John Kerry for President, Inc.-Campaign Organization in the States
Primary and Caucus Edition

Jan. 19, 2004 precinct caucuses
I O W A
State Director John Norris
(started Jan. 1, 2003)  In 2002 Norris ran for Congress in the 4th District against Rep. Tom Latham (R).  Prior to his campaign, starting in 1999, Norris served as chief of staff to Gov. Tom Vilsack.  In 1998 he served as chairman and executive director of the Iowa Democratic Party.  Previously he served as chief of staff to Rep. Leonard Boswell and as district representative for then-Rep. Tom Harkin.  He owned and managed the Old Hotel Restaurant in Greenfield from 1989 to 1992 and served as vice president of the Greenfield Chamber of Commerce.  During the mid-1980's Norris served as state director for the Iowa Farm Unity Coalition.  A native of Red Oak, Norris graduated from Simpson College in Indianola with a B.A. in political science in 1981 and received his J.D. from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1995.
 
 

Jan. 27, 2004 primary
N E W   H A M P S H I R E
State Director Ken Robinson
(started end of January 2003)  Robinson served as executive director of the New Hampshire Democratic Party from January 1999 through January 2003.  In 2000 and 2002, he also served as the Coordinated Campaign director for the New Hampshire Democratic Party.  He has worked on numerous campaigns including Gov. Jeanne Shaheen's 1998 reelection campaign.  In 1996 he served as field director of Joe Keefe's campaign for Congress (1st CD).  Robinson is a 1991 graduate of Brown University.
 
 

Feb. 3, 2004 primary
S O U T H   C A R O L I N A
State Director James Dukes
(started June 15, 2003)  Served as Field Representative for Sen. Fritz Hollings from February 1999-June 2003.  Previously served as Outreach Director for Sen. Hollings' 1998 campaign and as regional field director for the South Carolina Democratic Party Coordinated Campaigns in 2002 and 2000.  Also worked on the special congressional campaign of Brent Weaver for Congress in 2001.  Attended Coastal Carolina University, majored in Political Science.
 

Feb. 3, 2004 primary
A R I Z O N A
State Director Mario Diaz
Before joining the Kerry campaign, Diaz was a longtime aide to Janet Napolitano.  He worked with Napolitano starting in 1993, when President Clinton appointed her U.S. attorney for Arizona.  Diaz ran Napolitano's campaigns for attorney general in 1998 and for governor in 2002, and was serving as deputy chief of staff for urban relations and boards and commissions.  He started in politics as an intern for Sen. Dennis DeConcini; he then worked on Rep. Ed Pastor's campaign and on his staff.  Diaz has a B.A. in political science from ASU (1991) and a master's degree in public administration, also from ASU.  He famously arrived in Arizona with $25 in his pocket as he transferred from a California community college to ASU.
 

Feb. 3, 2004 caucuses
N E W   M E X I C O
State Director Geri Prado
(started August 2003)  Before moving to New Mexico to work on the campaign, Prado was political director for Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 105 in Colorado.  Worked field in the last month of Tom Strickland's 2002 U.S. Senate campaign under the Democratic coordinated effort and as field director for Congresswoman Diana DeGette's 2002 campaign; also worked as a senior congressional aide in DeGette's district office.  Ran a state house race in Denver and was the Fair Housing Director for NEWSED, a non-profit.  Worked in the Manhattan District Attorney's office.  Graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder.
 

Feb. 3, 2004 caucuses
N O R T H   D A K O T A
State Director Mike Malaise
(started January xx, 2004)  Malaise served as political director for Kerry's Iowa caucus campaign starting on June 18, 2003.  He was communications director for the Iowa Democratic Party from January 2003 after serving as communications director for the Iowa House and Senate Caucus, April-Dec. 2002.  Press secretary to Congressman Ken Lucas of Kentucky in Washington, DC from January 2000.
 

Feb. 3, 2004 primary
D E L A W A R E
State Director Leonard Joseph
With the campaign since January 2003 manning one of the political desks.  Previously director of financial services at the DCCC. Native of Jamaica, Queens, New York.
 

