Hank Lessig has been involved behind the scenes in Berks County politics for many years. Even though he’s had a big impact on local politics, you don’t see his name in the headlines. Hank’s honest and principled advice is often sought by those who plan to run for office in Reading and Berks County. He stands out as a role model of a good citizen, serving his community on panels and boards as well as devoting decades of his life to Democratic and progressive candidates and causes. That is why we salute Hank Lessig as this month’s Unsung Hero. We are sad to report that Hank passed away on February 8. We at CS2 send our condolences to Hank’s wife Maria Ballas and son Marco Lessig-Ballas, their family and many friends who mourn this loss.

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CS2: How did you get involved with the Democratic Party?

Hank: Well, I was in North Carolina at the time in the early 70’s. I became involved with the George McGovern campaign in North Carolina. It wasn’t really a great race he didn’t do too well down there.

CS2: Or anywhere else except Massachusetts.

Hank: (laughs) Yeah. I remember going door-to-door thinking these people are going to think that George is pretty good. I remember one guy taking the flyer I gave him and he grabbed it and looked at me very menacingly and he took his cigarette and lit it (the flyer).

CS2: (laughing).

Hank: Then I came back to Reading in 1976. My current wife Maria got me involved in politics up here.

CS2: So she was involved way back when?

Hank: Oh yeah. She was a member of Harold Brown’s team. Harold was a state legislator. She was part of his cadre. She was involved in his campaign as one of the coordinators of Reading. Districts have changed some, but it was basically the district where Dante Santoni is now. When I came up here from North Carolina she got me involved in Harold’s campaign, and even more actively in 1978. I was a coordinator. Harold had a lot of volunteers. He didn’t have much money for his campaigns for state representative. But he was successful. Most of his volunteers were very young. He called them the kiddie corps. Youth just becoming adults. One of them became the mayor of Reading for two terms Warren Haggerty. Haggerty was Harold’s first assistant. Others from the kiddie corps went on to become city councilmen. Working with these young people was fun. That’s what it should be. Politics should be fun. It takes a lot of energy. You work hard. But it’s fun. In 1979 I worked for Karen Miller when she ran for mayor. I was a volunteer coordinator in her campaign. That was when I was really starting to get my feet wet.

CS2: Can you tell our readers, many who have never been involved in a political campaign, what does a volunteer coordinator do?

Hank: You do a lot. First you go go door-to-door to get word of the campaign out. You take somebody who is known in that neighborhood with you. You take a street list with you. You consult your street list for the names and number of residents for a particular household. You knock on the door. When they answer you address them by name. This impresses them. “Hello Mr. Brown.” This makes them instantly friendly. After you make your pitch for the candidate you try to get a reading of the voter. When outside you mark your street list plus or minus.

CS2: I take it the minuses won’t be followed up on.

Hank: Right. You don’t want to follow up on those (laughs). Then there are other groups. Like the sign groups. These are the people that have to put up all the candidate’s signs in the designated locations. I’d get a master list of sign locations and I’d go around to make sure all signs were up. Then there’s manning the poll locations and getting the signs to the polls. Another chore that needed supervision was the phone calling. We’d get lists of voters to call on the candidate’s behalf. The job of the coordinator was to see that all these things were being done and to move people around. For example, if you needed 5 people for phone calling and only 3 show up remember they’re all volunteers then you have to decide which is the greater priority. If it’s phone calling you may have to pull 2 off house calls. So plugging these holes was another part of the job.

CS2: I heard you mention a few minutes ago how much fun the first campaign you were in was. I’m wondering if you think things have changed at all in our politics in that regard? Has politics ceased to be as much fun as it used to be? Is it more of a grim struggle today?

Hank: I think it is. We had more fun with campaigns in the eighties. There’s a lot more invective than there used to be.

CS2: Why do you think that is? What do you think’s happened here?

Hank: I’m not so sure. I’ve never seen it like this. Although it seems like Christian Leinbach’s people have fun.

CS2: Do you think it has something to do with the parties then? Now, you’re a Democrat and you mentioned that Christian Leinbach’s people have fun. Is it because the Republicans have veered their party off to their base while the Democrats have sort of abandoned their base in many instances? Do you think that the base is feeling less motivated or less thrilled and therefore isn’t having as much fun?

