In general, most if not all students at Saratoga High are perceived to share the beliefs of the Democratic party. However, if one digs a little deeper, republicans can be found among the sea of democrats at SHS.
Senior Republican Michael Chen, a Republican, said that he is more conservative than most students here and he thinks that in terms of global warming that restrictions on what you drive or what cars pollute would be bad for the economy.
While not only being a Republican, senior Anika Jhalani has taken a step further and gotten involved in a Republican campaign.
In her sophomore year, Jhalani said that she had just become interested with politics and the effort it takes for a candidate to gain a position in political office. She then became interested and wanted to work for the Meg Whitman California gubernatorial campaign of 2010. She worked on the campaign in the summer and fall of 2010. “I pestered the Whitman campaign staff until they let join the political team,” Jhalani said.
As a part of the campaign, Jhalani’s main role was to make a database on the best events Whitman could campaign in all over California.
Explaining her role in more depth, Jhalani said that for example, if there was a large public vineyard opening in Sonoma, she needed to make sure she reported that to the campaign so that they knew to deliver that information to Whitman and see if it was a good idea for her to campaign in that area. “But I’ll be honest,” Jhalani said. “I did deliver a fair share of coffee to my superiors (including Whitman) while working on the campaign. Hey, someone’s got to do it!”
Through her experience at this campaign, Jhalani has gained and learned a lot. “Campaigns are such a team effort,” Jhalani said. “It was amazing for me to see so many people committed to one cause. And the company was far from boring; I don’t think I had ever laughed so hard about, well certain political idols from both parties, in my life.”
Jhalani said that her beliefs on politics weren’t strengthened from working on the campaign as her and the other members didn’t talk as much about policy as they did about action.
Jhalani says that her strongest Republican belief is that she is economically conservative. “I suppose that is what classified me as a Republican,” Jhalani said. “On social issues, to be honest I can waver, but fiscally I do believe that Republican policy is the best.”