A campaign going to the dogs
Yorkshire terrier Schmitty and her owner are appealing to the nation's 64 million dog owners to trot to the polls and vote Tuesday
BY MERLE ENGLISH
STAFF WRITER
October 28, 2004
There's "Vote or Die," the slogan of hip-hop mogul Sean "P. Diddy" Combs' get-out-the-vote drive.
And now a 5-pound Yorkshire terrier named Schmitty also is helping to drum up voting in "Bark the Vote," a fun campaign launched by her owner.
"We might be better off going to the dogs," quipped Elly McGuire, an Upper West Side media sales consultant and political junkie who is Schmitty's campaign manager.
McGuire was expressing her frustration that millions of Americans won't go to the polls Tuesday in "this especially important election."
So she figured one way to encourage the nation's 64 million dog owners to exercise their right to vote might be through their pets.
With more than 4 million pet owners in New York City alone, McGuire said she thought, "Wouldn't it be fun if Schmitty and myself could unite their pooches to walk their two-legged friends to the polls on November 2 to exercise their right to vote?"
Schmitty - whose biography refers to her gender as "not a leg lifter" - could ask the city's other pooches and those around the country to "bark the vote," McGuire said.
"Think of how many people might vote. I was all excited about that," she said. "Everything is so serious in the world right now. It's so scary out there, we need a little levity in our life."
But how to get the word out? Through a campaign built around Schmitty.
Her 4-year-old pet - who has an arresting black, tan and rust coloration, an expressive face and "a wonderful effervescence," according to McGuire - already had achieved some recognition.
Schmitty was featured in a line of "New Yorkie™" greeting cards McGuire produced after terrorists brought down the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. McGuire wanted to raise funds to honor some of the firefighters who lost their lives.
Schmitty's friends
There was an overwhelming response to the cards, which McGuire developed into a business. Proceeds from sales are going to the Uniformed Firefighters Association Scholarship Fund in the name of nine firefighters from Ladder Company 25 on 77th Street in Manhattan.
Schmitty was one of the neighborhood dogs who regularly received biscuit treats from the firefighters when McGuire walked her.
"To see these big guys playing with this little 5-pound dog, it was quite a sight," McGuire said.
Schmitty's popularity escalated in January when the Defense Department ordered 10,000 "Operation Thank the Boss" cards that McGuire had created showing Schmitty and the U.S. flag. The cards were given to the National Guard and Reserve troops in Iraq and Afghanistan to send to their stateside employers, McGuire said.
Then, during the GOP convention, Barnes & Noble created an entire "red, white and blue" Schmitty window at its Rockefeller Center location.
The idea for promoting the campaign sprung from a stationery show in May at the Jacob Javits Center in Manhattan. A vote card was among the items McGuire exhibited. It featured Schmitty leaning against red, white and blue baby blocks spelling out: "VOTE."
Representatives of the National Archives who were present "got all excited," McGuire said, "because they said no one else had addressed the election in the whole show."
Campaign slogans
For the campaign, McGuire developed neutral T-shirts and buttons carrying the message: "Schmitty says Bark the Vote." She also provides free posters with the slogans: "Be a Party Animal," "It's a treat to vote" and the tongue-in-cheek message, "What's wrong with this country going to the dogs?"
The T-shirts, buttons and posters are available at Schmitty's Web site: www.schmittysays.com. McGuire said 100 percent of the proceeds from sales of the T-shirts and buttons will go to Animal Care & Control of New York City to support its no-kill goal for 2008.
To help get out the vote, on weekends McGuire walks Schmitty in and around Central Park, handing out buttons.
"People come up and ask who she's going to vote for," McGuire said.
Pooch's party
Schmitty is nonpartisan in running "Bark the Vote," but the terrier hoped to make up her mind about who to vote for after the last presidential debate. She remains undecided, however, McGuire said.
The pooch has her own way of commenting on the decisions of the two-legged voters her campaign targets.
"When asked if people don't vote, how she will feel, she tucks her head under a basket with her paws over her head," indicating her displeasure, McGuire said.
"When people tell her they're going to vote, she gives them a high-five."
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.
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