David Bender's five-decade career as a political activist began at the age of twelve when he took a "leave of absence" from the seventh grade to become a full-time volunteer in the presidential campaign of Senator
Robert F. Kennedy. Four years later, as a high school reporter, Mr. Bender covered the presidential campaigns of
Richard Nixon,
George McGovern and
Hubert Humphrey. He was literally a "boy on the bus," traveling in the company of such journalistic legends as
Walter Cronkite and
Eric Sevareid. Later, he became a key aide to the legendary liberal activist
Allard K. Lowenstein, the former New York congressman who was a pivotal figure in both the civil rights movement and the anti-Vietnam War movement. He would go on to serve on the national field staffs of California Governor
Jerry Brown’s 1976 presidential campaign and on Senator
Edward M. Kennedy’s 1980 presidential campaign. When
John F. Kennedy, Jr. launched his political and cultural magazine,
George, in 1995, he chose David Bender as its first West Coast contributing editor. Citing Mr. Bender's years of experience in politics, government, media and entertainment, Kennedy said, "As long as I've known David Bender, he has been involved in public issues. I think what he's been able to do, rather uniquely, is kind of meld a lot of different worlds and channel them into public issues, whether it be Washington, New York or Los Angeles – particularly within the entertainment industry. I can't really think of anyone who has done it longer or as well as he." ==Air America==