Their friend Jesse was known for trying anything ? yoga, ballroom dancing, rock climbing ? and he wanted to run for a seat on the Democratic State Central Committee.
But just days after filing for candidacy, 17-year-old Jesse Elkins was killed in a May 12 car crash while driving his buddies home from an Orioles game. The loss of a boyfriend, next-door neighbor, friend and cohort has inspired nine recent high-school students to also run for the committee and continue Jesse?s hope for invigorating the archaic committee.
“It?s all, like, older people, so if just one of us wins, we can really do something,” said friend Nicki Cohen. “We can really make a difference.”
Gathering atJesse?s Reisterstown home Thursday, the group reminisced about their friend who would wear a fake mustache in a coffee house, squeeze himself into children?s? clothes and engineer snow sculptures of genitalia. But that same Jesse could talk for hours on civil rights, dreamed of becoming a lawyer and attended Baltimore City Board of Estimates meetings with his grandfather, Leonard Kerpelman, where he developed a rapport with Mayor Martin O?Malley.
It was Kerpelman who asked Jesse?s friends if they?d like to run for the committee in his memory.
“I think a lot of politicians wouldn?t last 10 minutes with these guys,” Kepelman said. “They are old fogies and take orders from some central nonbrains. We could change that from the bottom up.”
Jesse?s mother, Toni Elkins-Fowler, said he had a liberal heart, inspired by Paul McCartney and U2?s Bono. A few of the teens, most of whom will graduate from Franklin High School in Reisterstown on Wednesday, have some interest in politics, but some said they?re not sure what they?re in for, or even when the committee meets.
The group is eclectic ? they include a Marines candidate and dreadlocked skateboarder. Eight will vie for one of five seats in the Democratic committee; one is running for the Republican committee.
“Their first reaction was, yeah, they would do it because Jesse?s grandfather asked them to,” Elkins-Fowler said. “But then they realized they might really be able to do something.”
Committee members, who are responsible for choosing replacements to fill mid-term vacancies, are elected from their county or legislative district and serve four-year terms. The teens insist they are serious: They?ve waited up to six hours to file the proper paperwork and are brainstorming ways to campaign.
Their zest, Elkins-Fowler said, is inspiring even in this time of grief.
“This is a generation I had given up hope on,” she said. “I have much more hope in the future than I did.”
THE CANDIDATES
Lindsey Yhrig
Nick Cohen
Matt Beird
Michael Warner
Seth Levin
Mike Crocker
Ben Brannok
Lauren Vaszil
Jonathan Jaffe
