I recently had the opportunity to visit Tallahassee, Florida, and learn about the political process firsthand. The trip lasted 8 days and took place primarily at Florida State University. The program, Girls State, was run by the American Legion Auxiliary and featured 300 girls, all rising high school seniors, from all over the state of Florida.
The selection process was pretty competitive. Normally, you would have to be chosen by your high school guidance counselor. Since I'm homeschooled, I just called my local American Legion post and scheduled an interview with the Auxiliary unit. Initially, I was worried that my experience as an intern and volunteer on the Obama campaign would be held against me. Instead, by some amazing stroke of luck, the two ladies who interviewed me both turned out to support Obama. Honestly, the ALA, which I had thought was very conservative, turned out to be mixed politically. I met conservative girls, liberal girls, and a lot of girls who never felt the need to mention their political affiliation to me at Girls State. In spite of our different viewpoints, we all came together to form our own "state" and learn about government.
I started meeting my fellow Girls Staters shortly after I arriveed in Tallahassee. We all stayed at FSU's Dorman Hall, with each group of 25 girls sharing half a floor and forming a "city". I was in the city of Ocoee, and all I can say is that the cities were where a lot of the just-for-fun parts of Girls State happened. Each city made up songs and cheers, designed its own city flag, and wrote a skit for a Spirit Showcase on one of the last nights. Ocoee also made a "compliment board" where we posted compliments about each other on sticky notes, and organized a very informal talent show. We definitely weren't the loudest or most "spirited" city, but I think we were one of the closest.
Our first morning was taken up primarily by a two-hour lecture on Florida's court system. Honestly, I hadn't expected the lecture to be all that interesting, but it turned out to be my favorite class at Girls State. The instructor, a lawyer and former Girls Stater, used the example of the 2000 election to demonstrate how cases move from the lower trial courts to the appellate courts, Florida Supreme Court, and finally the U.S. Supreme Court. Groing up in Palm Beach County, I had heard plenty of stories about 2000 but wasn't aware of all the details, and it was interesting to look at it from a legal perspective. We also had city elections--everyone got a position regardless of what they later ran for--and I ran unopposed for City Manager. My main job was to lead the Pledge of Allegiance and give a brief inspirational thought for the day at each City Meeting. I liked that, since I'm into quotes and I enjoyed sharing some of my favorites without seeming annoying.
The next day had more classes. The most interesting one was the course in state government, where we covered Florida's Constitution, a brief history of the state, and the duies of each of the three branches of government. We also had classes in Parliamentary Procedure and the Legislative Process, and a course that described the political party system at Girls State. All 300 girls were randomly assigned to either the Nationalist or the Federalist Party, but the parties had no real platforms or positions. Like the cities, they were pretty much just for fun, almost like sports teams. I was chosen as Assistant Party Whip of the Nationalist Party, and we made T-shirts and cheers and had a mascot--the platypus, named "Nattie Perry", played by a staff member. That night, all the candidates for state office gave speeches to their respective party. At Girls State, you could run for Governor, Attorney General, Chief Financial Officer, and Commissioner of Agriculture, and each candidate for Governor chose a running mate for Lieutenant Governor--similar to real life. We also held elections for Supreme Court Justices, unlike in the real world.
The day after that was one of the few somewhat laid-back days at Girls State. We spent most of the day working on our bills. Each girl was supposed to write a bill and bring it with them, but just about all of them needed to be edited. I quickly found out that my bill, banning texting while driving, was way more popular than I'd predicted, and I ended up meeting about five other girls with the same idea. I combined my bill with another girl's, but even then it didn't get very far.
That night, we learned the results of the primary elections for state office. We had a big "pep rally" (sort of equivalent to a party convention) where they annoucned the nominees and everyone cheered, screamed and got "fired up" for the next day's general elections, in spite of the fact that there was virtually no ideological space between the two parties. I had to wonder if, in their quest for total non-partisanship, the ALA was inadvertently sending a message that the two parties have no real meaning in electoral politics. In fact, that was the one area in which I found Girls State to be somewhat deficient in educating us about the political system. I love working with the Democratic Party and I was really looking forward to working within my party to help other candidates with their campaigning at Girls State. Alas, it was not to be.
The fifth day was a Tuesday, so that was Election Day. We started off with all the party nominees for state office giving a brief campaign speech. Next, we had a "town hall meeting", where all the candidates were asked questions about what they would do in office and their positions on certain issues. This was particularly interesting, because it was one of the few times at Girls State where the candidates' actual political views shone through. I have to say, the girl we ended up electing Governor turned out to be incredible. I didn't support her at first, but she gave a really great speech. In a way, she seemed to reflect some of teh themes of Obama's campaigns; she talked a lot about "change" and "moving forward", so I really couldn't help but vote for her. In addition, she gave answers that showed she was intelligent and concerned about the environment, jobs, and education. She turned out to be a great Governor, and I wish we had more people like her in our real state government.
Later that morning, a panel came to speak to us from a Tallahassee think tank. This turned out to be my one beef with the program, because although the think tank was nominally non-partisan, it seemed to be clearly aligned with the right, at least to me. One of the speakers was a state representative, Marti Coley, who mainly expounded the benefits of merit pay for teachers while basically ignoring all the issues. I was going to call her out on this, but amazingly, a girl from my city who was actually one of the most conservative girls I met at Girls State beat me to it, completely tearing Coley's argument apart. The other two officials who spoke to us were a county judge and a top official from the Florida Highway Patrol, who didn't seem as extreme. I introduced myself to both of them, and they were very nice and interesting.
In the afternoon, we elected state senators and representatives. I ran for senator and was one of the eight elected by my "county" out of the thirteen candidates. Each county also elected two county attorneys and three lobbyists. Again, Girls State sacrificed accuracy for idealism with the way it approached the role of lobbying in politics. Not only were the lobbyists elected, but they didn't actually lobby for anything--instead, they were sort of like helpful research assistants for the senators and representatives.
In Part 2, I'll get to the really fun part--our three days at the Florida Capitol, including all the bills we debated and passed.