youngvoterpac's blog

The infamous question we hear every year, will young people show up? The answer is yes and you can read lots of info on young voters over at www.futuremajority.com/press.

I will be twittering (janekleeb) and blogging all day for MTV's Street Team. You can read my posts over at MTV or if you are in NY you can actually read my twitters and the other Street Team members on a huge screen in Times Square...pretty cool.

I just got back from the polls with my two young daughters. I brought them with me to teach that voting helps create social change. I also brought them with me to start the habit of voting early. All the research tells us voting is a habit, so I want to start them early.

Today I will be following two things—my husband Scott Kleeb's Senate campaign and the youth vote here in Nebraska but also on a national level.

One of the best articles written this election cycle about the youth vote was from Anna Quindlen over at Newsweek (mike wrote about this early in the week).

The sentence below from Anna sums up what all of us who have worked on the youth vote have been saying for years—that young people are voting and since their generation is huge and since voting for a party becomes a habit (see exhibit A: young people that first voted for Regan continued voting for Republicans helping secure a majority for them for years) Democrats are poised not only to win this year but to hold on to a majority of seats for a long time:

The bottom line is that the net effect of young people's enthusiasm about Obama is likely to outstrip his candidacy. There's data suggesting that once people vote they will vote again, making it a civic habit, and that party affiliation tends to remain unchanged from a relatively early age. The young Democrats voting today will be the middle-aged Democrats voting tomorrow. As Norman Ornstein wrote more than 20 years ago, the party that secures the youth vote secures the power for the next generation.

Be back soon with an update on my first stop in Lincoln to make calls to young voters!

P.S. I do feel big and strong...

Bumped. In a worst case scenario in which Obama loses, this post identifies what will be the key messaging challenge for youth organizers on November 5th. --Mike

Personal drama, celebrity personalities, legal trouble, rumors, crowd comparing, covers of weekly mags…we even have celebrity speak outs, most recently from Pink and Matt Damon who are making their opinions loud and clear that they are definitely Team Obama/Biden.

It’s as if we are in the middle of the newest reality show.  But alas, it is the election of the next President, which nearly everyone would say is the most powerful position in the world and just about every young person I talk to says this election is critical for their jobs and families. 

Young Voters Up for Grabs?

Young voters are squarely with Team Obama/Biden, but some members of the media (and some tenacious young Republicans) don’t seem to think so.   Just last week the Wall Street Journal ran an article which essentially said that because of the Palin pick, young people are now up for grabs.

This assumes of course that young voters just fall out the sky to vote in large numbers for a candidate because they are young or give a good speech.  A candidate has to have a ground game in place for young people in order to secure their vote.  It is highly unlikely on the Republican side, this close to Election Day and especially since they are already facing a huge uphill climb since 2004, that they will be able to grab the youth vote.

In 2004, young people were the only age group to vote for the Democratic ticket, giving Kerry a 10% point advantage over Bush.  In 2006, young voters gave Democrats a 22% point advantage. In the most recent presidential poll done by Newsweek, young voters prefer Obama/Biden by a 27% point margin.  In fact, young voters are the only age group Team Obama/Biden is winning.

All of this good news on the youth vote does have a downside for Democrats.  If, like what happened in 2004, Republicans win, guess who gets blamed?  Yep, young voters.  Young people were told they didn’t turnout, that they didn’t perform yet again and that they are all hype—even though they increased their turnout more than any other age group and hit record turnout levels in 2004.  Clearly, the worry again if Obama does not win, is that young people will get blamed.

But...

Is liking someone enough to get someone’s vote, especially with young voters?  Will the economic times we are facing and that fact that poll after poll showing that the economy is the #1 issue young people care about win over the personality factor?  Will the election actually get back to talking about things like the economy?

In Nebraska, a few young Republicans I spoke with at the state’s Convention Watch Party are definitely Team McCain/Palin.  They like her because she is young, they feel like they can relate to her and the fact that she brings true conservative values and mom credentials to the ticket is a major plus.