Hank: I’m not sure if that’s it or not. Everything is individuals now. Not a group. A guy says, “I think I want to run for City Council”. He doesn’t even have a group. Everyone’s acting as an individual now. They don’t even have a base. No critical mass. Maybe one or two key volunteers. They raise money and run a media campaign. It’s more fun to have many volunteers and make it a people campaign. Some still do that. People like Angel (Figueroa) get them cranked up. That’s because he pushes that Latino-pride thing. Most campaigns today lack meaning. They don’t have a cause. Very few volunteers. Everybody’s so damned busy. Nobody wants to put the time in out there. They’re all too f***ing busy. I think that’s a big part of it. Everybody carries schedule books. They just don’t have the time to do it right. Also too many just don’t participate.

CS2: Do you think that all politics is local?

Hank: I’ve heard that said. But I’ll tell you, local turnouts are bad. The parties are not organized, especially in our vicinity. They’re not organized any more. They do it all from television. The people are not touched. Before they were touched.

CS2: Do you think inspiration is missing from our politics then? I remember as a young man being inspired by JFK, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King and also Eugene McCarthy. Where are those type of guys today?

Hank: There are still some around. They’re being suppressed.

CS2: Suppressed?

Hank: By the media. They’re (the media) not democratic organizations. They’re not interested in smaller size markets even cities. They want mass audience. It’s all about the media now not the community.

CS2: When you look around at politicians today which ones move you and inspire you?

Hank: I think Edwards is an inspired speaker. I’m not so sure about Kucinich. He’s not a great speaker. But he’s a great idea person. Bill Clinton is, of course, a great speaker. He’s an inspirational speaker although I know sometimes he’s a sham.

CS2: Has Bill Clinton been good for the Democratic Party, in terms of how to run your campaigns in the future? A lot of people seem to be copying the Clinton strategy. You know, straddle the center while at the same time being empathetic.

Hank: I don’t know how to answer that. He sure knows how to win. He has the personality. He’s a winner. That’s got to mean almost as much as his strategy. He certainly has a lot more charisma than John Kerry does. I also think he’s more liberal than his policies are. But I’m not sure because he’s not a sincere person. He tells you what you want to hear. 51% or more want to hear him. And that’s what Hillary’s doing. She’s going for the vote and not the way she feels.

CS2: So you’re saying if it works I guess it’s good?

Hank: That’s a real problem. I guess, if she gets elected then we’ll see who she is.

CS2: Have presidential campaigns become very small? Not in dollars. Not in TV. Not in expenditures. But in ideas. I’ll give you an example of what I mean. The 2000 election between Gore and Bush wasn’t about health care for everybody. The election revolved around one little drug program in the Medicare system. I have a better Medicare prescription drug plan than you do. In the 2004 election between Kerry and Bush, it wasn’t about whether the war was right or wrong. Both candidates were saying it was right. Kerry was just saying he could manage it better. Are the Democrats at fault by not looking at the bigger picture? Not going for the brass ring. Are they running campaigns that are too small-minded.

Hank: What is a Democrat?

CS2: Exactly.

Hank: There are too many Democrats with different perceptions of what is a Democrat. It’s not really a party of unity.

CS2: Well, I’m saying the size of the ideas they offer in the campaign are not fixing the entire problem the way Roosevelt fixed the problem of people on the street with Social Security. They’re not fixing the health care problem, they’re talking about tweaking it. Adding little things incrementally. Aren’t we missing the big picture?

Hank: I know what you’re saying. I don’t think anybody is doing that. I think it would be helpful if they were. What would you say if you were a candidate about the big picture?

CS2: If I were a candidate I would put together a complete view of what life is like for a working family. I would be an economic populist.

Hank: Isn’t that like what John Edwards is doing?

CS2: Yes, John Edwards is. I think my problem with John Edwards is that he is the most swiftboatable of the Democratic candidates.

Hank: The war?

CS2: Sure. They’re going to do the flip-flop on the Iraq War. They’re going to do it effectively because he voted for it. And the reason they’re going to get away with it is Edwards’ explanation for voting for it, in my mind, is a lie. They’re going to show it to be a lie. He was not fooled by George Bush. None of the Democratic candidates were. They’re not stupid people. They voted for it because they didn’t have the backbone not to be railroaded by 9/11. They were afraid to oppose it. Cowards. That’s one man’s opinion.

