GRANNY D

Ideal Use: Any political or motivational program; campaign finance reform, domestic and foreign policy

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At age 95, inspiring speaker Doris "Granny D" Haddock does have an agenda: activism for democracy. At 89, she embarked on a cross-country walk to promote campaign finance reform. It took her 14 months to walk 3,200 miles from California to Washington , D.C. ; she traveled as a pilgrim and took no food or shelter unless it was offered for free, and she said. "And I never went without a meal” Her personal example of sacrifice and non-violence is a powerful impetus towards a Culture of Peace. “It took me this long to get angry enough at how we are misrepresented. We have the power to get involved and set things right, instead of sitting at home and feeling like victims of our own system.”

Born January 24, 1910 in Laconia , New Hampshire, Doris Granny D Haddock attended Emerson College for 3 years before marrying James Haddock. She was awarded an honorary degree from the college in 2000. Haddock worked and raised her family during the Great Depression, and later worked in a shoe factory in Manchester for twenty years.

With her husband, Jim, she helped stop the planned use of hydrogen bombs in Alaska in 1960, saving an Inuit fishing village at Point Hope. The couple retired to Dublin , NH in 1972, where Doris served on the Planning Board and was active in community affairs. She nursed Jim through 10 years of Alzheimer’s disease.

After the defeat of Senator McCain and Senator Feingold's first attempt to remove unregulated "soft" money from campaigns in 1995, Haddock became interested in campaign reform and led a petition movement. On January 1, 1999, at the age of 89, she began a walk across the country to demonstrate her concern for the issue, walking ten miles each day for fourteen months and making speeches along the way. When she arrived in Washington , D.C. , Granny D was met by 2,200 people, representing a wide variety of reform groups. Several dozen Members of Congress walked the final miles with her.

When the presumed Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate dropped out of the race days before the filing deadline in June of this year, Granny D – having just completed a more than 22,000 mile voter registration effort directed at working women – surprised everyone by deciding to challenge the incumbent.

She is running on the same message she has walked long for: our nation’s leaders have been corrupted by special interests dollars and no longer represent the interests of their constituents. Her candidacy will prove that ordinary people can run for office and win with the support of small donations from individuals.

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