Research however tell us time after time, in particular in studies done by researcher David Nickerson, the way you get young voters to the polls boils down to young people talking young people about the candidates/ issues and running a field program just like you would to any other group of voters.  The conventional wisdom that it’s all the cult of personality that gets young voters to the polls simply doesn’t ring true.

Drop the Lipstick, Bring the Focus Back

We have a banking system that is falling apart at the seams.  It started with Bear Sterns, then Fannie and Freddie and now we are beginning to hear the trickle of small and large banks that are being sold or being saved by the government (with our tax dollars).  AIG, one of the largest insurance companies, is asking the government right now for $40 billion dollars to save them from bankruptcy.  We are living what professors will teach in economic classes for the next 50 years or more and yet we are hearing more about lipstick.

If Team Obama/Biden and Team McCain/Palin are truly serious about targeting the youth vote, then here are a few suggestions to both teams:

1)     Go back to the hope place.  I am not the only one who wants to hear how we as a nation can solve our country’s problems.  Both liberal political commentator George Lakoff and conservative David Brooks are hungering for the hope place.  Is it any wonder why Reagan, who talked a lot about hope and the promise of our country and had a strong young voter outreach program on top of it all, won?  We all want hope back in politics, even if we do get distracted by lipstick and the cover of weekly mags occasionally.  Hope and the promise that our government can do better is why so many young people joined Team Obama to begin with.  Even if people are not saying it out loud, trust me, they want to be inspired, they want to be called to something bigger than themselves.  Don’t let us down and don’t listen to naysayers.  We want our hope back.

2)     Go bigger with young voter outreach programs.  While it’s true Obama has the best and biggest young voter outreach program in recent history, with not only a national youth director but state youth directors that have full field operations happening on and off college campuses.  McCain should do that as well, although it will be very difficult to build an operation in 50 days that Obama has been building over the last year.  Both campaigns absolutely need more buzz in youth circles.  Things have slowed down since the primary when it comes to the buzz, or what is often called “street marketing.”  Get local opinion leaders, mavericks, whatever you want to call them and get them to start wearing your shirts (think DJ at a club wearing a t-shirt with Obama’s face on it), do more parties like the Hope Gallery in Denver and look back at 2004 to what a lot of the youth groups from YDA to the League of Young Voters to the Bus Project and take a page out of their playbook because they were mad creative and it worked.  In fact, Obama's team is starting to do this...

3)     Keep the gloves off, but no sucker punches.  For anyone who wants the election to be warm and fuzzy, they should go to a secluded island tomorrow.  Our country is facing big problems and I don’t see either side being nice.  Young voters don’t mind “tough,” they just don’t want to be lied to.  Young people simply don’t buy a product on face value—information found on the internet and friends’ opinions matter and matter a lot.  Out of any of the age groups young people can see through the lies faster than any other voters since they have been marketed to since they were little kids—so it’s a skill fine tuned and trying to pull a fast one on young voters will most definitely back fire.

The other night I was watching MTV and a commercial came on with an old guy talking in front of a bunch of windmills.  It got my attention because here in Nebraska we are on the verge of multiplying our energy sources through wind.  I listened, loved the commercial and went online to read more about the “Pickens Plan.” 

I signed up for their email updates and within 10 minutes I didn’t just get an obligatory email of “thanks for signing up, we will be in touch.”  Nope, that is too old-fashioned for Mr. Pickens.  Instead I got a Facebook message from one of his folks telling me more about the plan.  Now, that is very new media from an old skool kind of guy.  But with gas prices now at over $4, I guess anything is possible when it comes to the issue of energy this year.

Come to find out I am not the only one who has heard about the Pickens Plan and is intrigued.  I told the story above to three other young people this past week and they all had the same reaction, “yeah, I saw that commercial too, totally dig what the old guy is saying and the website.”

Who is this old guy, Pickens?

Mr. Pickens is an oil tycoon who has, essentially, “saw the light.”  After years in the oil investment world and seeing America’s import of foreign oil grow from 24% to over 70%, Pickens decided to take a bold step and put a lot of money into a media campaign about his new energy plan (a lot being over $50 million).  The plan is simple and essentially says America must get more energy from sustainable sources like the wind.