Hank: We’re talking war here. The truth was out there. The information was available if they wanted to see it.

CS2: It was. And since that party has no shame they’ll use it effectively. They’ll have Edwards windsurfing in both directions just like Kerry. These marketers who work for the Republican Party are really smart. They know how to savage a candidate.

Hank: They are. And Karl Rove’s the worst.

CS2: Look what they did with swiftboat. They took the thing Kerry could be most proud of in his life and they made a mockery of it.

Hank: Look what they did to Max Cleland down in Georgia. They really are vicious. Here’s a guy that lost limbs for his country and they did the same thing to him.

CS2: As you look back can you tell me what surprised you for the better and what things disappointed you in your life of political involvement?

Hank: I was pleasantly surprised by Marcelino Colon’s first campaign for Reading School Board. He was the first Latino candidate to run for any office in Reading. He came in second and won a seat on the school board. I was happy. We were proud of him. Nytza Rosado was a passionate candidate about the schools and a great person. Not like John Santoro.

CS2: What about disappointments?

Hank: I was Marcelino Colon’s campaign manager in ‘87. He did really well. He ran a good campaign. I didn’t get involved in the 2nd campaign which he won just barely.

CS2: Talking in general terms, what’s wrong with Reading and what needs to be done?

Hank: I really think housing is a problem. The city needs an effective housing program. We need more code enforcement. The city is getting poorer. Every year there are more people below the poverty line in Reading. The poor pour into the city. The city can’t keep track of them with the housing subdivisions. The city needs a housing plan. I know it can’t be done overnight, but a plan has to be put in place. Right now this is all on the backs of people like us who own property. Some poor people are paying property taxes. As the poor come in there’s white flight and neighborhoods become segregated. Poverty needs to be addressed. (CS2 Editor’s note: Hank was working on a project to repair and market vacant properties in Reading. He recently made a presentation to the Vacant Property Review Committee.)

CS2: How are the services in Reading?

Hank: The services aren’t bad. There’s always a financial struggle. The revenues for this year are still short. Some help is at the mercy of the census. If the revenues aren’t there then you have to reduce your budget. Then the services to the people get reduced. You’ll see things like, when streetlights are out, it will take too long for someone to address it.

CS2: Do you feel safe?

Hank: No. Not really. Not all the time. It’s really not that bad. Areas around the bars are not great. Someone on the next block recently got mugged.

CS2: Tell us about Reading’s past history with Socialism. Also the WPA which put people to work here in Reading and the Democratic Socialists.

Hank: Bob Millar started a Socialist group. We had a very interesting group. Among the older guys one was a Trotskyite. One was a Communist. Bernie Sanders came here from Vermont. We met Saturday night in a bar. Bernie had all these political science guys with him. They all knew what they were doing. They put his game plan together. His opponent didn’t have the kind of think-tank that we had. It gave him a big advantage. These were good guys. We did some things. We got involved, but I guess we never really accomplished a whole lot. But it was good for a while. We eventually sort of broke up dissipated. Bob did more work than anybody. He had a newsletter. Darlington Hoopes, Jr. was a member of our group. His father was a vice presidential candidate of the Socialist Party.

CS2: During the Roosevelt era right?

Hank: Yeah! And we had a guy named Stump who was mayor of Reading. Some Democrats joined with Republicans to form what they called the fusion party to defeat the Socialists. They (the Socialists) were that strong in Reading.

CS2: The center of Socialism, huh?

Hank: We had a Socialist mayor. There’s a room in City Hall. It’s called The Penn Room. Labor and a few of us got together and suggested that they call it the Stump Room. City officials wanted to honor Thomas Penn. All he did was kill the f***king Indians. He was a real creep. We said we can’t do that, this guy is a jerk. He’s not the chip off the old block. But they wouldn’t change anything. We were called the “Sewer Socialists”. The ones in New York City were called the Limousine Socialists. Two different worlds of Socialists. Bob Millars and Toots Shors. A lot of the Reading Socialists were laborers. I think they got their name from installing the sewer system in Reading.

