Maggie Daniels enjoys regular person status

She sat, waiting for her English lecture to begin when a classmate turned around and pointed a finger at her "My Man Mitch" T-shirt. \n"I heard his daughter goes to school here," he said.\n"Yea, I heard that," she said, laughing to herself.\nA few days later, she tapped him on the shoulder and said she was that daughter.\nMaggie Daniels is like most freshmen at IU -- except her father, Mitch Daniels, is Indiana's Republican gubernatorial candidate in a race that will come to a close in a matter of days. She supports her father on campus by wearing shirts bearing his campaign slogan, participates in rallies, and even rode in the back of a red 1967 Mustang with a banner saying "Vote for my dad Mitch" in the IU Homecoming parade Friday. \nBut Maggie Daniels doesn't feel she's any different from her peers.\n"I'm just like a normal college student," she said. "I'm not the one everybody cares about. I'm just related to him. I don't broadcast it." \nShe rolls out of bed most mornings at 8 a.m. and shakes awake her roommate, who often sleeps through the alarm. She leaves Teter Quad and heads to the Kelley School of Business, where she takes classes required for her major. She devotes some evenings to being involved with both IU College Republicans and Campus Crusade for Christ. Recently, Maggie Daniels went through sorority rush because she said she thought it would be a good way to meet people at such a large university.\nLike other daughters of politicians, Daniels is mindful that her behavior could be used in a public forum against her father, but she doesn't feel her social life is inhibited. Her longtime friend and roommate, freshman Kait Behan, said they discussed this issue before coming to IU.\n"She doesn't worry about her image affecting him at all because her father doesn't expect for his family to change their lives for him," Behan said. "Her father never asks them to support whatever he does. Whenever you see them out in public, it's always because it's their choice to be there supporting him."\nThe toughest thing for Maggie Daniels, though, is hearing personal criticisms of her father either in the media or when she catches bits of people's conversations on her way to class.\n"Honestly, I have no problem with anyone who disagrees with his policies because that's the nature of politics," Maggie Daniels said, "but the really hard part is when they attack his character in ways I know are inaccurate."\nShe referred to the recent issue of Indiana Power and Light Company. Her father and other IPALCO board members voted to sell the Indiana company to Virginia-based AES, which resulted in the loss of money for many retired employees. Gov. Joe Kernan has used this issue in his campaign, running TV and newspaper ads questioning his opponent's character for his role in the sale. Maggie Daniels said this has been the worst case of "below-the-belt slander" against her father because the ads have gone beyond being attacks against his policies. \nMaggie said she's learned to tune-out these criticisms.\n"I've never been in this kind of situation before; I'm just a teenage girl," she said. "I don't have the thick skin that's required for politics. With the personal attacks that have been made, the best thing for me to do is to turn off the TV or put down the newspaper. I think sometimes people forget that we're real people just like everybody else."\nSophomore Justin Rumer, Maggie Daniels' boyfriend of two years, said he admires the way she has dealt with things.\n"I think she is handling everything surprisingly well. I think it would be really hard, especially the way the campaign's been going. It's been really dirty," Rumer said. "I've watched TV with her or been with her when she's read something negative, and she feels it's personal -- it's her father. I can't even imagine what I would do if I heard people say bad stuff about my dad."\nSometimes things get hard for Maggie Daniels, but she has her four older sisters and her parents just a phone call away.\n"When everything feels like it's crumbling, I call my mom or my dad," she said.\nWhile she has enjoyed being involved in the race, Maggie said she'll be glad when everything has cooled down. This experience has opened her eyes to the possibility to pursue politics, not as a career, she said, but more as a way to give back to society what's been handed to her. After she graduates, she plans to be in the Army Reserves.\n"I feel called to do that. It's my duty as a citizen," she said. "I've been brought up to believe that our citizenship in the U.S. is a precious gift that others have laid their lives down to defend. I want to risk my life to defend it as well."\nBut for now, Maggie Daniels is focused on school and, of course, the race.\nOn Election Day, she'll leave IU straight from class and drive to Indianapolis where she'll vote, quickly get her hair done and head to a family friend's house to wait for the precincts to be shut-down and the results to be counted. She will then go with her family to the Hinkle Fieldhouse, she said, hopefully to celebrate. Around 2 a.m., she'll drive back to IU and get up for her early morning Wednesday class.\nDaniels said she has faith in her father.\n"I'm confident, but I know whatever is meant to happen will happen," she said. "I'm very comfortable with that."\n-- Contact staff writer Lindsay Lyon at lrlyon@indiana.edu.