$50 million on pushing a plan, and a policy idea, out to the public is chump change compared to the over $700 billion dollars America sends overseas every year to foreign countries for oil.  According to the Pickens’ website that $700 million is four times the annual cost of the Iraq war.  It is no wonder why our government is in major debt right now and no wonder why so many of us think this Pickens guy standing in front of the windmills is alright. 

If there is any year to put out a plan focusing on alternative energy and convincing America to get off foreign oil, this is the year.  The hotly contested election not only at the top for President, but down ballot gives lots of room for folks like Pickens to push an idea and get some attention.  Putting pressure on the candidates, policy makers and the public is needed, but will his $50 million media plan be enough, especially when it comes to young voters?

Young Voters and Energy

Energy and the environment used to be issues left to the tree-huggers to care about.  Not anymore.  There are plenty of groups popping up this election that are focusing on young voters and energy—the biggest coalition is called Power Vote which is getting over 1 million young voters to vote for clean and just energy. If their conferences are any indication of the success and appeal to young voters, they will surpass the 1 million goal. 

Young people at the Power Vote events are not just saying people need to recycle or create more sustainable forms of energy.  They are talking about green jobs.  Pickens is talking about green jobs also.  It seems tying the tree huggers’ goal of a green earth to the economy is definitely a winning combination both for making America energy independent and for saving the earth.

There is lots of talk among young people these days about more drilling in order to get gas prices down.  Everyone wants a solution and wants a solution now about how we get gas prices back down to the $2 range.

Most of us now agree if we drill more that won’t result in a decrease in gas prices next week, heck even Pickens Plan won’t get us lower gases prices for another ten years.  But the question remains, do we invest in infrastructure now that will help make America energy independent or do we keep increasing our dependence on foreign oil?

Wind Energy in Nebraska

Out of all 50 states, Nebraska is sixth in the United States for its potential to generate energy from wind.  The plains states, those states in the middle of America, have huge potential for leading the generation of energy with wind.  In just one year, one of those big, modern windmills can produce as much as energy as 12,000 barrels of imported oil.  

The problem with all of this is that we simply don’t have the infrastructure to move off of foreign oil.  The word “infrastructure” used to mean nothing to me.  It just seemed it was another word folks there out there without giving us a solution.

As I have dug deeper in not only wind but with my other MTV stories on ethanol, infrastructure has taken on a whole new meaning.  It means retro-fitting our gas stations with ethanol pumps.  It also means building wind farms, pipelines, more rail lines and other systems to actually transport the energy outside of Nebraska to other states.  And all of this takes manpower to build which results in green jobs that we can’t export to foreign countries.

The infrastructure needed for America to start using wind as a main source of energy will take an investment of about $1.2 trillion.  That may sound like a lot, but if you think about how we are spending $700 billion every year importing oil, shouldn’t we go ahead and spend the $1.2 trillion once, which means investing in small towns, especially in rural America, so we then have the infrastructure to support the sustainable energy source of wind.

Wind energy is all about change—change from our dependence on foreign oil, change from our old ways of thinking about the environmental and conservation movement, change from young voters ignoring issues about energy production and use.  Wind is much more than a sustainable source of energy.  It is clean, pretty cheap and is creating new “green jobs” in places like Nebraska. 

Maybe ole Pickens is on to something. 

My husband Scott Kleeb is running for the United States Senate in Nebraska. He has a committed staff of young people who work 12 hour days, 7 days a week. So we decided to take them up to the ranch to relax, Scott on the other hand has a different way of describing the weekend. Come meet two of the Kleeb staffers John and John and listen to why Scott brought his team up to the Nebraska Sandhills.

As part of my gig with MTV as one of their Street Team reps for the 2008 election cycle, I cover politics and young people in Nebraska.

Candidates in Nebraska are getting dirty…in rivers and parks that need to be cleaned up.  Come meet some of the candidates running for office in Nebraska that are taking part in new brand of politics—the politics of service.

The candidates talk about what service means to them, why young voters are so important this election and what each of us can do to take a stand as a generation.  Democrats Work is a national organization, founded by two  young people Thomas Bates and James Carter, that encourages individuals and campaigns to live and show their Democratic values through service.  A chapter was started here in Nebraska by Natalie Benson.

Candidates getting dirty in Nebraska include:

Heath Mello, State Legislature, NE-05

Jeremy Nordquist, State Legislature, NE-07

Jim Esch, House of Representatives, NE-02

Scott Kleeb, US Senate

Get Involved with Democrats Work:

www.democratswork.org

Jane Fleming Kleeb is the Executive Director of the Young Voter Pac which helps Democratic candidates and State Parties win with the 18-35 year old vote through endorsements, on-the-ground support, training, strategy and money. She is also a MTV Street Team rep for Nebraska.

The Nebraska Democratic Party held their convention this weekend to select individuals for the Democratic National Convention in Denver. There was of course official business such as selecting language for the platform of issues the Nebraska Democrats stand for as well as electing officers for the next two years on the convention agenda.

But the real reason the turnout was at a record high of 800 attendees at the state convention was because this was the moment where Nebraska Democrats were electing the individuals to represent our state in Denver.

For many it was a disappointing weekend in the sense that over 800 individuals were in attendance, over 400 wanted to go to Denver, but there were only 25 spots available (plus 4 alternate spots). This is of course, in addition to the now infamous 6 Superdelegates that were already assigned to party officers and leaders.

In total, Nebraska is sending 31 delegates to the Democratic National Convention in Denver with 4 alternates (these are the people clearly hoping someone can’t make the trip to Denver so they can fill their shoes on the floor of the convention hall).

The question many young people had at the state convention was just how many young people under the age of 35 will actually get to go to Denver?

Find out the answer at: think.mtv.com/janeflemingkleeb

We all know the importance of targeting and engaging young voters. In addition to well-established approaches – you know, like actually talking to young voters about issues we care about and using peer-to-peer outreach to do that – we have seen a number of successful non-traditional outreach methods. One of those tools is community service.

Young people volunteer for community service at much higher rates than they volunteer for traditional political activities. There is a culture of service in the Millennial generation that is rooted in the belief that community service is an effective way to solve important issues, locally and nationally. Our friends at Democrats Work are harnessing that passion for service and linking it to politics.

As many of you know, Democrats Work connects grassroots Democrats to community service projects. Through this service-based approach, Democrats Work is moving politics onto the turf of young voters, making community service an integral part of political activism. Their latest efforts to build the “politics of service” movement is an innovative contest with General Wesley Clark.

The “Serve with the General" contest will send General Clark to a competitive Congressional district to do a Democrats Work community service event helping returned veterans, painting a public school that needs it, supporting our troops, cleaning up a neglected part of town. We have a chance to send Clark to a district where a youth-friendly candidate is running for Congress.

You can vote to send General Clark to a Congressional district where the candidates are already making young voters a priority. I want to point out a few: Darcy Burner (WA-08), Bob Lord (AZ-03), Ashwin Madia (MN-06 MN-03), Gary Peters (MI-09), Dan Seals (IL-10), and Gary Trauner (WY-AL).

Take a look at these districts when deciding where to send General Clark. You can cast your vote here: www.democratswork.org.

P.S. We hope to have a candidate or two here in the next few days talking about how his or her campaign is targeting young voters. Stay tuned.

Jane Fleming Kleeb is the Executive Director of the Young Voter PAC which helps Democratic candidates and State Parties win with the 18-35 year-old vote through endorsements, on-the-ground support, training, strategy and money. She is a regular on Fox and is part of MTV’s Street Team ‘08 representing Nebraska. She is married to Democratic candidate for US Senate Scott Kleeb.

Young people across the United States this past week are getting a taste of the politicking that goes on inside campaigns. Young people, who are trying to become “pledged delegates” to the Democratic National Convention, got emails from campaigns essentially saying “thanks, but no thanks.”

Campaigns are cutting people of all ages off the lists of potential delegates and the cutting is allowable under the rules, so campaigns are not doing anything unusual.

The big difference this time around is the record number of young people running as pledged delegates--and therefore a big portion of the number of people getting cut. This is obviously causing some friction between the message they hear from campaigns and the message they are getting in their inbox.

Many people can understand it from a political perspective because the race is so tight therefore campaigns only want their most “loyal supporters” on their list of potential delegates in case the nomination goes to the National Convention where the delegates will be the ones electing the Democratic nominee for President.

Read the rest of the post...

I am enthralled with Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE). 
 
He has made news lately with suspicions of joining Barack Obama as a possible Vice President or cabinet member or at the very least giving Obama an endorsement for President. 
 
Chuck Hagel had me watching him long before the media picked up on his independent spirit of leadership.  Time magazine has given him the label of “hero to liberals” even though he has a strong Republican voting record in the Senate.
 
So, when I found out Chuck Hagel was in Lincoln to sign his new book “America Our Next Chapter: Tough Questions, Straight Answers” I had to go check him out.  He greeted each one of the over 500 people there with such true joy; he is made to be in politics.  He loves politics.

I first read an interview with Senator Hagel in a magazine called Nebraska Life.  After several pages of learning about him growing up in the Sandhills of Nebraska, he said something that grabbed me, something that made me realize he is both a man of conviction but also a dreamer.  He said:
 
“You run for office because you want to influence policy, to influence the direction of the country; you attempt to attain to some power to exert that influence, to change the course of the world. This business should be about one thing, making a better world for all people.”
 
I asked Senator Hagel about this quote at his book signing, here is what he had to say:

 
With all the speculation around Senator Hagel joining the Obama team as a possible choice for Vice President or a cabinet member, I was curious to know how he viewed his campaign so far—in particular around the youth vote since in his book he dedicates a chapter to talking about his own kids who are in high school being more engaged in their community, a show of his knowledge that the Millennials are a different generation.  He gives props to Obama while talking about how critical it is for young people to be engaged at high levels in politics:
 

 
Lastly, in Senator Hagel’s book he talks about the health care crisis facing America.  Since young people are the number one age group among the uninsured, I was curious to know about one particular part of health care—mental health parity.  I wanted to know Senator Hagel’s perspective on why mental health parity has yet to pass both the Senate and the House, here is his explanation:
 

 
Nebraska was lucky to have Chuck Hagel as our Senator for the past 11 years.  While he is retiring this year, and there is a competitive race for his seat, he will be greatly missed.  Although, I don’t think we will have to wait that long to see Senator Hagel take on a new post in politics.  He simply loves it too much and it is clear this is a true calling for him.

PS: Thank you to Senator Chuck Hagel’s staff, especially his Chief of Staff Mike Buttry, who made sure the Senator answered all of my questions even though they had plenty more events to attend that night.

Every year around this time Sandhill Cranes descend upon Nebraska. The Audubon’s Rowe Sanctuary is an organization, led by Brad Mellema, that works to educate the public about the cranes as well as conserve the land that the cranes visit every year as part of their migration path.

Video about the cranes I created for MTV's Street Team:

The Rowe Sanctuary has been around since 1974 and now has over 1,400 acres of land it conserves for the cranes. The cranes are a beautiful sight to witness. They are the oldest bird on our planet with fossils placing cranes in Nebraska up to 9 million years ago.

The cranes are very social and are "family" birds mating for life and staying with their offspring. Nebraska provides the birds a safe haven and a place to put on some weight before their long journey north to as far away as Siberia.

Unless we continue to conserve land, like the Rowe Sanctuary does along the North Platte River, the cranes and other animals will be at risk. Our government does have two conservation programs that the Rowe Sanctuary participates in --the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), and the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP)-if you want to learn more or volunteer to help conserve the land for the cranes and other animals, visit the Rowe Sanctuary's website, http://www.rowesanctuary.org.