Bus Federation

Update -- A friend correctly points out that the gripes here are with the negotiations in the Senate. The House bill treated young people quite well and on par with seniors. My apologies for failing to distinguish.

Original Post:

If one needed proof that the importance of youth has yet to really penetrate the minds of Democratic leadership on Capitol Hill, look no further than the deal cut on health care. Substantively, I'm one of those heretics who thinks that the public option had been so watered down that its removal doesn't condemn the bill. The insurance regulations -- preventing pre-existing condition discrimination and rescission, for example -- and subsidies plus the longer term efforts at cost containment make the bill a big net win for the country.

But as the public option was stripped out, Democrats saw a need to take care of at least one demographic:

Beyond that, the group agreed--contingent upon CBO analysis--to a Medicare buy in.

That buy-in option would initially be made available to some uninsured people aged 55-64 in 2011, three years before the exchanges open.

In other words, young voters got a public option...for their parents.

The fundamental decisions around this legislation shouldn't simply be about constituencies pursuing their own narrow interests. And, even without a public option, the vast, vast majority of young people will be significantly better off with the passage of this bill than they were without.

But it is disappointing that Democrats would turn their back on a generation that placed so much trust in them. Beyond that, it is politically stupid. Democrats are preparing a narrative that won't work to reach one of their biggest target audiences. Given the heavy overlap between all three of the Rising American Electorate constituencies -- youth, unmarried women, and people of color -- the reality is that Democrats are setting themselves up in a less-than-great way politically.

So the question young people may want to ask themselves is, How can we get Democrats to pay attention to our self-interest? We can't even convince them to care about their own.

Sorry for my miss on the usual Friday blog, I was traveling home from the Inaugural festivities. But an exciting thing happened in the world of recognition of youth campaigning.... Campaigns and Elections Magazine - the end all be all mag for politico's who work in ... well... campaigns and elections had their regular post-election vote on best practices that worked and which were the super best for their Reed Awards.

Trick or Vote, the Halloween GOTV program that gets young people to canvas in costume just a few days before the election, was voted the best GOTV.

"Our volunteers just did amazing work on Halloween," said Matt Singer, CEO of Forward Montana in a release. "We managed to reach out to over five thousand households in Missoula, Bozeman, Dillon, and Great Falls."

"We might be too old to trick or treat, but we’ll never be too old to trick or vote,” added Rep. Jefferson Smith, founding chair of the Bus Federation, which oversaw the national Trick or Vote operation. “The really important part about this event’s success was our ability to translate a cool idea to being used all across the country. This was a shared success of the youth vote movement, with a number of local organizations using this model."

The Campaign & Elections’ Politics magazine Reed Awards were awarded by a prominent bipartisan committee of political heavyweights, including Morton Blackwell, Tucker Carlson, Tom Davis, Monica Dixon, Ben Dworkin, Vic Fazio, Martin Frost, Julie Germany, Shane Greer, Ken Khachigian, Mike Hennessy, Ron Klain, Mike Krempasky, Kevin Madden, Mark, McKinnon, Dick Morris, Terry Nelson, Christie Pelosi, Amy Pritchard, Larry Sabato, Ron Silver, Jamal Simmons, Michael Steele, George Stephanopolous, Robert Traynham, Joe Trippi, Suzanne Turner, Vaughn Ververs, Amy Walter, Christine Todd Whitman, and Reid Wilson.

Also, if you haven't seen, the Scary Man himself, Wes Craven announced Trick or Vote as one of his favorite scary videos on YouTube this Halloween.

If you don't have a Trick or Vote near you, don't worry... you can have one. Go to TrickOrVote.org and grab the tool kit and start gearing up early for a great Trick or Vote in your city.

"It’s not just the Presidency, stupid." This phrase carries as much importance today as its economic counterpart did 16 years ago.

In the thrilling environment of the national election, the nation is reveling in the wave of new voters. Yet at least two questions linger: (1) Can we leverage this involvement for big participation in state and local elections today?; and (2) Can we keep the historic energy from evaporating tomorrow morning? If we cannot meet these challenges, we will miss perhaps the largest civic opportunity of a generation.

We know that the electorate is excited this year, and that youth in particular are finding new entry points into the system—from colossal voter registration numbers to iPhone-app organizing phenomena. We’ve already seen encouraging signs: for instance, youth turn-out for the primary hit multiples of 2004 levels. Still, the central challenge of democracy is not whether a citizenry can make a few binary choices once every four years. The challenge of democracy is whether a populace of divergent interests can come together to accomplish common goals. How can we be sure that this organizing power and creativity can be funneled beyond a single (admittedly critical) race in 2008? How can we encourage the millions of new young voters to become life-long political participants?

