First Door on the Left

WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 — By day, Jennifer Powers is a grant-writer for a school for the deaf, a Gen Xer who in past elections was like millions of others who vote but don’t pay much attention to politics - and certainly don’t lift a finger to help any particular candidate.

THAT CHANGED for Powers a few months ago, when the 32-year-old Philadelphian, driven by a newfound passion, switched her voter registration from independent to Democrat and became an unpaid operative for Howard Dean’s presidential campaign in Pennsylvania. Today, Powers sits on a Philly4Dean steering committee she helped set up, overseeing grass-roots volunteers who she helped recruit, and communicates online with a database of 2,000 prospective Dean supporters that she helped build.

She said she does this 30 to 40 hours a week after her day job and with only online direction from the Dean campaign — and she is not alone.

Thousands of Dean supporters — many of whom profess never to have been active before — have taken to the streets on their own initiative to pass out Dean fliers at urban fairs and farmer’s markets, donate blood and clean up beaches in his name, and raise millions of dollars for the former Vermont governor at house parties.

Although few of these volunteers have ever spoken to anyone from the national headquarters, Dean, once among the least known of the Democratic presidential field, now appears to many to be among the best organized as he leads the pack in fundraising and surges ahead in polls.

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