Candidates facing up to youth on the Internet

Nish Suvarnakar, interim director of the Pennsylvania chapter of the League of Young Voters, said the politicians who have been most successful in courting the young vote are the ones who engage them to lead community efforts themselves.

Barack Obama vibes to the Fugees.

The Democratic presidential hopeful lists the rap group, which topped the charts in the mid-1990s, under favorite music in his profile on Facebook, the social networking Web site. His musical tastes also stray into the more baby-boomer friendly Bob Dylan and Miles Davis. The Illinois senator's favorite television show is "SportsCenter."

Mr. Obama's Facebook page is linked to more than 260,000 supporters -- normal people accumulate friends, while politicians get supporters -- who post messages pledging their dedication to his cause.

Just like candidate Bill Clinton playing the saxophone on "The Arsenio Hall Show" in 1992, this is how candidates are courting the under-25 vote in 2008.

Every major candidate for president this year has a Facebook page -- as well as a presence on MySpace and any number of other social networking sites -- that tells a little about him or her, along with favorite books, movies, television shows and music.

Their publicly declared tastes usually fit their politics.

Former New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, who bowed out this week, said he enjoys the Yankees and the terrorism-fueled drama series "24." Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, who has also dropped out, listed working-class anthem "The River" by Bruce Springsteen as one of his favorite songs.

But Facebook and other sites of its ilk are useful for more than just learning that Arizona Sen. John McCain watches "Seinfeld." They allow users to vote in unofficial primaries, organize events and view friends' political leanings.

Such things are broadcast on Facebook's news feed, which compiles the activities of a user's friends. For example, you could log on to Facebook -- as students now do about as often as breathing -- and see a message that 45 of your friends have joined the "Hillary Clinton for President" group. It's a subtle form of peer pressure.

"Friends don't usually talk about [politics] as much in daily life," said Patrick Graham, a sophomore at the University of Pittsburgh and president of the College Republicans. "But you put it on your profiles, on blogs. It gets people more involved."

To reach a generation that doesn't usually read the morning paper or watch the nightly news, candidates have to stalk young voters on their turf.

"We know they are on MySpace and Facebook," said Colleen Murray, spokeswoman for the Edwards campaign. "We are really just using new media to do the oldest thing in politics, which is to connect with voters."

But new media has an important distinction -- it gives young people the power to shape the experience.

Nish Suvarnakar, interim director of the Pennsylvania chapter of the League of Young Voters, said the politicians who have been most successful in courting the young vote are the ones who engage them to lead community efforts themselves.

Instead of talking down to young voters and enlisting them to make phone calls and knock on doors, Mr. Suvarnakar said, successful campaigns have built a "pipeline of leadership" by getting young people to organize their own networks.

The two candidates most adept at securing the youth vote so far have been Mr. Obama, who netted 60 percent of 18- to 24-year-old voters in New Hampshire, and Republican Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, whose support among 18- to 29-year-olds in Michigan -- 19 percent -- was more than twice his percentage from any other age group.

Several Pitt students said the most active candidate organization on campus has been Mr. Paul's. His supporters have held signs on street corners and set up tables in the lobbies of the Litchfield Towers residence halls to try to sell fellow students on the Texas congressman's libertarian ideals.

"He has an attitude that is outside mainstream Republicans, a little more extreme, but very different, very federalist, keeping power in the states and not the federal government," said Mr. Graham. "That's the appealing thing to the youth voters that like him."

Just like any demographic, young voters are looking for candidates who address issues important to them, more than who's on Facebook or how many mass text messages they send.

The appeal of candidates like Mr. Paul, who grew up in Green Tree, and Mr. Obama is that they are cast as outside the mainstream.

"It's the desire among young people to not follow the establishment," said Dan Gore, a sophomore at Pitt and Western Pennsylvania coordinator for Students for Obama.

"Young people have essentially their whole lives been told what to do. ... They come to college, where they have the atmosphere of freedom, and they can choose to expend energy, time and resources on whatever they want."

Students for Obama started in 2006 as a movement to draft Mr. Obama into the race, and it since has become the official youth arm of the campaign. Individual chapters are encouraged to get Mr. Obama's name out on campus with various initiatives, but the details are left up to the students.

It's a similar strategy to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's "Hillblazers" and former North Carolina senator and now former candidate Edwards' "One Corps," which adds a community service component to the traditional candidate organization.

Internet-based tactics used by candidates on both sides owe their inspiration to Howard Dean. In his failed run at the Democratic nomination four years ago, Mr. Dean, now chairman of the Democratic National Committee, was the first to utilize the power of the Internet in politics as a fund-raising source and as a means to forming a grass-roots movement.

Mr. Dean tapped into the Internet's interactive nature, which makes it so different from other media. His supporters donated to the campaign online -- breaking fund-raising records with mostly small, individual contributions -- and arranged meetings and events with each other. The social component proved to be a powerful force.

Though Mr. Dean's movement never generated enough votes to win the primary, his strategies are being copied by the current crop of candidates.

"Everybody had the sense after the Howard Dean campaign in 2003 that the Internet was not going to be like radio," said Scott Keeter, director of survey research for the Pew Research Center.

"People would use it to connect with each other in ways that weren't even anticipated by people up at the top."

But will those connections translate to votes?

Since 18-year-olds got the vote before the 1972 presidential election, 18- to 24-year-old voter turnout numbers have been consistently lower than those of their 25-and-up counterparts. The '72 race was the only year that voter age group's turnout topped 50 percent, and it dipped under 40 percent in three of the last five elections.

But 46.7 percent of voters younger than 25 went to the polls in 2004, up from 36.1 in 2000, perhaps a sign that young adult apathy is waning.

This year in Iowa 15 percent of under-25 voters caucused, up from 5 percent in 2004. In the New Hampshire primary, 43 percent of 18- to 29-year-old voters turned out, up from 18 percent in 2004 and 28 percent in 2000.

Pitt political science professor Jennifer Victor said she's seen an increase in excitement among her students as the primary races have heated up.

"There's quite a lot of dissatisfaction toward the status quo among the current crop of 18- to 24-year-olds," Ms. Victor said. "But I do think it's a little dangerous to conclude that it's going to turn into an upswing of voter turnout in November."

Several student groups at Pitt are already planning voter registration drives to make sure that dissatisfaction makes it to the ballot box.

"I always get frustrated when people aren't interested or say they're not into politics," said Pitt senior Cara Baldari, who has been involved with the College Democrats and Students for Obama.

"[But] there is so much hype about this election, you hope people say this is the election to care about."

At least Facebook says so.