CONCORD, N.H. The campaign frenzy was nowhere to be seen one recent morning in the lobby of Havenwood, a retirement community where independence and involvement are the watchwords of advancing age. But presidential politics was on the agenda, in between a book discussion and a meeting for the visually impaired. US Senator Barbara Mikulski of Maryland was coming to talk about her old friend, Vice President Al Gore.
It's not unusual in the final weeks of a presidential primary campaign for a prominent visitor to carry a message for a candidate who simply can't be in all places at once. So, free from the lurching mass of cameras and microphones that clog the campaign trail, about a dozen senior citizens settled into couches around Mikulski, 63, whose mix of warmth and feistiness helped to draw them in.
Once they started lobbing questions at her, it was easy to see why all the candidates court support from the over-65 crowd. For one thing, older voters have the time to learn about the issues - health care, Social Security, Medicare, long-term care, insurance coverage for prescription drugs. They are around during the day, and they are eager to listen to visitors. Gore himself visited Havenwood's sister campus down the road yesterday.
Most important, senior citizens vote, in greater numbers than any other age group.
''They think it's their duty,'' said Lester Billings, 90, a member of the retirement community's public affairs committee. According to the Federal Election Commission, nearly 70 percent of citizens over 65 voted in the 1996 general election, double the rate for voters 18 to 24 years old. In New Hampshire, 60 percent of voters over 65 cast a ballot in 1996, according to the FEC.
A respect for voting comes with maturity, said Roland Stoodley, 68, the New Hampshire president of the American Association of Retired Persons. Older voters who lived through World War II, he said, ''know what freedom means.'''
At Havenwood, Mikulski launched into the campaign's familiar health care issues, but the seniors had more on their minds. Gore supporter Thoreau Raymond, 85, who was carrying a tote bag promoting the Hemlock Society (''Live Well. Die Well,'' it said), wanted to know how the president and the Congress could ''pull together.''
Mary Jane Gregg, 80, a longtime member of the League of Women Voters, asked about the defeat of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. Gregg says she's leaning toward Bill Bradley because ''the only thing I am interested in is the long vision.''
Tom Page, 91, a former prep school teacher, pressed Mikulski about what Gore would do about education. Page, who said he backs Texas Governor George W. Bush, asked Mikulski - like Gore, a supporter of organized labor - what could be done about teachers' unions. ''This is the United States of America,'' she told him at one point.
''She knows what she wants to talk about,'' Page said later. ''She dodged those questions very nimbly.''
Finally, Robert Wood, 76, a retired minister who has lived at Havenwood for 14 years, spoke up.
''I'm a decorated combat veteran and a gay man,'' Wood said to Mikulski.
Wood, who was in the Army infantry during World War II, wanted to hear more about gays serving openly in the military. ''`Don't ask, don't tell' doesn't work, Wood said later. ''The only question is, `Can they shoot straight?'''
Afterward, Thoreau Raymond said she thought this had been an unusually open discussion for a group at Havenwood. But talk, any talk, is ''good medicine'' for the men and women here, all in different stages of their final years.
That's why Tom Page comes to the dining hall every day for lunch to find out what's going on. That's why, after Mikulski said goodbye, Mary Jane Gregg was off to another event - to hear from one of the world trade protesters in Seattle. ''As long as I can, I want to keep my horizons stretching,'' she said.
Of course, not everyone got in on the discussion. Bertha and Hazel Yeaton, 84, identical twins, wearing identical outfits and girlish smiles, politely kept their opinions to themselves as they waited for the dining room doors to swing open for lunch.
''Mother brought us up not to get into politics,'' said Hazel, who has lived at Havenwood with her sister since 1978. ''I think its supposed to be your own personal feeling.''
But, she said, and Bertha agreed, ''we hope the right one wins.''
Laura A. Kiernan is a writer who covers politics.
