Politics No Mere Elective at This School

The candidate was unavailable, so 17-year-old Katie Bickert stood outside the statehouse last month delivering Dennis J. Kucinich’s speech to mark National Homeless Memorial Day.

Bickert -- who gravitated to Kucinich in part because “he’s a cute little vegan” -- said she saw nothing out of the ordinary about a Concord High School junior subbing for a Democratic presidential hopeful.

“Not around here,” she said.

That’s because politics has become Concord High’s hottest extracurricular activity.

Since October, seven Democratic candidates for the White House have visited the school -- one of them twice. About half of the school’s 1,800 students have met at least one presidential candidate, and about 10% of the student body is volunteering on campaigns and actively supporting candidates.

New Hampshire has the nation’s first presidential primary, and political participation -- as many as 70% of voters expect to meet a candidate in the key primary months -- is always high. Even at that, Concord High is unusual: Most of the students are too young to vote.

This fall, the school started the Presidential Campaign Forum Committee to increase political involvement. The club fast became one of Concord High’s most popular, drawing students from all segments of the school population to weekly meetings to plan candidates’ appearances.

“It is definitely part of the cool package here, and it is climbing,” said Ben Van Berkum, a varsity lacrosse player and high jumper who volunteers on former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean’s campaign.

Assistant Principal Joanne McGlynn, who formed the club, said that in nearly 30 years as a high school educator, she has never seen such a buzz about politics. “For whatever reasons, the magic has happened,” she said.

McGlynn calls the capital’s only public high school “a very diverse school, socioeconomically.” Concord’s median annual income, $42,000, is substantially higher than in the rest of the state. While many of this city’s 40,000 residents are employed by the state, others work in southern New Hampshire’s burgeoning high-tech industry or at one of the 150 manufacturing companies nearby.

“Many of these students come from families that are highly politically aware and involved -- families that encourage their kids to take part in the process,” McGlynn said.

After each candidate’s visit, students cluster around the school’s daily announcement screen to see themselves pictured with the politicians. In the hallways, they trade banter about the candidates -- assessments that reveal the teenagers as ruthless critics.

“Joe Lieberman, that guy makes everything into a story,” said senior Caitlin Barry, 19.

“He brought up all these lessons,” said Matthew Pearl, 16, a sophomore. “It’s like, we’re in school. We don’t need lessons.”

College advisors at Concord High are touting leafleting and campaign phone-bank work as fodder for application essays. One social studies teacher waived term papers for those who volunteered on a campaign. Another enthralled a class born long after Watergate by showing the movie “All the President’s Men.” Still another teacher decided not to discipline two students who were passing notes after he saw what the notes contained. One student was praising retired Army Gen. Wesley K. Clark’s military experience; the other thought Clark was too hawkish on foreign policy.

McGlynn and others at the school hope the early initiation into politics will help sustain New Hampshire’s consistently high voter turnout by building a foundation for political participation. Between 65% and 70% of New Hampshire voters are expected to cast ballots on Tuesday.

“Me and my dad used to talk about stuff like politics, and I was like, ‘Dad, yeah, whatever.’ I had no political opinion whatsoever,” said Tom Mango, 18. “Now I think of things very differently.”

Mango, a senior bound for the Marines, likes to call himself a Republicrat, split between the two major parties. He said he can judge a candidate’s character by shaking his hand. He said he was surprised, for example, “by how weak [Sen. John F.] Kerry’s handshake was.”

He also asks each candidate about abortion rights, which Mango supports, and about the war in Iraq, which he also favors.

“Wes Clark and I kind of meet head-to-head on both those issues,” Mango said.

Sally Foster, 15, said that for much of her life, “I knew we had a president and his name was Bill Clinton, and that was all I wanted to know. Politics just seemed too complicated.”

But the war in Iraq made her critical of President Bush, and the Presidential Campaign Forum Committee made her interested in finding an alternative. Poring over candidates’ websites, Foster said she and fellow sophomore McLane Heckman “fell in love” with former ambassador and Sen. Carol Moseley Braun, and worked on her campaign from October until Braun dropped out last week.

