Democrats Party as the House Turns Blue
Young
The New Bedford Standard-Times
Anika Clark
Boston University Washington News Service
11/8/06
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 —Joy and beer flowed in abundance Tuesday night as guests of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s election gala watched the GOP-run House of Representatives turn blue.
The election night bash at a Washington hotel near the Capitol made two points clear: politicos know how to party, and anyone who assumes 20-somethings don’t care about national politics should reconsider.
“If the Democrats win [the House], this place is gonna go nuts,” predicted Patrick Rodenbush, a 20-year-old intern for Sen. Edward Kennedy who hails from Brockton, Mass.
Indeed, the place did go nuts and, with so many young faces in the crowd, tended at times to look more like a sorority mixer than an event marking a landmark political change. Rock music played in the background. Empty bottles littered the floor, and a gaggle of fresh-faced young women smiled for flashing cameras.
A wide-eyed young man helped lead his buddies in a fight song—“Na na na na…na na na na…hey hey hey, goodbye”—to mark Sen. Rick Santorum’s (R-Pa.) defeat. And a young woman committed the ultimate “party foul” by spilling her beer in front of two security guys in suits.
“Traditionally, young people are the least likely age group to vote,” said Michael Baum, chairperson of UMass Dartmouth’s political science department.
He said this might be partly due to the difficulty college students can have with the process of absentee voting. Additionally, he said he thinks young people have often felt the two-party system “just closes them out” with a lack of opportunity for Green Party and Libertarian candidates to really make a difference.
Increasingly, however, younger voters have been flocking to the polls.
Peter Levine, director of The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement—which researches political and civic participation among young people—said Wednesday that preliminary findings show that 10 million Americans under the age of 30 voted Tuesday. This represents an increase of at least 2 million younger voters since 2002.
“That increase in the youth vote did come into play,” said Ed Goeas of The Tarrance Group, a political polling and campaign consulting firm that works with Republicans. According to Goeas, of the 28 new pick up seats for Democrats in Congress, 22 were won by margins of less than 2 percent and 18 were won by 5,000 votes or less.
“This youth vote is participating,” he said, adding that young voters “continue to be a group of voters that we need to emphasize, on both sides of the aisle.”
Due to the closeness of recent elections—particularly since 2000, “students realized that their voice could make a difference,” Baum said.
Also, in today’s current political climate, younger voters may be finding it harder and harder to remain unaffected.
Rodenbush is participating in Worcester’s College of the Holy Cross DC internship program this semester. “Issues today, whether you think they’re going to affect you or not, as a 20-year-old, they’re going to affect you,” he said.
Baum described his students as “clearly energized” by current “hot button moral issues”—stem cell research, gay marriage—as well as soaring educational costs that can make even public colleges difficult to afford.
Meanwhile, Hans Riemer of Rock the Vote, an organization that has reached out to potential voters through avenues like MTV and the web networking site, Facebook, cited the Iraq war and September 11 as major events that inspired younger people to vote.
“2000 was a pretty small turnout and 2002 was one of the lowest ever, but then after the War in Iraq, following on the heels of 9/11, in 2004, the youth vote exploded and it appears to be continuing through 2006,” Riemer said.
Rodenbush echoed this thought. “Our generation is defined by September 11,” he said. “I think people then realized how important government is in our lives.”
Describing the war as a crucial issue for voters regardless of age, Baum said in virtually every one of his classes there is at least one student who either has a close friend or loved one serving in the military. “It is personal, whether it’s pro or anti (the Iraq war), this is a highly pertinent issue.”
Of the more than three thousand fallen service members on The Washington Post’s Faces of the Fallen Web site, approximately 70 percent of them were under the age of 30.
“This is the generation that’s being asked to sacrifice,” said Riemer, who added that “young people are leaning very strongly Democratic.”
And last night at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee election party, Patrick Rodenbush stood among these young Democrats and hoped for change.
“The room is literally buzzing with excitement,” Rodenbush emailed in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. “The Democrats won a huge victory tonight, but they now have the burden of [the] American people on their shoulders. I hope they don’t disappoint on their campaign promises to lead America in a new direction.”
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