By Kim Malcolm, KERA 90.1 Reporter
Dallas, TX – Steve Bruno, New Politics Forum: Hey, how you doin', I'm Steve Bruno.
James Rodriguez, Forum participant: Oh, hi, I'm James Rodriguez.
Bruno: Hey, James, good to see you.
Kim Malcolm, KERA 90.1 Reporter: Steve Bruno of the New Politics Forum in Austin, Texas, welcomes one of the twenty-five young people who've turned up on a meltingly hot Friday afternoon.
Mary Dixson, Assistant Director, Annette Strauss Institute for Civic Participation: Welcome to the New Politics Forum - here are your materials. I'm Mary Dixson.
Malcolm: James and the others have come to hear lectures by the state's top fundraisers, pollsters, managers, even some real live politicians - all prepared to share the nuts and bolts of how to run a political campaign. It's pretty safe to say that none of these fresh-faced hopefuls think of themselves as the money-grubbing, power-mad, partisan sell-outs that the rest of America may sometimes see. But the director of the Forum, University of Texas political science professor Rod Hart, warns the students that despite their idealism, they may soon be perceived to be part of the problem, not the solution. He also knows how important their interest is - only a quarter of all people under the age of 30 voted in the 2002 elections.
Rod Hart, University of Texas political science professor and director, Annette Strauss Institute: Well, you guys have a special burden, because you are members of a generation that has really abandoned politics. But the question is, do you really want to live in a society in which only one out of four people have any influence?
Malcolm: Hart's warning strikes a chord with student Elizabeth Alvarez, who's traveled to Austin from the south Texas city of McAllen. She's a 20 year-old full time student, Hispanic, Republican, and a nationally ranked debate champion.
Elizabeth Alvarez, Forum participant: I came here to see if there is one other person my age who doesn't think that you need to be a slimeball to succeed in politics. And you say, let's define sliminess. Well, even if you don't define it, you still use that word, by saying that it's necessary. And so my question to you is, is that what you want?
Malcolm: Another student, Billy Wilkinson, knows what he wants. He's a confident 29 year-old financial consultant who describes himself as a fiscally conservative but socially forward-thinking Democrat. He feels a little out of place among the younger students, but he clearly knows the value of making connections.
Billy Wilkinson, Forum participant: This is a great place for networking. There are important people who were here today, people I definitely want to get involved in.
Malcolm: For both Elizabeth and Billy, the people who've come to give their perspective on what life is really like inside a campaign don't disappoint. Here's longtime Democratic campaign manager Kyle Garrison, consultant Mark Harkrider, and top fundraiser Holly Mace.
Holly Mace, Forum panelist: It's a very different world. It's not Dell. It's not being a teacher. I've missed my friends' weddings; I've missed my family reunions.
Kyle Garrison, Forum panelist: Breaking into politics is taking out the trash, doing those kinds of things, and I'll tell you it's the most rewarding work I've ever done in my life.
Mark Harkrider, Forum panelist: Let me tell you - candidates can be an absolute pain in the a**. I mean, they have an ego - but that's a part of leadership.
Mace: Terrible office - I mean, stuff growing in the carpet, three of us. If you're going to be in campaigns, you are going to have the worst offices. I don't care if you're on a presidential - they are terrible. I've never had a real chair. You know, one with the wheel broken.
Malcolm: Which brings discussion to one of the biggest topics - money. Holly Mace probably never had a working chair because there wasn't much money left over from the TV and communications budget - which can take up to 80% of a campaign's funds. She tells the students that raising money is a balancing act between attracting high dollar donors and regular folks.
Mace: It costs the same to raise $25 as $1000. Raising lower dollars isn't easier. You need to do it. Because that's a different type of donor you need to involve. But if you think you're just going to have a bunch of different $25 barbecues and get there, you're not.
Malcolm: Only briefly does conversation break into whether or not it's a good thing to have to raise all that money just to get through to the average American on his or her television. And it's not the students who raise the question. Consultant Kyle Garrison.
Garrison: Even for a state rep race - I was talking to a candidate the other day, guys - I mean a state senator and a state rep make $7600 a year. In a highly-contested state representative race next year, in Texas, next time it's going to cost $500,000. You get that at all? That's too much. That's just too much. That's wrong. It's just wrong. You guys have no idea how wrong that is.
Malcolm: By all signs, that's true. No one raises their hand to engage him. It's a hard message that may take time to sink in - that even the smallest races may soon be out of reach for all but the most TV-friendly, accomplished, and financially connected candidates. Later that afternoon, the politicians arrive, all in suits and cowboy boots. They talk easily about the honor of public service and the virtue of following one's instincts. But then a student launches a question at them: Have they ever done negative campaign ads? After a slight pause, Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, a Republican, steps up to bat.
Jerry Patterson, Texas Land Commissioner: And I've done some things that were negative that I wish I hadn't done, even though they were factually accurate. One of them was a picture of a serial killer [and one] of my opponent, with a tag that says, "What do these men have in common?"
Kyle: What do they have in common?
Patterson: Well, they both support the early - er, mandatory - release. And one of them was released, a guy named Ken MacDuff, who murdered some people here in Austin, and my opponent had voted for it. But you know, I wish I hadn't done it. I wish I'd said the same thing in a different manner. But maybe if I had, nobody would have read it. In fact, I apologized to him after the race. I said, "I said some things about you that I shouldn't have said, even though they were accurate and I was being benevolent, I won."
Kyle: That's right, and he said, "Thank you, Senator."
Malcolm: Elizabeth Alvarez, the Hispanic Republican from McAllen, isn't completely happy with what she hears - or how her classmates seem to accept the mixed message: negative campaigning is bad, but if you do it, here are the rules.
Alvarez: It was very surprising to me to see so many cynics at such a young age. Sometimes I felt I was in a room filled with 45 year-old veteran politicians, in 21 year-old people suits. It was very shocking, I guess.
Malcolm: For his part, Billy Wilkinson's particularly keen to prove that the three out of four young people who don't vote can be turned on to politics.
Wilkinson: Someone said it has to be, that's the way you do it. I don't believe in that. I don't believe that's the way the United States was made. I think we need to get out there, get involved, and get these people educated, and make them feel franchised, instead of disenfranchised. To get them involved.
Malcolm: But Elizabeth, who asked her fellow students if they wanted to be more than slimeballs, says the weekend reassured her that she can work in politics and keep her principles intact.
Alvarez: We can all sit here and say this is the way the system is, and we don't like it, but tough. But we started to realize that, no, not tough. If we're the people who are going to be in charge, then we can make it into the way we want.
Malcolm: For KERA, I'm Kim Malcolm in Austin.
Visit the New Politics Forum's website.