You Go, Dean! Babies of Boomers Find a Candidate

They call themselves Generation Dean, legions of hip young people who have helped catapult Dr. Dean, the former governor of Vermont, into the top tier of the crowded Democratic presidential field, despite their age group's notorious apathy toward and alienation from electoral politics.

Behind Dr. Dean's record fund-raising totals, mobbed rallies and innovative grass-roots organization are, in many cases, twentysomethings and thirtysomethings for whom this campaign thing is the latest fad.

They pack nightclubs for fund-raisers and treat the candidate as a celebrity. They stage clandestine outings to concerts, removing fashionable garments to reveal campaign T-shirts underneath. This month alone, they plan to go bowling in Oklahoma City; play Drag Bingo in Durham, N.C.; tailgate at Arizona State University football games.

Many of the new political converts said they were attracted by Dr. Dean's antiwar message, or his promise of free health care for everyone under 25. Mr. Simpkins, the "Big Brother" producer, said it was Dr. Dean's signing of a bill recognizing civil unions for gay couples in Vermont that got his vote, and the spirit of the campaign that got him involved.

"Maybe it's the ignorance of youth or whatever, but it feels like we can actually make a difference," Mr. Simpkins said. "I know it's cliché. I know it's the campaign motto. But I think it's true."

While candidates frequently spark support on college campuses, and many students certainly are among the 12,000 members registered on the generationdean.com Web site, what is unusual here is the fervent activity by the young professionals of Generation X (those born from the mid-60's through the 70's) and Generation Y (born in 1980 or after). These age groups have long been considered the least interested and least involved in politics of any similar bloc in the last century. In the last presidential election, a record-low 30 percent of voters under 30 turned out.

Dr. Dean is not alone in trying to court the next generation.

Senator John Edwards of North Carolina, whose daughter Catharine, a college senior, sometimes accompanies him on the trail, has appeared on Comedy Central and on "Real Time With Bill Maher."

The Rev. Al Sharpton was introduced recently at a church in Washington as "one who has a very profound, critical, true, genuine, real and contemporary word for the hip-hop generation."

But it is the Dean campaign that earned the headline "Political Partying" in New York magazine, with scenes from campaign events turned singles mixers.

More than 1,000 "Deaniacs," most dressed in black, packed the newly opened Chelsea club Avalon a few weeks back for a bill that included Al Franken, Phoebe Snow, Whoopi Goldberg and Janeane Garofalo; when the headliner, Dr. Dean, was drowned out by cheers, he halted his speech and held out the microphone to the crowd like a rock star.

Jenifer Ragland, 27, traces her support for Dr. Dean to when she posted a question about the candidate on an anti-Bush Web site and got a prompt answer from the manager of the Dean campaign, Joe Trippi.

Then she learned that the Burlington, Vt., headquarters was filled with young people like herself: the political director, the field director, the scheduler and the Web master are all under 30.

"It's just, like, so inspiring," said Ms. Ragland, who recently quit her job as a newspaper reporter to volunteer. "These people get it. The campaign is transparent — or it at least appears that way. You feel like you're involved. You feel like you matter."