Pubdate: Sat, 22 Jul 2006
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Page: B05
Copyright: 2006 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Philip Rucker, Washington Post Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Kevin+Zeese

'MIDNIGHT CANDIDATE' WORKS THE LATE SHIFT

Zeese Tries to Woo Voters in Wee Hours

Amid the drunken revelry of a Thursday night at the entrance to 
Bushwaller's Irish Pub in Frederick, a man who wants to be Maryland's 
next U.S. senator introduced himself through a haze of cigarette 
smoke: "I'm the Midnight Candidate," Kevin B. Zeese said.

There was no crowd to hear his stump speech and no babies to kiss. 
But a young blond woman, her earrings dangling and her shoes lighting 
up with each step, did stick Zeese's campaign flier down her cleavage.

Zeese impressed at least one bargoer that night, a young man who lent 
some encouragement: "I'm happy that you're doing this. I'm glad that 
you are," the man said. "I know it's hard."

Hard might not be the right word.

Zeese, 50, best known for his activism to end the war on drugs and as 
former executive director of the National Organization for the Reform 
of Marijuana Laws, is running as the nominee for the Green, 
Libertarian and Populist parties.

Zeese is on a mission to rid politics of corporate interests, to pull 
the troops out of Iraq, to reform the nation's drug policy and to 
require a paper record for computerized voting. He also wants to 
limit U.S. support of Israel and calls the attacks on Lebanon acts of 
terrorism.

But for Zeese, completing this mission could prove difficult, 
especially in the modern age of American politics where money and 
organization equal power. There's the staff issue: He has two 
campaign aides. And there's the money issue: He had about $16,000 in 
the bank as of June 30, compared with the millions that Lt. Gov. 
Michael S. Steele (R) and Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin (D) have amassed.

Instead, Zeese relies on old-fashioned retail politicking. And in a 
move to reach late-night workers -- or, perhaps more likely, an 
effort to stand out in a crowded field of 29 candidates -- Zeese has 
turned to midnight campaigning.

The itinerary that night in Frederick was full: get to the hospital 
by 10:50 to catch employees switching shifts at 11; then on to the 
24-hour grocery stores, a Safeway and two Giants; then the bars on 
Market Street; and finally a swing through 7-Eleven and FedEx Kinko's.

The night began at Zeese's arts-and-crafts style home in Takoma Park, 
which doubles as his campaign headquarters.

Down an entranceway covered with overgrown plants, up a few steps and 
past blue-and-white campaign yard signs piled on the porch were about 
a dozen Zeese supporters. They gathered in the living room to watch a 
video of a speech Zeese gave at a D.C. restaurant.

His backers, who periodically chanted "Zeese for Peace," offered 
their critiques of Zeese's performance in the collective "we," as in, 
"We're not running an agitator campaign. We're running a common-sense 
solution campaign."

 From there, the Midnight Candidate hit the road. Zeese's light blue 
Honda Civic hybrid is hard to miss -- it's perhaps the only car with 
Zeese bumper stickers on the back and front bumpers.

As night fell and Zeese led a two-car caravan up Interstate 270, he 
detailed his path from his boyhood in Queens, N.Y., to his candidacy 
in Maryland.

He was raised in a string of apartments by his parents, a surgical 
nurse and a special education teacher. A product of public schools, 
Zeese planned to be a criminal defense lawyer but after law school 
was drawn to legal activism and later politics.

He developed a national reputation through the 1980s and '90s as an 
advocate on drug policy reform. At NORML, and later as president of 
Common Sense for Drug Policy, Zeese fought against the prohibition of 
marijuana and called for a public-health approach to drug control. He 
has appeared on network TV talk shows and written opinion columns in 
national newspapers. In 2004 he served as press secretary for Ralph 
Nader's presidential campaign.

The campaign for Senate is Zeese's first as a candidate. This night, 
Zeese was running late, and he knew it. He was up to 70 mph, then 80.

By the time he pulled into the staff parking lot at Frederick 
Memorial Hospital, it was 10:57. Wearing khakis and a blue 
button-down shirt hanging loosely over his tall, stocky frame, Zeese 
approached the hospital workers.

As an icebreaker, he spoke about working an 11 p.m.-to-7 a.m. shift 
as an orderly at a Queens hospital during summer breaks. But after 10 
minutes, the security guards told Zeese he must leave.

So the Midnight Candidate was off to the Safeway. There, as just 
about everywhere on the campaign trail, Zeese turned his attention to 
the Iraq war.

Zeese is an active member and leader of several antiwar groups. He 
has been campaigning with Cindy Sheehan, the activist who became a 
household name when she demonstrated last summer outside President 
Bush's Texas ranch.

Inside the Safeway, Zeese tried to sell a cashier, Carol Hood 
Baldwin, on his candidacy. It just might have worked. After he left, 
Baldwin said, "I like this.

"If he's willing to listen to me, then I'm willing to listen to him, 
and we'll go from there," the 55-year-old clerk said. "We need 
somebody that's going to stand here and listen to you and not blow 
you off when he walks through the door."

At the Giant up the road, Zeese helped load groceries into a minivan. 
Then he sauntered across the parking lot to talk with Roger and 
Loretta King through the window of their car. The Kings are sick of 
politicians, they said, but they took a liking to Zeese. "I didn't 
see any doublespeak from him," Roger King said.

Not too long ago, Zeese fit into the traditional political system. He 
said he didn't start voting for third-party candidates until 1996. In 
2000, he voted by absentee ballot for Nader, then went to Michigan, a 
swing state, for the final days to canvass for Vice President Al Gore (D).

"We're trained to think of the two-party state, but we need to break 
away from that to save democracy," said Zeese, who repeated the 
message several times that night. "If people get the hope that we can 
do something, it'll be like the Berlin Wall coming down."

The strangest turn in the evening came at the bars. Zeese jumped out 
of his car at Bushwaller's hoping to pick up some support. But he met 
a man who blew smoke in his face, an inebriated woman who flirted 
with him and another man who engaged him in a heated debate over the 
Patriot Act.

"I think the bars don't work," Zeese said, deciding to skip them on 
his next night of midnight campaigning, in Baltimore. "There's too 
much alcohol at this time of night."

After shaking some hands at 7-Eleven and FedEx Kinko's, Zeese was done.

He slid back into his hybrid, reflecting on the night behind him and 
the campaign ahead. "It'd be fun if this took off," the Midnight 
Candidate said. Then he headed home. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake