Give ’Em Hell, Bob
Longtime Activist Hits Campaign Trail, Again. This Time He’s Got Hillary’s Back – Even on a Rainy Super Bowl Sunday

“In the middle of all this masochism, there’s a lot of support.”

Honk or holler: Bob Kunst, right, and Benjamin John Chiszar campaign for www.hillarynow.com  in Miami Gardens on Super Sunday. Photo by Angie Hargot.

By Angie Hargot

Amid the honking, cheers and jeers of passing Super Bowl fans, Benjamin John Chiszar stands on the corner of 199th Street and U.S. 441 in Miami Gardens, holding a sign in one hand, a striped gold and black umbrella in the other. “Bob! — I need another sign! This one’s coming apart!” he yells as the cardboard sign disintegrates in the rain. Bob Kunst is busy taping “HILLARY NOW” fliers on a four-foot piece of cardboard and gives him a wave of recognition.

“We’ve had a lot of people stop and ask for tickets,” he says.

Kunst, 64, is the president of Hillarynow.com, a Web site devoted to electing Hillary Rodham Clinton president of the United States in the 2008 election. Of course, she still has to claim the Democratic Party nomination. The Miami Beach native has a lot of work to do, but he’s used to that.

He’s been an anti-Nazi and anti-segregation activist, has mobilized anti-war protests since the late 1950s and is a leading force in the fight for gay rights in South Florida. He’s best known for the latter, having founded the Oral Majority in 1977 to combat Anita Bryant’s crusade to repeal a Miami-Dade County ordinance that made it illegal to discriminate against individuals based on sexual orientation. In 1997, Kunst ran for mayor of Miami Beach in a crowded race and finished last.

And, in an attempt to take advantage of the increased traffic funneled into the city by the Super Bowl, he and four other soggy volunteers stood in the rain for hours holding signs and giving the thumbs-up to some unlikely supporters of who could be the nation’s first female president.

One man in a dark sedan meets a bright smile and a wave from Hillarynow campaigner Clarice Pollock, 72, with hollering and thumbs down. “The women are more positive than the men,” she says.

 “In the middle of all this masochism, there’s a lot of support — this other crowd could be talked to. Why isn’t any other campaign out here? In this community that’s pro-football and wouldn’t normally vote Democrat, we’re not getting a whole bunch of hostility,” Kunst said. His Hillary T-shirt is layered over a long sleeve shirt, both of which are neatly tucked into his belted jeans. A large hot pink button adorns his cap.

Even surrounded by pavement, Hillarynow.com’s efforts are about as grass roots as they can get. This, Kunst says, is how Clinton campaign efforts should be. “She talks to the people,” he said.

“I mean look at us,” he said, as Chiszar waves to a honking driver. “We’re two white guys in a largely black neighborhood supporting a woman.”

Since his efforts supporting Clinton began three and a half years ago, Kunst says the group has organized four TV ads, sent more than 350 news releases and raised more than $49 million. Since Jan. 22, when the words “I’m in” were posted on Clinton’s own Web site announcing her candidacy, Hillarynow.com has received over 10,000 hits.

The site’s slogan: “Give ’em hell Hillary!” Like Truman’s campaign, Clinton’s may hinge on her approach to a host of potential challenges left by her predecessor.

Kunst has a long list of scheduled speaking engagements to buoy that platform. Next week he’ll be in St. Petersburg, then in Orlando. Then to Trinidad for Carnival. After that it’s a steady stream of cities and events, including the Daytona 500 Bike Week. The Hollywood Democrats meeting will round out February. Then it’s two more events in Palm Beach County in early March, two in Broward, and so on.

“It’s a pretty full schedule,” Kunst says. “I got a call from a guy in Cedar Rapids to form a ‘Bikers for Hillary’ group. ‘Baptists for Hillary’ is already forming. Truckers and bikers and NASCAR groups behind her is another level of commitment.”

Clinton, campaigning on promises of ending the Iraq war, restoring “the promise of America” and a strategy of targeting the women’s and up-for-grabs middle class vote, as it is often hypothesized, seems a likely candidate for the groups’ support.

“Our focus is field operations. The opposite of the D.C. circle. We want to connect with voters,” Chiszar said. Fighting off a cold, he has forgone his umbrella to hold his sign higher. “It’s great that support has been positive. I’m feeling a little under the weather, but the cause is making a better community so I’m willing to make a sacrifice.”

The group had expected 10 supporters wearing “Hillary ‘08” T-shirts to come out with signs. Half of them showed.

“Just as we got here, it started to rain. We’ve received a pretty good reaction. We deserve a few extra points for coming out in the rain for Hillary,” Kunst said, never taking his eyes off the honking and waving drivers.

He repositions a sign that reads “Hillary in ’08 and win.” A man stops in the middle of the road to repeatedly yell out, “No way Hillary! No way Hillary!”

“That’s not hostility. It’s important to know that,” he says. “It’s not people calling her a bitch. In my three and a half years I’ve seen that the extreme right — they go for the genitals. But she’s a candidate now.”

Comments? E-mail angie@miamisunpost.com.