Four Penn students hit the campaign trail

Over break, the students traveled to N.H. to watch politics in action. With a desire to see the political process in action, four Penn students loaded into a rented mini-van last week and headed on an adventure to meet the candidates vying for the presidency of the United States. College junior Cam Winton, his brother, College freshman Jeb Winton, and their friends College sophomore Hanny Hindi and Wharton junior Rich Kilfoyle, all piled into a van over winter break and drove up the East Coast to New Hampshire. Also joining them was Boston College sophomore Monica Gussow. For six days, from January 10 to January 16, the students logged over 1,400 miles as they hopped from town to town listening to the candidates speak, shaking their hands and challenging their platforms with hard-hitting questions. They met most of the leading contenders --Ein the town of Dublin, they encountered Republican John McCain, and they chatted with Democrat Bill Bradley in Manchester. And in a high school cafeteria in Londonderry, they shook hands with Republican frontrunner George W. Bush. And these four Penn students left their mark on the campaign circuit. In Londonderry, during a question-and-answer session, Kilfoyle probed Bush, the Texas governor, on the government's recent action to arrange a private bailout of Long-Term Capital Management -- a Connecticut hedge fund whose spectacular failure made headlines in the fall of 1998. Afterwards, Bush took Kilfoyle aside to tell him that his question had been one of the best he had heard so far on the campaign trail. Perhaps the most rewarding aspect of the trip, according to Cam Winton, was the chance to see "democracy in action." "We got to talk to the regular old New Hampshire people -- they see themselves as gatekeepers for nominations," he said. For Hindi, the excitement of the trip was seeing his Political Science lessons come alive -- and watching presidential history in the making. "Everyone has read about the Lincoln-Douglas debates," he said. "And I saw Bradley give something akin to that -- a really intelligent and involved argument. It truly was a lab test for everything that I have been studying." By making this trip, Winton and his compatriots sought to defy the stereotype that young people are politically apathetic. "I don't think that kids feel like politics affect our lives at all," he explained. "And they see more people starting dot com's at 19 and becoming millionaires by 21, so why would they bother with politics?" The political activism of the students definitely left an impression in New Hampshire. A New York Times reporter took an interest in the group at McCain's engagement and questioned them on their trip for what later appeared as a news brief in the paper. As the presidential race gains momentum, on-campus groups such as the Penn College Republicans and the Penn College Democrats will be planning University events. The College Republicans have scheduled a trip to New Hampshire on the weekend of January 28 to participate in the primaries, said chairwoman Lisa Marshall, a College senior. She said their trip will be in support of Bush, although the organization has yet to come out with an official endorsement. The College Democrats will also be chartering buses to New Hampshire so that students may support either Bradley or Vice President Gore, the Democratic frontrunner, said Ben Schein, a College senior and member of the College Democrats. Both groups will also be working with the Presidential Speakers Series to bring the candidates to the University, but Penn will not be hosting any of the presidential debates in the fall.