We write not to add to the myth of youth ineffectiveness on the political process. We won't add to the chorus of "sure, they'll register … but will they vote?" with an equally curmudgeonly, "okay, they'll vote, but will they vote the whole ballot and stay involved after the election?" Without doubt, an engaged Millennial Generation will change the face of American politics for the better.

They were awakened by 9-11, by Katrina, by Iraq, and by the collapse of our economic house of cards. They will grapple with global warming, the redesign of governmental mechanisms, education policy for this century, foreign policy in an interconnected world, and the glories and excesses of global turbo-capitalism – and these are just the challenges we can predict.

We can meet these challenges if we funnel this energy into a new activist generation.

The opportunity in considering the whole ballot does not lie in winning or losing any particular races, although the impact would be undeniable. The true virtue of this project is the chance to build a culture of participation. An individual has a greater impact on a local race than national one. Indeed, a single person can be decisive on a local race, a race that have direct impact on an average young voter’s daily life. An example, to pick a state: the current Oregon Legislature voted to approve renewable energy standards, domestic partnerships, land use reform, a rainy day fund, substantial increases in school funding, and early voter registration for eligible 17-year-olds. Passing these bills was contingent on a one-seat majority in the State House. One of those seats is occupied by Jeff Barker, who won it by forty votes. Groups like the Oregon Bus Project sent hundreds of young people to walk in his district, each knocking on more doors than Barker’s margin of victory. The end result? Those young people got to go home and say, “Look Ma, I helped change history.”

And you can be sure many came back to participate again.

It’s time to begin building a lasting constituency for the public interest, and the best engagement we can have is at the local level. We are stronger together than we are apart, and to ever get public policy to yield to public interest, we’ll have to move not just to the left or to the right, but forward.

Jefferson Smith, Bus Project Executive Director
Garrett Downen, Bus Project Political Director

I know we've posted a ton of stuff about Trick or Vote this week, but thought I'd share this article I wrote for AlterNet. - Mike

What is the one day of the year that you expect a stranger to knock on your door? Halloween. And what's comes less than a week after Halloween? Election Day. What does that make Halloween? If you are a member of the Bus Federation or one of its partner organizations, it makes Halloween the best day of the year to launch a massive door-to-door canvass to Get Out the Vote (GOTV).

That's the pitch that Jefferson Smith, one of the founders of the Oregon Bus Project, gave to a group of young activists, insiders and media in Denver today at their Trick or Vote Launch Party.

Trick or Vote is exactly what it sounds like. Each year on Halloween, members of the Bus Federation (the Orgeon Bus Project, New Era Colorado, Forward Montana, New Mexico Youth Organized, and the Washington Bus) don their costumes to canvass neighborhoods to turnout the vote – especially the youth vote - in their communities. The program began with the Oregon Bus Project in 2004. That Halloween, hundreds of young Oregonians turned out to canvass, making it one of the largest door to door canvasses in the state history. Not only did the unprecedented effort get out the vote, it helped flip a number of state legislative races.

But don't just call it a canvass in drag. Organizations involved in the Bus Federation look at Trick or Vote as more than a way to get people to the polls, it's also a smart way to engage young people who want to make a difference, and care deeply about the issues, but may be turned away by a traditional canvass or a dreary job phonebanking. Programs like Trick or Vote function as a gateway drug to encourage deeper and deeper political action from their members.

This year Trick or Vote will go national, with at least nine organizations participating in 21 cities. With such a big push on the horizon, in what may be one of the most significant elections of our lifetime, the members of the Bus Federation are determined to sell their innovative program to the insiders and activists flooding Denver for the Democratic National Convention. It's not possible to walk past the Colorado Convention Center without being accosted by zombies, or mummies espousing the virtues of costumed canvassing. Even CBS anchor Katie Couric sported a Trick or Vote Button on TV at one point this week.

At the Trick or Vote party in downtown Denver, Bus Federation staffers walked around sporting cat ears and fangs, and Jessica and Roger Rabbit were in the audience to hear speakers like progressive icon Jim Hightower heap praise on the local grassroots organizing of the Bus Federation.

Guests were also given a look at a series of viral videos meant to spread the word about Trick or Vote:

So far young voters have turned our in record numbers and overwhelming chosen to lend their support to Barack Obama and other Democratic Candidates. If this trend continues in November, it might be due in no small part to the work or groups like the Bus Federation and innovative programs like Trick or Vote.

