GRANNY HITS 1,000-MILE MARK ON CAMPAIGN REFORM TREK : JOURNEY TO WASHINGTON CARRIES 89-YEAR-OLD ACTIVIST TO TEXAS.

Byline: Michael Coit Daily News Staff Writer

Continuing the cross-country walk she began in Pasadena on New Year's Day, Doris ``Granny D'' Haddock is leaving milestones in her dust as she treks toward the nation's capitol on a mission to promote campaign finance reform.

In El Paso, Texas, this week, Haddock passed the 1,000th mile of the journey after conquering New Mexico in less than a month. Her 100th day on the road was logged days earlier in Las Cruces, N.M.

``I'm working with a very old, 89-year-old body, but it seems to be doing very well,'' Haddock said from El Paso, where she is spending the weekend with family visiting her on the road.

Both milestones also were notable because they came in university towns with enthusiastic crowds of students providing a boost to the great-grandmother in hiking boots and straw hat.

``It's wonderful because they're so alert and so alive and really interested in what's going on in the world,'' she said. ``I keep trying to tell them it's not a political subject, it's a social subject because our country is in turmoil and unless something is done about it, we're going to be owned of the corporations, by the corporations and for the corporations.

``I try not to be a crackpot and scream, but I get pretty passionate.''

Haddock spoke to political science classes and joined forums at New Mexico State and the University of Texas, El Paso. She made similar appearances in Tucson at the University of Arizona earlier on the journey.

Las Cruces officials presented Haddock with yet another city key.

El Paso officials honored her with a framed proclamation and topped the ceremony with a sombrero that dwarfed the diminutive activist.

``It's very exciting,'' said Mary Lou Jones, who has been inspired by Haddock while hosting her in El Paso. ``I never know what my significant purpose will be in my time. She's showing me that there's opportunities later in life.''

Haddock, a retired shoe company secretary from southern New Hampshire, is trekking to generate support for a ban on unlimited, unregulated large donations both political parties have been able to use to influence the outcome of presidential and congressional races.

Legislation proposing that and other reforms died in the U.S. Senate last year and congressional supporters of reform have launched a similar measure this year.

She is carrying petitions for people to sign and supporters are copying many more.

Haddock continues to gain converts as she goes on the road every morning for her daily 10-mile walks. Men and women who have read or heard about her have joined her for long stretches of the journey.

Others have spent a day walking alongside on often remote reaches of rural highways. Robin Davis was inspired enough to walk with her one day in the New Mexico badlands.

``If it gets into the history books, I will be proud that I walked with her,'' said the 12-year-old from Albuquerque. ``I think she will make it. She's pretty fast for 89 years old.''

Vital to Haddock's success have been volunteers for Common Cause, such as Sally Davis, Robin's mother, who helped organize Haddock's walk through New Mexico.

Already, a Texas congressman plans to meet Haddock on the capitol steps.

``It's an issue that's easy for the leadership here to sweep under the rug unless folks out there at the grass roots are heard from,'' said Jim Turner, a Democrat from Crockett, in East Texas. ``She's headed our way and we will just have to let the leadership know.''

Turner is leading a group of conservative Democrats known as the ``Blue Dogs'' and freshmen Democrats in pushing for the House to consider campaign finance reform legislation.

``She . . . represents the average voter out there who's tired of a system that allows the monied interests to speak louder than the voting process.''

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MAP: El Paso, Texas and surrounding areas