STUDENTS

Student as Candidate
Students Take Plunge into Political Pool

THE KENNEDY SCHOOL'S MISSION is to prepare leaders for service to democratic societies. Some students, it seems, just can’t wait to get started.

Among them, Tim Sultan MPA 2004, Anthony Martinez MPA 2004, and Brendan Boyle MPP 2004 have embarked on their own political campaigns even before gaining their degrees. They are taking what they’ve learned from the Kennedy School on the campaign trail — and sometimes taking their schoolwork with them too. Though they agree it would have been easier to wait, the same zeal for public service that brought them to the school compelled them to run for office now.

“The number one thing I got out of the Kennedy School was just getting the courage to do it and feeling empowered to take the risk and make it happen,” said Sultan, who is running for Congress in his home state of Arizona, and graduated in June.

Sultan entered the race in the spring, when he discovered that no Democrat had yet filed papers to run against the Republican incumbent (several Democrats have since joined him to compete in the primary). He flew out to meet the state party chair and enlisted financial support that gave him confidence he could succeed in the race. “For me, it’s about changing the course of what’s happening in our country, and the only way to do that is to win,” says Sultan. “You can’t make any changes just by talking about things.”

Though he had never run for public office before, he has political experience, having served as an intern for former U.S. Senator Dennis DeConcini in Arizona and as an aide for current House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California, who both inspired him through their work serving constituents. His successful run for Kennedy School student government president also helped prepare him for the congressional race. “It was one of the most sophisticated campaigns I’ll ever have,” he says.

Martinez had run for public office before, but as a “sacrificial lamb,” he says, in a Colorado secretary of state race in which he knew he would lose the contest but gain exposure. When a Republican congressman from the state announced his retirement last year, Martinez heard from many people urging him to run for the vacant seat as a Democrat. He agreed, even though that meant juggling a nearly impossible schedule, he says, of organizing and fundraising for the campaign, researching and writing papers to complete his degree, and serving as a major in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. Yet the school did provide him with resources he couldn’t tap in his last campaign, Martinez says.

“I would leave KSG for a trip to Colorado more energized and ready to deal with the issues,” he says. “In fact, I selected my courses this term based on the needs of the Colorado voters, and we sent out press releases that were based on actual course work accomplished at KSG.”

He’s encountered some bumps on the campaign trail: the “ugliness of the insiders and the media,” he says, and a state assembly that didn’t put his name on the primary ballot. Despite the challenges, he says politics is a calling, one that should be heeded by more young people.“ We need our new talent to step up, take on both the winnable and unwinnable contests, and advance the party platform to the new generation of American voter,” Martinez says. “ In the end, it’s all about the people, and the biggest imbalance in American politics occurs when politicians and the people don’t connect.”

Boyle decided that to fulfill his calling to public service, he needed to take a leave of absence from the Kennedy School. He’s prepared to return next year to complete his studies, win or lose in a state representative race in the Philadelphia area. His Kennedy School experience has made him more idealistic about fulfilling a lifelong dream to be involved in politics, he says.

“Some of the people I’ve gotten to meet, even classmates of mine in the MPP Program, the amazing things that they’ve done with their lives inspired me to try to reach for the top and dream big things and go into government and try to enact them,” says Boyle.

To do that, he hopes to defeat a 20-year Republican incumbent in a race in which he is the unopposed Democratic challenger. His campaign in part relies on old-fashioned shoe leather: After a typical morning spent on the phone with press and supporters, he often rings doorbells from noon to 7 p.m. Many people he encounters are pleased and surprised that a candidate is visiting them, he says. Others are simply apathetic.

“There is definitely among some people a low regard for politics and public service, which I’m trying my best to change,” Boyle says.

In that fight against apathy, he is not alone. — LR