Feb. 3, 2004 primary
M I S S O U R I
State Director Roy Temple
(January 24, 2004)  Washington chief of staff to Sen. Jean Carnahan, and senior advisor to her U.S. Senate campaign.  Senior advisor on Gov. Carnahan's 2000 U.S. Senate campaign.  Executive director of the Missouri Democratic Party, 1998-2000.  Ran Gov. Carnahan's 1996 re-election campaign.  Served in the Carnahan administration as deputy chief of staff and as chief of staff.  Political director on Mel Carnahan's successful 1992 campaign for governor in Missouri.
 
 

Feb. 7, 2004 caucuses
M I C H I G A N
State Director Jim Curran
(started September 2003)  Associate at Karoub Associates a lobbying firm in Lansing; he joined in 2000.  Curran is former manager of government relations for Suburban Mobility Authority for Regional Transportation (SMART).  He is a certified professional of the Academy for Health Care Management.  Curran earned his B.S. from Michigan State University.
 

Feb. 7, 2004 caucuses
W A S H I N G T O N
State Director Ali Wade
(Nov. 1, 2003)  Prior to joining the campaign Wade served as chief of staff to Congressman Adam Smith.
 
 

Feb. 8, 2004 caucuses
M A I N E
Political Director (Portland) Jesse Connolly
Previously worked as communications director for Senate President Beverly Daggett, and in the 2002 cycle he was director for the State Senate Caucus.  A Mainer, Connolly graduated from Bates College in May 2001 with a B.A. in political science.
 
Field Director (Bangor) Lisa Baldacci

 

Feb. 10, 2004 primary
V I R G I N I A
State Director Susan Swecker
Swecker, a DNC Member, served on the DNC's convention site advisory committee in 2001-02 and was elected chair of the party's Southern Caucus at its February 2003 meeting.  She chaired the Gore for President campaign in Virginia in 2000 and chaired the Virginia delegation to the 2000 Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles.  Former executive director of the Democratic Party of Virginia.  Lives in Richmond.  According to the AP she "led the push" for the legislation that moved the state's 2004 presidential primary forward.
 

Feb. 10, 2004 primary
T E N N E S S E E
State Director Stephen Lindsey
(named as state director on September 15, 2003)  Lindsey is a Tennessee native from Columbia (Maury County; central Tennessee).  Lindsey graduated from Columbia Central High School in 1989, and received a degree in Political Science and Sociology from the University of North Alabama in 1994.  He worked for various Democratic candidates from 1993-96.  In 1996 Lindsey returned to Columbia Central High School where he taught US Government for two years.  From 1998-2003, he worked for the Tennessee Democratic Party; when he left as the Deputy Director of the Party he had been in all of Tennessee's 95 Counties.
 
 

Feb. 14, 2004 caucuses
N E V A D A
Co-Chairs: former Congressman James A. Bilbray, State Senator Terry Care
 
 

Feb. 17, 2004 primary
W I S C O N S I N
State Director George Twigg
(announced Sept. 17 2003, official start Oct. 1, 2003)  Twigg has been in Wisconsin for the past five years.  Before the campaign he had been doing media communications on the Senate Chief Clerk's staff; he has worked for the Democratic Leaders of both the Assembly and Senate in Wisconsin.  He also worked for former U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett’s campaign for Governor.  Prior to moving to Wisconsin, Twigg was a press intern in Kerry’s Washington, DC Senate office.  Twigg is a native of Gilmanton, NH; he started out in Democratic politics in 1994, as a volunteer for Wayne King's gubernatorial campaign in the Granite State.
 

Feb. 24, 2004 caucuses
H A W A I I
Co-Chairs: Richard Port, a former State Party Chair, and Jane Sugimura, activist


Feb. 24, 2004 caucuses
I D A H O
State Director Dawna Rasmussen
(Nov. 2003) Prior to joining the campaign Rasmussen worked as one of two Idaho Democratic Party field coordinators in Bannock County (Pocatello).  Staff assistant in the Idaho Senate starting in Jan. 2003.  Managed Sen. Bert Marley's 2002 election campaign.  Interned with then U.S. Rep. Tim Roemer (D-IN) in 2001.
 

Feb. 24, 2004 primary
U T A H
State Director Haley Zachary
Zachary worked on the field staff of Kerry's Iowa caucus campaign out of the Dubuque office, then on the Arizona campaign.
 
