Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Finances Cause Granny's Walk

When Jack Kerouack wrote "On The Road" it spawned the beat generations.

His merry band of wanderers traversed the nation with no purpose in mind other than going from one coast to the other and having their adventures along the way.

"One The Road" was also a work of fiction, with its characters driving and hitching rides.

However, "Granny D", also known as Doris Haddock, is doing her own version of "On The Road," but with a purpose.

This 89-year-old woman is walking across the nation in an effort to bring about changes in how political campaigns are financed.

She reached Gurdon Monday morning, walking into downtown around 6 a.m., having walked from the Gurdon side of Prescott. Haddock walks 10-miles-a-day on her trek to Washington, D.C.

Her actual journey began Jan. 1, 1999, when she walked behind the Rose Parade in Pasadena, Calif.

But, her training began nine months earlier. Her training schedule included walking 10 miles daily, six-days-a-week, with a 25-pound pack on her back, in boots. This would be a tough training regimen for a person half her age.

Still, she worked until her body could take the strain and began her cross-country hike. The boots were traded in for running shoes when the walk started.

Why, though, would a woman of this age want to walk across the nation? What could possess a person to be so passionate about campaign finance reform?

Well, the concept began in her hometown of Dublin, NH. She and 19 other friends got together for their "Tuesday academy" where they would discuss world affairs with professor Denny Riley, who was forced out of teaching.

When the group got on the topic of campaign finance reform, Granny D got upset at the way former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and Sen. John Glenn made noise about reform and former Sen. Bill Bradley's proposed bill on the issue, but did nothing.

The group worked for two years getting petitions showing support for the Bradley bill. The petitions were sent to Congress, but, again, nothing happened.

Under Bradley's proposal, public and private funds would be the primary financing for federal elections.

Soft money would be prohibited to national party committees, while state committees wouldn't be allowed to spend their soft money to aid in federal elections.

The president, vice president and their staffs would be prohibited from directly soliciting soft money for party committees, issue advocacy organizations and non-party committees.

In addition, the bill would require all broadcasters, as a condition of their licenses and access to the digital spectrum, to make time available to all candidates in the 60 days prior to an election.

The format of free time would be done on the needs of each locality, with discretionary funds to localities contingent on cable franchises being required to comply with the same regulations. This would be enforced through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

Additionally, if a candidate refused public financing, they would lose their free TV time privileges.

While broadcasters have resisted this, the other idea would be to add a 2 percent surtax, paid by advertisers as part of corporate income taxes.

This money, some $2.34 billion annually, would be used for public financing of federal campaign advertising.

"They played games with us," she said, "and the man-in-the-street didn't care about it. I decided something more drastic needed to be done."

While on her way to Florida with her son, Jim, she saw a man walking, and asked locals why. She found out he just walked for no particular reason, but this planted the seed for her own version of the long walk.

She discussed walking across the nation with her son, who did his level best to discourage her.

He said she didn't need to try such a trip without a cause (she had one), and wasn't crazy about her trying it at all at her age.

During her training period, Granny D worked to set up an organization to help with the finances of a cross-country walk.

She wound up working with the national Reform Party, Common Cause. Then the fun began.

Once she got in shape, the walk was on, starting Jan. 1, 1999, at the Rose Bowl Parade. Her goal is to reach Washington, D.C., Jan. 24, 2000, on her 90th birthday.

For the first 100 miles the West Virginia Secretary of State walked with her.

The hardest part, she said, was getting through the desert. She had to stop and rest after every mile, while keeping ice on her head and neck to try and stay cool.

Still, Granny D wound up getting dehydrated and had to spend four days in a hospital to get her fluid level back up and another four days recovering.

After the eight-day delay, though, she hit the road again.

Her first thoughts on planning the trip were to take the northerly route through Illinois, but she was told there would be more publicity if she went the southerly way.

As the idea of the walk was to get publicity, she went south, going through Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, before turning north through Arkansas.

From Arkansas Granny D will head to Memphis, going through Kentucky and Ohio before reaching Washington.

She said Common Cause isn't footing the bill for this trip, but is helping out. Granny D receives social security and rented her New Hampshire home to help offset the cost of the journey.

However, she has had no problem getting aid from the kindness of strangers. Along the way, people have either taken her into their homes or helped pay for a motel room for a night or two.

Mike Ross, candidate for 4th Congressional District House of Representatives, made sure Granny D had somewhere to stay from Friday until Monday morning. Ross picked up the tab for her motel room for two days.

Getting across Texas was a headache, as it took Granny D from April until August to cross the Lone Star State.

There have been other delays for Granny D on her trip. While crossing Texas, she was invited to speak to Common Cause in Austin about campaign reform.

While in Arkansas, she went to Little Rock Saturday, Aug. 7, to see if presidential-hopeful Al Gore would address campaign finance reform.

She was also been invited to speak at the national Common Cause convention in Dearborn, Ill., where she was the first to speak.

Then there was the trip to St. Louis, Mo., where she was presented the Margaret Chase Smith Award for Democracy. "It was a great honor to receive this award," she said, "but there wasn't much coverage of it."

The award was created after Smith opposed Joseph McCarthy and his great Communist witch hunt of the 1950s. Other notable people to receive this honor were Rosa Parks and Bill Brady.

"It's all been fun," Granny D said of the walk. "I