The author prepares for Trick or Vote in 2007

Pop Quiz Time:

1. What is the single most effective way to mobilize voters?
   a) Visibilities
   b) Sitting on a couch and bitching
   c) Talking to ‘em face-to-face
2. What holiday always immediately precedes Election Day and has a built-in tradition of door-knocking?
   a) Halloween
   b) The 4th of July
   c) Festivus
3. What does everyone love?
   a) Rick Rolling
   b) Costumes!
   c) Voting
   d) All of the above

All of us who work in the field of youth engagement face big competition. The biggest competition we face – for volunteers, for attention – is not from one another’s organizations either. It’s from the Wii (which is sweet) and the bar scene and friends and loved ones. Our biggest challenge is overcoming that noise and building a politics that is fun and exciting and relevant to people’s lives.

That’s what makes Trick or VoteTM so freaking sweet. It’s the Best Way on the Best Day.

It’s actually such a sweet idea it doesn’t even really need an explanation. But here it is in a nutshell: Get some people who are a bit too old to trick or treat (go as young as high school and as old as the retirement home for your recruitment), rally ‘em in costume, meet in a centralized location, train these folks to canvass effectively, and knock some doors.

In short, we combine a cultural more (knock doors on Halloween) with hard-minded political research (knocking doors is an effective voter mobilization tool).

The result?

• More volunteers. In Portland in 2004, 850 canvassers assembled for the largest mass canvass in the history of the state. By all accounts, this year will be even bigger.
• More virgin volunteers. Out of that same crowd in Portland, more than one-in-three were first-time political volunteers who came out of the woodwork for a program well-suited to help our fellow citizens lose their voter virginity.
• More conversations. On Halloween evening, people are home – either waiting for trick-or-treaters or getting ready for their parties. They’re even prepared to open the door. And they’re definitely ready to engage in a conversation. All of which means that we don’t just hit more doors, we hit more doors in a more effective manner.
• More voters. Do the math -- more canvassers, more conversations, and more doors? More people are hitting the polls.

The Bus Federation wants to take Trick or VoteTM national this year – and we can do it with your help. If you’re part of a local or national organization that is serious about doing Trick or VoteTM, get in touch soon so we can coordinate our efforts. Contact Alex Aronson at the Oregon Bus Project @ 503-233-3018.

Just looking for a project for the fall and think you could pull off a kick-ass Trick or Vote in your hometown? Or even just want to assemble 15 of your closest friends and friends-of-friends and friendly-friends-of-friends’-friends and go hit some doors? Drop us a line. I swear to you, you’ll be glad you did.

Major props, by the way, to our friends at the Bus for this innovative program -- Trick or Vote is their brainchild.

Answers to the pop quiz: 1-b, 2-c, 3-a

Matt Singer is the CEO of Forward Montana, dedicated to training, mobilizing, and electing a new generation of progressive leaders. Forward Montana is a charter (get it?) organization of the Bus Federation.

Five really great, state-based youth organizations have decided to join forces to create a loose, national federation that can leverage economies of scale to the benefit of all organizations. In other words, the Oregon Bus Project, Forward Montana, New Era Colorado, The Washington Bus, and New Mexico Youth Organized just formed like Voltron to create the Bus Federation.

From their website:

The 2008 election marks the beginning of a historic opportunity, where young, progressive voters in Western states can fundamentally reshape the political landscape on a local and national level.

The Bus Federation, comprised of grassroots youth political organizations in five Western states, will draw upon its proven models of youth organizing to activate young progressive voters, develop the next generation of progressive leaders, and mobilize for immediate term electoral impact – laying the foundations for local and national breakthroughs in the 2008 election cycle and beyond.

You'll also note that some of these orgs come from important battleground states where the youth vote will be a key constituency up and down the ticket this cycle. If you're in those states, you should get involved or at least be aware of what your local Bus Fed org is doing and make sure that your own work is complementary.

...

While the Federation structure enables the different state organizations to tailor their programs to their states' unique political landscapes, it also enables the member organizations to share core programs – such as Bus Trips, the Trick or Vote Halloween Canvass, and Alternative Candidate Debates – as well as organizational best practices, common branding and messaging, joint purchasing, and key metrics of performance.

The website is pretty sparse now - just a shingle on the web, really. But if by creating a national federation, these local organizations can spread/share best practices, and save money on swag, polling, voter file subscriptions, etc., then this is a hugely important step in scaling up good work in youth organizing.