My party affiliation and my voting history? I have always been? let me put it this way — I was a Democrat for a while, because everyone in Chicago was a Democrat. Then I moved out to California and I decided after seeing what went on in the Democratic party that being an Independent was a lot better, so right now, I'm an Independent.

Well, first of all, I got involved with the campaign because I was involved with the No War on Iraq campaign. I was out there marching, I was carrying signs and I have to tell you — I am a child of the 60s and I was going to college during the Vietnam war and I marched for that and I marched for civil rights, and I thought, gee, I have arrived. I'll never have to march again and then we got Bush. Bush — I'm going to save the world, I'm going to save my daddy — and all of a sudden, we're in a war with Iraq and I decided that it was wrong.  There was no reason for us to be at war with Iraq, so I became more active.

The one thing that really kind of sucked me in as far as finding out what [Dean] was about was the fact that when all the other Democrats were laying around like, oh, I'm so afraid of Bush I can't do anything at all, Howard Dean came out and said he was against going to war with Iraq and so that piqued my interest. After that I started learning more and more — I have a friend who gives me information, and she says, check this guy — look how he stands on health care, look what he stands for as far as fiscal responsibility. Just look where he stands. I said ok, I'll check and so I read and I read and I researched and I listened and I said, you know what? I like this guy. He's got cajones?can you say that? [big laugh]

One of the first things I'd like to say is that I've never been involved in a presidential campaign before. The only time I ever knew who the candidates were going to be is when they were having the convention — never had any idea how they got there, not too much interest, though I would vote in the Presidential campaign.  Especially with all that has gone on with Bush, in Florida, and then with this war in Iraq, I decided that I needed to be more involved.  I have to tell you, another thing really inspired me to be involved — on Martin Luther King's birthday I got an email.  The email was a copy of his speech that he gave when he came out against the war in Vietnam.  I read that speech and I can't just be here doing nothing — I have to get out there. I may never be famous, and that's fine, but people are going to know I stood for something. So, I got involved.

At this point in time I believe the country is in grave danger with Bush and his minions in control.  I believe they have no respect at all for Americans. They have no respect at all for the Constitution.  They have no respect at all for anyone else in the world and all they are interested in is getting whatever it is they want and, if you get yours, fine, and if you don't, oh well — it's not our problem.  I believe that this country needs a change and so for that reason, I'm switching from being a straight-out Independent to the Democratic Party — just so I can vote for Dean in the primaries and have my vote count in the primaries for Dean.  Most of my friends think I'm extremely cynical, but now they're like, oh my god — look at her, she's out there, she's passionate about something and not believing that everybody's the same, that a person can't make a difference. I'm switching to Dean.

My friends call me Max.  I'm a claims adjuster and I'm taking back my country.