T-shirts. They have succeeded in passing a resolution at 121 New
Hampshire town meetings calling on elected officials to offer
solutions to help solve what they term a national "health care crisis."

With seven paid staff workers here - and an equal number in Iowa - the
group is as large and well organized as many presidential campaigns
and is preparing a get-out-the-vote strategy to ensure supporters show
up at the polls.

Though the SEIU endorsed Dean, a physician, the New Hampshire group
will not make an endorsement. "We want people to have the information
they need to make an informed choice," said Matt Burgess, a spokesman
for New Hampshire for Health Care.

Then there is the New Hampshire chapter of the Sierra Club, which
favors decreasing U.S. dependence on fossil fuels. And the American
Friends Service Committee's Granite State chapter advocates for peace,
fair trade and affordable housing.

The Washington-based Nuclear Threat Initiative, which opposes the
proliferation of atomic weapons, has two paid staffers in the state
and aired television ads this fall. Every Child Matters, which
promotes preschool health and social programs, held candidate forums
at the University of New Hampshire in October and November, featuring
several Democratic contenders.

Not to be outdone, PETA deployed a man in a carrot suit, who it said
is running for president on a platform of vegetarianism.

"It's no secret why we pick New Hampshire and Iowa for these things.
You really get a face-to-face conversation with candidates that people
around the country don't get," said Catherine Corkery of the Sierra
Club's New Hampshire chapter, who sends out weekly updates of the
candidates' schedules to 5,000 members statewide and has helped train
volunteers.

But some observers in these early primary states that have come
symbolize the accessibility of politics say the heavy involvement of
interest groups can lead to distorted notions of what is important to
voters.

"They tend to represent the more extreme wings of the parties, which
creates a misleading sense of what people up here care about," said
Donahue of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics. "It can also
manipulate press coverage."

The activists say they are simply exercising their right to be heard
and are serving a valuable purpose. "These are issues we care about
passionately, and we are trying to elevate their visibility through
the campaign," said Martha Yager of the American Friends Service Committee.

Last summer, Yager's group offered weeklong training sessions for
volunteers in the art of effectively bringing their issue to the
candidates' attention during campaign events - or what she calls
"bird-dogging."