Sorensen review.

Last weekend, I attended the first of 11 monthly sessions of UVa’s Sorensen Institute for Political Leadership, to which I was accepted earlier this year.

There are 34 students, half Democrats and half Republicans, with some independents and even a Libertarian sprinkled throughout. I’d say the average age is probably 40 or 45. Two students are 25, a year younger than me, while several appear to be in their 60s. The racial makeup pretty much reflects Virginia’s. Population-wise, the state is pretty well represented, too — there’s a cluster from northern Virginia, a somewhat larger group from Hampton Roads, another from Richmond, a few of us from Charlottesville, and the rest are from throughout the state. There’s just two other students with whom I was previously acquainted.

On Friday afternoon, we met in a hotel near UVa. We spent the first portion of the afternoon getting acquainted. As I learned a bit more about different students there, it became clear that this is an interesting group of people, each in their own way. We went down to the Rotunda for a portrait session, and then got a tour of Larry Sabato’s pavilion on the Lawn. Finally, we headed over to another pavilion, where we had dinner, followed by a talk and a Q&A session with Lt. Gov. John Hager. His comments were interesting. He talked quite a bit about No Child Left Behind, national security, and his own political background. I was no fan of Hager during his tenure as Lt. Gov. four years ago. That said, his answers to questions were, for the most part, honest and apolitical, and I enjoyed his talk.

We headed back to the hotel for a break, and then headed to a bar on the UVa Corner. Since I leave nearby, I wasn’t staying at the hotel for the night, so I departed early.

On Saturday morning, we headed over to the Rotunda at 8:15am (aka “oh-dark-fifteen”), where we received a three-hour lecture on political ethics. (It was during this time that a fire broke out in the Rotunda, when a chandelier burst into a blaze. It was extinguished with a nearby extinguisher, though the fire company followed up anyhow, just to avoid burning the Rotunda down again.) We broke into small groups to consider some ethical questions, and then left for lunch. The bunch of us headed back to the hotel for boxed lunches. Afterwards, Dr. Julia Martin, the Weldon Cooper Center’s demographer, gave a fascinating presentation on the demography of Virginia, looking at both historic trends and the alarming changes of the past five years.

And that was the weekend. It was, frankly, exhausting. By the time I got home, around 4pm Saturday afternoon, I was ready for a nap. I’m still lagging a bit because of it. The lectures were interesting, but the interaction with the other students was also valuable. Though we’d known each other for just 27 hours, I know that many of us now feel like we know each other rather well. It helps that many of us don’t often interact with open-minded, engaged, politically- and civic-minded people — so I think many of us feel like we’ve found 33 members of our tribe. It also helps that, because of this rapid immersion, we’ve got the kid gloves on, not wanting to say anything partisan that might irritate the individuals to whom we’re speaking, since we don’t yet know everybody’s political affiliation. So we (to mix metaphors) walk softly, try not to offend and, in the process, are forced to consider the perspectives of others and factor them into our statements.

This is a hurried write-up, for which I apologize, but enough people have asked why I haven’t written anything that I feel I should get something out the door. I’ve purposely been a bit brisk about some things, and excluded any private exchanges, because one of the important portions of Sorensen is the ability to speak candidly without fear that the information will be made public.

Next month, we meet in Richmond. I’m looking forward to it.