When they learned last fall that Braun had a very small campaign war chest and almost no visibility in their home state, Foster and Heckman hand-laminated signs and finagled passes to a debate in Durham, half an hour away, where the candidate was appearing.

Foster’s mother is a Republican, so Heckman’s mom drove them to Durham. They caught the attention of Braun’s campaign staff, and soon Foster and Heckman were enlisted to run Braun’s tiny volunteer operation in New Hampshire.

“It’s a really encouraging sign for those of us who despaired that we would ever see this kind of youthful activism again,” said Patricia Ireland, Braun’s campaign manager.

Foster said other students were impressed when they learned that she regularly saw Braun, called her by her first name and had the candidate’s private number programmed on her cell phone.

“We are kind of breaking the rule that only adults can have something to do with politics,” said Foster, who helped engineer Braun’s visit to Concord High.

Heckman said his work with Braun led him to write letters to more than 50 newspapers, chastising them for failing to cover the candidate. He also organized house parties and staged rallies that sometimes amounted to him standing alone on a street holding a sign.

Although Foster said she was “quite upset” when Braun pulled out of the race last week, Heckman said it was “a smart political move.” Still undecided about whether to follow Braun in supporting Dean, Heckman said his candidate’s departure had not soured his enthusiasm.

On the contrary, Heckman said, “This gives me the entire view of things, from the thrill and excitement of seeing poll numbers rise, to the incredible upset of your idol pulling out.” After working for Braun, Heckman said, he thought he might pursue a career in politics.

Although his schedule was crammed before he began volunteering for Dean, Ben Van Berkum shares Heckman’s desire to make a difference. The 17-year-old junior plays sports year round, works at a bike shop, maintains a 3.7 grade-point average and has a steady girlfriend who also is a Dean volunteer.

His days are “insane,” Van Berkum said: school, two hours of track practice and then straight to Dean headquarters, where he stays until 9 p.m. Then it’s back to his house for homework until at least midnight.

“But if you want my honest opinion,” Van Berkum said, “politics are more important than high school. I know I can’t change anything, but I can help the best I can to try to create change. I like to think that I’ve gotten a lot of votes for Dean.”

Dean’s antiwar stance and his focus on a balanced budget got Van Berkum’s attention.

For 18-year-old senior Michelle Lanteigne, her litmus issue is the USA Patriot Act -- a law passed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that gave law enforcement officials broad authority to monitor and pursue suspected terrorists. Lanteigne said she considered the legislation dangerous.

“I talked to John Edwards, because I wanted to know how he felt about the Patriot Act,” Lanteigne said. She was satisfied with his answer but not with everything she heard from Edwards.

“He’s the aesthetically pleasing guy that you want to like,” Lanteigne said. “But he doesn’t really know anything concrete.”

By asking tough questions, Concord High students who plunge into politics may be training themselves as the next tier of well-informed voters, said Linda Fowler, a Dartmouth College professor of government.

“If every state had what New Hampshire has, voting turnout would not be 50% in this country,” Fowler said.

Sophomore Matthew Pearl observed that “at one point, I will be able to vote. If I have earlier political experience it will help me to make good choices later.”

The candidates get something too, Fowler said.

“It provides wonderful free media. They end up on the front page of the Concord Monitor,” she said. “And all of those students have parents.”

At dinner at the Bickert house, it’s Katie Bickert who brings politics to the table. “I’m the one who decides who my parents will vote for,” she said.

Bickert said she supports Kucinich because she likes what he stands for, especially his idea of dismantling the World Trade Organization.

In her view, large international entities exert excessive influence on the global economy.

Though it sometimes conflicts with her karate lessons, Bickert canvasses about three hours weekly for Kucinich in Concord. On weekends, she heads to Manchester, 20 minutes away, to work at her candidate’s headquarters.

She thinks it’s great that politics has become so popular at Concord High.

“But regardless of whether it is cool or not,” she said, “I would still want to be involved.”