By Karen Vance
Enquirer contributor

GOSHEN TOWNSHIP - Accepting PAC money, mudslinging commercials, polls, character assassinations and pleas for votes.

No, it's not the U.S. presidential race. It's Jennifer Rammel's U.S. and World Issues II classes at Goshen High School, where students learn about politics through a mock campaign debate, convention and election.

"I think it makes you respect the political process more because you know there's a lot that goes into it," said Joe Lehnert, 18, the vice presidential candidate for the fictional American Party. "Now we know how Bush and Gore felt in 2000."

This is Rammel's second year tackling the unit. It puts members of her senior-level classes through primaries, the formation of Political Action Committees, campaign donations, creating commercials. They capped it off this week with a mock debate, convention and election, complete with banners, balloons, flags, music and guest speeches by Principal John Strathern and Assistant Principal David Elberfeld.

"The majority of them will vote for the first time in March. I think it's really important they learn this because they'll use it for the rest of their lives," Rammel said. "This is better than sitting in a classroom and listening to a lecture about the Electoral College."

That understanding of the process had one student, Amber Rettig, 17, predicting American Party Presidential Candidate Tom Curee, 17, might capture the popular vote but not the electoral - he was ahead in the polls, 55 percent to 44 percent, before the debate.

Curee, dressed in a red plaid jacket he bought at Goodwill and a U.S. flag tie he borrowed from a teacher, actually represented the smaller party, but had an aggressive slogan and ad campaign mocking his opponent's nickname "Big Mac."

Eagle Party presidential candidate Ryan McHenry discovered the power of mudslinging.

"Before this I really had no idea how a campaign really works and how an election really works," he said. "In my commercial I was just trying to help people, and they're putting stuff against me. They're dirty birds."

After a vote of each class - acting as members of the electoral college - Curee won with 53 popular votes to McHenry's 46 and 17 electoral votes to McHenry's 13.

E-mail kvance@fuse.net