 

March 2, 2004 primary
C A L I F O R N I A
State Director Larry Grisolano
(started Feb. 15, 2004)  A partner in The Strategy Group's Los Angeles office, Grisolano has two decades of campaign experience.  Most recently he did the direct mail for Kerry's Iowa caucus campaign.  Served as Senior Consultant to the Gore 2000 primary campaigns in Iowa, Washington State and California.  Served as field director of the California Democratic Party in 1994.  Oversaw the Clinton-Gore coordinated campaign in California in 1992.  Worked in press and research for Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley's re-election in 1991.  Managed Bill Hoppner's campaign for Governor of Nebraska in 1990.  Worked for U.S. Sen. Frank Lautenberg's re-election in 1988.  Began his career as an organizer for Tom Harkin's upset victory for the U.S. Senate in 1984.  B.A. degree with honors in political science from the University of Iowa; MBA candidate in marketing and entrepreneurship at Northwestern University's Kellogg Graduate School of Management.
 

March 2, 2004 primary
C O N N E C T I C U T
State Director Rich Gardner
Previously a Kerry field organizer in Iowa and Michigan.
 

March 2, 2004 primary
G E O R G I A
State Director Stephen Lindsey
Previously directed Kerry's campaign in Tennessee.  (see above).
 

March 2, 2004 primary
M A R Y L A N D
State Director Nick Clemons
Clemons served as field director of Kerry's New Hampshire primary campaign for a full year stating Jan. 27, 2003.  Previously he served as field director of Gov. Jeanne Shaheen's 2002 U.S. Senate campaign and her 2000 re-election campaign.  Campaign manager on Manchester Mayor Bob Baines' 2001 re-election campaign.  Worked for Gov. Jeanne Shaheen in the Office of Citizen Affairs and as scheduler.  Graduate of UNH with a degree in history.
 

March 2, 2004 primary
M A S S A C H U S E T T S
State Director Lynda Tocci
(Toward the close of the New Hampshire primary campiagn Tocci went to direct GOTV efforts there; announced Jan. 15, 2004)  In 2002 she was a consultant on Shannon O'Brien's Massachusetts gubernatorial race.  In 2000 she was the GOTV coordinator for the Democratic Coordinated Campaign in New Hampshire.  In 1993 she was Field Director for Edward Kennedy's re-election.  She has been working on Democratic campaigns since 1989.  Tocci graduated from Wheaton College with a bachelor's degree in 1989 and from Simmons Graduate School of Management with a MBA in 1998.
 

March 2, 2004 caucuses
M I N N E S O T A
State Coordinator Ken Martin
Manager of Buck Humphrey's campaign for Minnesota Sec. of State, 2002; deputy state director of Al Gore's Minnesota presidential campaign, 2000. State field director for the Minnesota DFL Party, 1997-1999.  Kansas Democratic Party Coordinated Campaign, 1996.  Graduate of the University of Kansas with a B.A. in political science and history.
 

March 2, 2004 primary
N E W   Y O R K
State Director Paul Rivera
(started March 2003)  He worked for Carl McCall's 2002 gubernatorial campaign in New York and previously as a White House advance person from 1994 through 2000. He is a veteran of the past four presidential elections and the 1992, 1996 and 2000 Democratic National Conventions.  From the Bronx.
 

March 2, 2004 primary
O H I O
State Director Antoinette Wilson

 

March 2, 2004 primary
R H O D E   I S L A N D
Anthony Simon

 

March 2, 2004 primary
V E R M O N T
Jesse Connolly
Previously Kerry's campaign in Maine (see above)
 

March 9, 2004
F L O R I D A,   L O U I S I A N A,   M I S S I S S I P P I,   T E X A S


March 16, 2004 primary
I L L I N O I S
David Wilhelm
(On September 15, 2003 Wilhelm endorsed Kerry, and the campaign said he would head up their efforts in Illinois)  Wilhelm is president of Wilhelm & Conlon Public Strategies, founded in 1998.  He managed Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign, and subsequently served as the chair of the DNC, the youngest person ever to do so.  He directed the 1989 and 1991 campaigns of Mayor Richard M. Daley, and the 1984 campaign of Senator Paul Simon.
 
 

April 13, 2004 caucuses
C O L O R A D O
(Note: On September 30, 2003 former Sen. Gary Hart, who himself considered making a presidential run, endorsed Kerry).
 
 

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Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2004  Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action