UNION-TRIBUNE
August 21, 2008
 On Nov. 4, Evan Delaney Rodgers, who turns 19 on Sunday, will cast an official ballot for the first time in her life.
In fulfilling this civic duty, the Carlsbad college student will be able to do something that's practically unheard of for a first-time voter:
Vote for herself.
Far and away the youngest – by at least three decades – of the six candidates for Carlsbad City Council, Rodgers is destined to steal scenes from what promises to be a hotly contested campaign with lots of money flying around.
In this weathered field, Rodgers will be the fresh-faced ingénue running a “lean and green” Internet-based campaign that rejects campaign contributions and wasteful roadside signs.
Trust me, the cameras – and, I suspect, the rest of the candidates – are going to love this intelligent young woman who's had to teach herself, step by awkward step, to say the right things and smile at the right times.
In fifth grade, Rodgers left her Carlsbad school to escape cruel playground teasing.
Now at an age when many students have barely graduated from high school, she's already earned two community college degrees.
As dark horses go, she's the youngest and brightest colt I've ever seen run.
We met where she wanted to meet – at the Carlsbad Skate Park on Orion Way.
Good choice. After all, she's the Kid Candidate of Carlsbad. (A picture of a soaring skateboarder is featured on the home page of her Web site, CleanCarlsbad.com.)
As a dozen skinny skaters practiced their moves in the smooth concrete bowls, Rodgers recalled her earliest memories of swimming in a Texas pool.
“I wasn't scared,” she said. “I loved the water.”
On land, however, her coordination was a problem, as was her sense of spatial relations. (She'll never be able to drive a car.)
In the water, however, she was in her element. She was free to glide without fear of losing her balance.
When she was 3 or 4, Rodgers' mother told her to get her shoes. Rodgers went to her room and started collecting all the shoes in her closet.
There it was. The literal response. An early warning signal.
It would take a couple of years before Rodgers was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism that leads to social isolation, physical clumsiness and sometimes intellectual brilliance in defined areas of interest.
From the age of 5, competitive swimming has been Rodgers' lifeline. “I get cranky if I don't swim,” she said.
When she was 7, the family moved to North County and this little girl who'd taught herself to read at age 3 started elementary school. Kids sensed right away that she was different. She stuck it out until fifth grade when she left to be home-schooled by her parents.
She continued to swim – in clubs and last year on the Palomar team. At 15, she started taking the bus to MiraCosta, and then Palomar.
This fall, she'll be starting her junior year at Cal State San Marcos, majoring in Criminology and Justice Studies, a pre-law program.
Rodgers' IQ has been tested – and the number has to be high – but her parents haven't told her what it is. She has no desire to know.
“If you meet a person with autism,” she likes to say, “you've met one person with autism. I'm not like Rain Man, not like Einstein. I'm not like Thomas Jefferson.” (It's been speculated that Einstein and Jefferson, socially remote geniuses, had Asperger's.)
In her campaign release, Rodgers speaks with clear-eyed candor about Asperger's:
“I wouldn't be where I am today if I were neurotypical because I would have been interested in social things. Having a little autism helped me achieve my goals and not miss what most people thought I was missing out on. I'm not really 'driven' in the sense of being a wound-up over-achiever – marching to my own drum just happens to cover a lot of ground.”
You can feel it chatting with her at a picnic table on an overcast morning. The intellectual effort it takes to be socially natural. “People with Asperger's are good at adapting,” she said.
I've interviewed many politicians but none who was so calm even as she described how her heart beat like crazy when, two years ago during a volunteer award ceremony, she read a speech to a hundred people.
Don't get the wrong idea. She's fun – she loved showing off her immaculate Converses with artistic patches stitched on – but she's always thinking hard, even when she's playing.
She's brimming with good proposals – build the long-delayed Alga Norte Park and Aquatics Center (that's the big idea); turn empty storefronts into “phantom galleries” where science projects and artwork can fill the windows; install free Wi-Fi downtown – but, in the end, her best political idea is . . . herself.
In her Carlsbad, skate parks are understood as part of the community's DNA. In her Carlsbad, no child is turned away from swimming lessons. In her Carlsbad, a young woman who's profoundly different (and knows it) can will herself into the mainstream of civic life.
To be honest, if I lived in Carlsbad, I might not vote for her. If elected, she'd be at sea in the winking-and-nodding Machiavellian back rooms of real-world politics. For now, she belongs in the pool and in the classroom, marching toward the Bar.
But as I'd be going down the ballot, I'd linger long over her musical name – Evan Delaney Rodgers – and smile.
And I'd be tempted.
 Logan Jenkins: (760) 737-7555; logan.jenkins@uniontrib.com.
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SO WHATS THE DEAL LOGAN.....YOU MIGHT NOT VOTE FOR MS RODGERS?........SO WHO CARES WHAT YOU THINK......YOUR COLUMN IS CRANK/....PURE CRANK.....
DID YOU REALLY THINK MOVING TO ALPINE WOULD CLEAR YOUR MUDDLED HEAD........SHE BELONGS IN THE POOL AND NOT THE REAL WORLD OF POLITICS.....
WHEN KUSI BUYS THIS PAPER , I HOPE YOU DISAPPEAR UNDER SOME ROCK...................
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