How divided is the race for the Democratic presidential nomination? Even the Draft Hillary movements can’t stand each other. “We’re avoiding him,” Adam Parkhomenko, 18, leader of VoteHillary.org in Arlington, Va., says of Bob Kunst, leader of Miami Beach-based HillaryNow. com.
“I’m avoiding him,” Kunst, 61, says of Parkhomenko. “The kid is on a total ego trip.”
Parkhomenko says: “We wouldn’t be in this situation if the guy had just returned my e-mails. And when he finally did, all he wanted was for me to help him to sell bumper stickers.”
“I’m way too busy for this nonsense,” Kunst declares.
The timing of this spat could not be worse. It coincides with Hillary Rodham Clinton’s much-hyped appearance at the Iowa Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson Day dinner Saturday night. This is a momentous occasion for those who believe that the senator’s presidential candidacy in 2004 is inevitable, despite her numerous vows to the contrary.
The Iowa Democratic Party sold nearly 8,000 tickets to this year’s fund-raiser, about 3,000 more than in previous years. The drawing card is obvious.
(Six actual presidential candidates are here, too, and some campaign officials worried that Clinton’s presence would confine them to parenthetical attention.)
Saturday’s dinner is also a chance for the Draft Hillary movements to coalesce. But there’s little coalescing going on between Parkhomenko and Kunst. They are selling their respective Hillary buttons and bumper stickers outside Veterans Memorial Auditorium. They are separated by about 50 feet but don’t speak to each other. Only about each other.
“He’s an 18-year-old kid,” Kunst says. “I don’t trust him.”
“Yeah, whatever,” Parkhomenko says.
The state party barred both from the auditorium because they are not official representatives of officially declared campaigns. Both agree that their feud is unfortunate. It began last summer when Kunst failed to return Parkhomenko’s e-mails and intensified in September when, Parkhomenko says, Kunst “totally blew me off” outside a presidential debate in New York. Parkhomenko became increasingly suspicious that Kunst “had his own agenda,” and Kunst became increasingly angry when Parkhomenko started giving media interviews about drafting Hillary.
Parkhomenko fears his schism with Kunst will sully his positive pro-Hillary message. So last Thursday he proposed a truce on Kunst’s voice mail. By Friday afternoon, he hadn’t heard back. He called again and this time Kunst answered.
Kunst says he told him he had no time for him.
“He hung up on me,” Parkhomenko says.
It’s cold outside the dinner, but button sales are hot. Parkhomenko and Kunst are both mobbed by supporters of other candidates who want Hillary stuff.
Parkhomenko, a college student who is considering a career in politics, looks every bit the fine young man: brushed-back hair, blue and gold tie, black overcoat, dress shoes. He will use the proceeds from his button and sticker sales to reimburse himself for his travel costs.
A customer asks him when Clinton will be entering the race.
“Well, you might not get an official announcement tonight,” Parkhomenko cautions, then lays out his scenario — inconclusive primaries, a deadlocked convention — that would result in Clinton’s coronation.
Here we come to the requisite part of the story where Clinton’s press secretary denies yet again that the former first lady is running for president in 2004.
“Senator Clinton has said repeatedly that she will serve out her full six-year term,” says the press secretary, Philippe Reines, sounding robotic. “She loves her job. And is working on being the best senator she can be for the people of New York.”
But what about efforts to draft Clinton into the presidential race?
“Senator Clinton finds it flattering, but this is not authorized by or affiliated with her. Senator Clinton has said repeatedly that she will serve out her full six-year term. She loves her job. And is working on being the best senator she can be for the people of New York.”
Now that that’s cleared up, Kunst meanwhile is shivering under a black knit Jacques Cousteau hat studded with “HillaryNow.com” buttons. The tanned Floridian says his vocation is “marketing, sales and promotions,” but HillaryNow.com has essentially become his full-time job. He has visited 26 cities on Clinton’s behalf and attended more than 600 events. He sleeps in his 1993 Buick Park Avenue and says he has been swarmed at gas stations by people who see his signs.
When speaking, Kunst is prone to remind people that he’s “just a Florida guy who’s out here freezing my rear end off for Hillary.” His purple cell phone rings constantly.
“I did 13 interviews yesterday,” he says, including one with the Des Moines Register that resulted in a story that misspelled his name. This leaves him irate. He’s aggrieved to learn the New York Daily News also botched his name (“Kuntz”) on Saturday. Too, the Des Moines Register story said “Knust” is leading a movement to “draft Clinton.” Kunst says the description, while technically accurate, undersells the breadth of his activity. Kunst is a longtime political gadfly, dating to the 1970s when he protested singer Anita Bryant’s anti-gay initiative. He ran for governor of Florida last year, spurred by the “stolen” presidential election of 2000, and received 42,000 votes (less than 1 percent).
Kunst believes he’s the rightful leader of the Hillary insurgency. Parkhomenko is a mere kid who has earned no stripes.
They have nothing in common besides their love of Hillary, Kunst says.
And, one might suggest, their love of media attention. Parkhomenko’s media regimen is as intense as Kunst’s.
Now Kunst begins an interview with Bloomberg Radio in New York on his cell phone: “Yeah, I’m just a Florida guy freezing my rear end off out here.”
The dinner starts at 6:30. Kunst remains outside, in a shouting match with anti-gay protesters.
Parkhomenko, standing next to a bank of satellite trucks, says he sold all of his buttons — for 50 cents each — and made $200 or $300. He gives a Hillary 2004 button to U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who almost puts it on his lapel before thinking better of it.
Inside, Hillary Clinton walks on stage to big applause. She touts the candidates with fervor, disputes some pundits’ view that “the field is weak.” She avoids the appearance of playing favorites, introducing the candidates in words written by their campaigns.
The concession stands become noticeably more crowded when the candidates are speaking than when Clinton is. When Clinton says, “Fellow Democrats, I give you Congressman Dennis Kucinich,” there appears to be a run on chicken strips, cheddar brats and Blue Bunny malts.
Kunst sneaks inside and collapses against a wall, surrounded by his paraphernalia. He wears Florida Gators sweat pants, a Miami Dolphins sweat shirt. His graying hair sticks straight up; his cheeks and eyeballs are a deep red.
“I am not well,” he says. “My voice is gone, my foot is in pain, my ears are throbbing. This day about killed me.”
One consolation: “My pockets are full of money,” he says, $500 or $600 in button and sticker revenue. People stream by, buying stuff, yelling support. “Hey, I read about you in the paper,” one man says.
“Yeah, but they spelled my name wrong,” Kunst replies.
Outside, Parkhomenko is exhilarated. “I talked to Candy Crowley of CNN, and she’s pretty awesome,” he says. He walks inside for the first time. This, too, is awesome. John Edwards darts past to meet supporters.
“Hey,” Parkhomenko says, looking toward Edwards, “I’m in the background of one of his commercials.”
He walks past where Kunst is slumped, and the two barely acknowledge each other, ensuring another day of discord in Draft Hillary Land.
But for the most part, the movement is aglow this weekend. The next day’s Des Moines Register asserts Clinton’s clear domination of the dinner. “Star of the Show,” screams a big headline over her big picture.
“With Iowa, Hillary Takes Center Stage,” says another, and another says, “Many Say Clinton Would Get Their Votes.”
But this all pales next to the real triumph in Sunday’s Des Moines Register: Bob Kunst’s name is spelled correctly.
