Arrive early and hang out.
Sage advice trail from Medill reporters on the campaign. The graduate students in Medill’s Washington Program hit the road this week to cover key Senate races in Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky and North Carolina.
OK, maybe not “sage,” since most of the Medill team members were covering their first U.S. Senate campaign and election. But they’re fast learners.
“This reporting trip was an exercise in the importance of getting there [to a campaign event] early and hanging out,” said Ross Williams, who covered Democratic Sen. Mark Udall’s defeat at the hands of Republican Rep. Cory Gardner in Colorado. “By hanging out and chatting with Pueblo, Colorado, Democrats… I learned that Gov. John Hickenlooper would be speaking at a nearby restaurant, information the campaign neglected to give me.”
Not everything was that smooth.
“Election night was pure chaos” – the norm, Williams reports. “But it was a comfort to know I was in the same situation as the other reporters: pounding refresh nonstop on the Colorado Secretary of State’s website and waiting for the winner to emerge.”
In Iowa, reporters Kate Rooney and Aimee Keane saw retail politics up close as Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, and Republican state Sen. Joni Ernst fought it out for an open Senate seat.
“I caught up with the Braley team at a campaign stop in Iowa City Monday. It was an intimate setting at the home of one of the campaign’s canvassing coordinators,” Keane said. “Despite not having access to the volunteers inside the home, I was able to chat with some of Braley’s aides about the campaign and its last minute ground efforts to get voters to the polls. This really helped when I got to the Hotel Fort Des Moines Tuesday night and saw a few familiar faces.”
Keane’s reporting partner, Kate Rooney, said she quickly understood that election night was the “Super Bowl” for political reporters — and she was mixing with skilled journalists who had covered campaigns for years.
Again, though, Rooney had to deal with potholes.
“I arrived here Saturday evening — my suitcase did not. It ended up in Maine in the middle of a Nor’easter, which became lesson one in adapting to your situation,” Rooney said. “Without a tripod, which was also in Maine, I brought my camera to a Joni Ernst event at a train station in Osceola and attempted to look professional although it may have looked like I was filming a home video. I was able to sit down one-on-one with Ernst after the event, which is even more impactful now that she’s headed to the Senate.”
Ernst will be greeted on Capitol Hill by Sen. Mitch McConnell., R-Ky., the soon-to-be Senate majority leader. Jani Actman and Merill D’Arezzo filed text and video from the Lexington, Kentucky, headquarters of McConnell’s opponent, Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes, whose upset bid was swamped by the Republican wave.
“The media area proved chaotic – a tangle of wires, tripods and stressed journalists,” Actman said. “Arriving early to find a spot for our tripod was key. Merrill manned the camera while I was on the hunt for interesting quotes. I didn’t have to wait too long, though.” The race went to McConnell early in the evening. It was over for Grimes. “I’ve never seen a party break up so fast,” Actman said.
Back in Washington, reporter Kristin Kim was a figurative fly on the wall Tuesday night at The Washington Post’s Universal Desk. Her impressions of the hectic scene: “It never hurts to be over-prepared. I have learned it is always best to be prepared for the unexpected — If you can have a back-up plan, make sure you have one. “ Also stationed in Washington, Abby Sun and Natalie Pacini helped out with election night activities at NBC4.
Hayat Norimine and DeJonique Garrison were a couple of states away, covering the contest between Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., and her Republican foe, Thom Tillis, speaker of the North Carolina House.
Garrison was with the disappointed Hagan campaign in Greensboro, while Norimine camped out in Charlotte at Tillis headquarters. “I was sprawled out on the floor where my video camera was stationed with a reporter’s notebook, DSLR, laptop and phone,” Norimine said. “It was so crowded and boisterous that I could barely hear Tillis’ speech at times.”
The lesson? “Be more aggressive with shooting video and manage to get closer to the action.”
And enjoy the moment.
As Rooney put it: “For a young political reporter, the idea of being sent to Iowa during the midterms elicits the same feeling as a seven-year-old being sent to Disney World. We got the rare chance to work alongside the top political reporters in the business and produced content that we’re proud to look back on.”