CS2: Do you think FDR was a socialist?

Hank: I don’t think so. Although at times he came pretty close to being one.

CS2: Do you think Socialism would be a good program for America?

Hank: I think pure Socialism would probably not be a good thing for America. Although there are industries that should be employee owned. We could have a hybrid system. We already have some things that are Socialism. Medicare. Social Security. There should be a free open hunting season on lobbyists (laughs). Let’s say the end of January to the beginning of March. No license required. Do it for the common good.

CS2: Yeah. And how about making the politicians wear their donors on their suits like NASCAR drivers?

Hank: Yeah.

CS2: So when Bush comes on TV he’d be wearing Enron and Halliburton like a race car driver.

Hank: Let’s get the oil company crowd, the Jerry Falwell crowd and the global warming denial crowd while we’re at it. Look how they sit on their God-damned hands on global warming. Bush comes up with these things like subsidies for growing more corn. It’s not conservation. It’s downright consumerism.

CS2: How would you rate Bush compared to the presidents of your lifetime?

Hank: He’s a lot worse than Nixon. If you consider Carter bad, and I don’t think he was as bad as people say he was, there’s no doubt who’s worse.

CS2: Do you think with Bush that he’s ill-informed on the issues or do you think he’s just working for a few companies like Halliburton and the oil industry?

Hank: That I don’t know. I have no idea. Why does he go to Cheney on Iraq and Iran and these other issues? He’s confrontational and he’s getting worse.

CS2: He sounds Messianic to me when he discusses Iran and Iraq as if God wants us to do this.

Hank: Well, as my wife says, he might believe in the Apocalypse. It might be part of his game plan.

CS2: That’s scary just to contemplate, if you have a president that actually believes that it is going to bring a better day.

Hank: The Phoenix will rise out of the ashes. Did you ever hear that Randy Newman song called Political Science?

CS2: No. My son lives down in New Orleans and Randy Newman made a song called Louisiana after Katrina. It’s about how in 1928 there was a great flood across the South. Because of it the black sharecroppers had no land to farm or work. During this flood, Herbert Hoover who was the Commerce Secretary at the time under Coolidge, ordered one of the levees dynamited flooding the poor and black communities in order to save downtown New Orleans. The government actually blew up the levees and Randy Newman made a song about it called Louisiana which is a great little song I love. So I have a soft spot for Randy Newman.

Hank: I have a couple of his albums. I know most of his songs. I’ve liked him all the way back to when I first heard him do Short People.

CS2: They took that off the air didn’t they?

Hank: I didn’t hear about that.

CS2: Yeah. They suspended the playing of it on the New York City radio stations. It was considered offensive to short people.

Hank: That’s ridiculous. I find him very sympathetic. Did you ever hear True Love?

CS2: I don’t know that one.

Hank: It’s one of my favorites. He’s great with tongue in cheek.

CS2: What else do you want to tell us about you?

Hank: Along the way I got involved in the Central American Peace Coalition when there was all that trouble with the Contras in Nicaragua. I was not in a leadership role in that organization but I was a leader in effectively getting the word out outreach. I was an outreach strategist for the Coalition. I was also involved in grass roots outreach in Reading. Once, trying to stop the Reading School Board from eliminating art, music and physical education from the schools to contain costs, we got over a thousand people to a meeting. We gave out fliers telling them who they should call. The meeting was so big we had to move it to the high school auditorium. We were very successful because this big organizing thing worked. We even had a hundred people walk into a school board meeting. One of the school board members was named Jake Hain and we had these big signs that said Hit The Road Jake And Don’t Come Back No More, No More.

CS2 & Hank: (laughing).

Hank: We had other things happening. There was Bob Edgar. He was a Democratic representative in a heavily Republican district. He won because he knew how to play the issues. He was liberal but won in conservative districts. Today’s Democrats could learn a lot from him. One of my fondest memories is working in the mayoral campaign of Nan Balmer. She was a feisty candidate running in a field of 10. She came in second to Tom Caltagirone who went on to lose the mayoral contest. I enjoyed her campaign.

CS2: Thanks, Hank. It was a pleasure talking to you.

Hank: You’re welcome.