Chris Heinz on the road
Kerry step-son campaigns alongside actors, musicians
By Jaime Lowe
Sports Illustrated on Campus
Two weeks ago Chris Heinz's bus idled in a hidden corner of the Stardust parking lot in Las Vegas, Nevada. Some campaign organizers were tossing a football around the parking lot; a couple of others decorated the bus with magnetic Kerry-Edwards signage.
The leader of the group, Kerry's New York office fundraiser Jamie Whitehead, gathered Tom Delounge of Blink 182, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic, two-thirds of Nirvana, and Melissa Fitzgerald from the West Wing for a quick huddle.
"Now, I know you guys aren't used to being in front of crowds of 700..." Whitehead said before talking over which issues each person would address.
The bus would soon back into a pre-determined parking spot behind a stage facing 700 screaming students while U2's "It's a Beautiful Day" blasted on 12 five-foot-tall speakers.
Maybe the crowd was amped to see punked-out stars or the semi-historic Nirvana reunion or maybe they were there to see Chris Heinz speak on behalf of his stepfather Sen. John Kerry. It didn't matter.
The front row pushed up against the stage frantically waving banners and proudly donning as many political buttons as their lapels could handle and properly chanted after each dramatic pause. The crowd was in it. And they followed the bus in vans specially designated for early voting facilities.
Quite a kickoff rally for Heinz's swing state campus tour. It has picked up and dropped off celebrities and athletes and politicians and campaign workers and dogs and DVDs, all the essentials to fuel one last round of youth mobilization. This election will in all probability draw more 18 to 24 year olds to the polls than ever before. The National Center for Education Statistics estimates there are 10.2 million college students, and according to the Harvard Institute, half of them are expected to vote. But expectations for this election are shaky at best.
Tuition has increased by 10.5 percent at public universities over the last year -- according to The College Board -- and with the latest polls showing a dead heat, the student vote could be the November surprise. Most polling does not account for voters who use cell phones as their primary line. The youth demographic, 15% of whom only have cell phones, classically flies under the radar of pollsters.
Vegas was Day One of 15 on a cross-country trip that culminated last Saturday at the Ohio State-Penn State game with a swing state tailgate rally.
Back on the road from Vegas to Fort Collins, Colorado, truckers happily flipped the bird at the bus because of the Kerry signs. It's all pretty similar to a heated argument between hopped-up football fans of rival teams after a few too many Red Bulls.
Inside the bus a handful of campaign workers are sleeping soundly surrounded by no less than 11 flat-screen TVs, an Xbox, and the football that was used for Extra -- an entertainment TV show -- footage to show the campaign staffers at leisure.
The bus and trip is incomplete without a mascot. Cue Scott Wolf ("Party of Five," "Everwood") who flew into Fort Collins with his teacup Maltese Scooter. The four-month-old pup looked like a handful of cotton balls and also happened to be the perfect photo-op prop. Later in the day, in Greeley, Colorado, students crowded around Scooter to take a picture of his furry white self.
Back on the bus Scooter quickly warmed to the role of mascot checking out the bunks and leaping from leather lounge area to any vacant lap. Greeley smelled like violently processed meat and Scooter sniffed the air with trepidation not at all unhappy when as the bus pulled out.
On the drive from Greeley to Boulder, Colorado, Heinz announced his sock was ringing and plucked a phone from his ankle area. Barak Obama had called to check in and after some banter Heinz returned the phone to his sock, sighed and said "That man is my idol."
Heinz has been dubbed a Democratic "it" boy with reason -- he's a magnet for students (male and female) who look at him like he's the next John-John. He doesn't seem to have a D.C. filter and his jokes are actually funny and self-deprecating.
At the rally in Boulder last week, which drew both Democratic and Republican students, he stood onstage and mock-screamed like a little girl when Wolf was introduced. Then he took the mike and said "I may be 31 but I'll be damned if I don't dress like a college student."
He went on to describe his relationship with Kerry and to explain that being president is a lot like being a step-parent -- that as a leader you have to earn trust rather than assume it. He then revealed "that my stepdad actually plays foosball -- pretty well for a 61 year-old."
As the bus zig-zagged through the thick of the country, it picked up and dropped off a smattering of cheerleaders -- the musicians, the Ashton Kutchers and Jake Gyllenhaals, the handful of Detroit Lions and Minnesota Timberwolves who support Kerry, until the bus reaches Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on November 2, where Heinz will cast his vote.
After the watching the Red Sox come back from 0-3 to beat the Yankees in the ALCS, Heinz said "Politics are like sports, except politics actually impact people's lives."
