Bus Project

A lot of Future Majority readers no doubt heard about Andrea Huerfano, the 23-year-old democracy activist from Colombia arrested last week and detained. Andrea, a threat to no one but the forces of apathy, had moved to the U.S. with her family after her father was threatened with political violence. Her father died while waiting consideration of his asylum claims.

Last year, Andrea won a hard fought position as a PolitiCorps fellow, where she spent 80 hours per week registering young Americans to vote, a right she herself lacked. She went on to volunteer in Ohio in the fall of '08, continuing to register voters and kick ass for America.

The good news is that Andrea's deportation has been stayed. This happened because of actions of hundreds of young Americans, many of whom have had the pleasure of serving alongside Andrea. Here's the release the Oregon Bus Project just put out:

YOUNG ACTIVIST FREED FROM DETENTION FACILITY

YOUTH MOVEMENT COMES TO THE AID OF A YOUNG COMMUNITY ORGANIZER

Portland, OR – On December 8th, while paying a traffic ticket, 23 year-old community organizer Andrea Huerfano was detained at Broward Transitional Center in Pompano Beach, Florida, and faced imminent deportation. Thanks to the efforts of young organizers from a coalition led by Bus Project, PolitiCorps and Students Working for Equal Rights, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that she will be released this afternoon.

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Andrea's family fled from political threats in Colombia in 2001 with a valid visa, bringing her and her younger brother to the United States before her first year of high school. During her second year at Florida State University, while the family's political asylum was still being adjudicated, Andrea's father died of liver cancer. After his death, Andrea and her mother and brother pursued political asylum status based on his experiences in Columbia. They submitted their plea to immigration Judge Teofilo Chapa. Although the national average denial rate for applications for asylum is 58%, Judge Chapa denies 88% of the asylum claims before him. Their claim was denied.

After hearing word of her detention last Tuesday, an impromptu coalition of non-profits, advocates, students, lawyers and individuals from across the country came together in support of Andrea. Hundreds of people across the country were recruited to petition for Andrea’s release, putting phone calls into ICE offices in DC and Florida.

Andrea will be released on a "stay of removal" this afternoon and will have six months to assemble her case.

"We'll continue to work closely with her during this next phase, but for now – we just want to express how grateful we are for the incredible outpouring of support, advice, resources, time, and love," says Caitlin Baggott, Director of PolitiCorps, "Andrea deserves a chance to achieve her American dream."

Even as her status in the United States became increasingly uncertain Andrea continued to be an avid volunteer and community activist. She donated her time to numerous organizations, including Florida Immigrant Coalition and the DREAM Team coalition while a student at Florida State University. After graduating from Florida State University with a bachelors degree in international relations, she volunteered for five months with the International Labor Rights Forum and the International Rescue Committee, where she helped case workers work with with individuals who had been granted asylum. In the summer of 2008 she earned a competitive a Fellowship to participate in PolitiCorps, a prestigious political training program in Portland, Oregon.

“Andrea’s passionate commitment to American democratic values and her reliance and optimism in the face of adversity make her one of the most exceptional young leaders I have ever had the privilege of knowing,” says Alex Tischenko, a former supervisor of Andrea's, regarding her deep involvement in civic engagement. During her fellowship with PolitiCorps in 2008, she spearheaded efforts to educate low-income communities about criminal justice legislation in Oregon. She was considered one of the hardest-working and most promising Fellows in the program. Andrea continued on to support "get out the vote" efforts in Ohio during the 2008 general election.

For more information about the Andrea’s case, please contact Mollie Ruskin or Caitlin Baggott at the Oregon Bus Project at 503.233.3018

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Thank you, all, for your help.

To help more young Americans (citizen status pending), check out USSA's DREAM Act page.

The folks at the Bus Project have put together an incredible working document of progressive and non-partisan training programs. You can find the full document here (and the folks at the Bus are encouraging people to edit the document to add in new opportunities or more information about those already listed. It's a great, great resource already listing almost 40 different training programs ranging from the hyper-partisan and political to more non-partisan, social justice and civic oriented opportunities.

As usual, nothing but excellence from the folks at The Bus.

It's like AmeriCorps, but you don't have to abstain from politics while you serve. In fact, we encourage voting.*
It's like the Peace Corps, but you won't get malaria. (We promise. Oregon's been malaria-free for years.)*
It's PolitiCorps. A term of service for democracy.

Do you know a hotshot young activist ready to run a campaign, polish up her public speaking skills, and manage a volunteer team? You should nominate her or him now.

This week PolitiCorps will accept the first dozen Fellows for the 2009 Summer Bootcamp, based in Portland, Oregon. Applications are due on March 20th.

Fellowships provide a total of 24 promising young activists a free 10 week training in high impact grassroots organizing skills and next generation leadership skills.

This national Fellowship for young progressives offers:

• A cleared path toward a career in the public interest
• Training in communications, community organizing, public policy analysis, networking, data management, and project management
• Round-table conversations with nationally-known politics, wonks, strategists, and progressive change-agents
• Close friendships with some of the brightest and most dedicated activists in the country
• Housing and cost of living stipends are offered on top of tuition for the 10 week training

PolitiCorps Fellows are college juniors, seniors, and recent graduates (up to 24 years old) who have a demonstrated commitment to progressive values and an interest in the political process.

To learn more, download our shiny brochure.

There are two applications periods for Summer 2009.
Round 1: Applications due March 20th (12 Fellows)
Round 2: Rolling admissions until the program is full (12 Fellows)

To apply today, submit a nomination form now.

*Obviously, we think AmeriCorps and the Peace Corps (and all the other Corps) are neato. Really super.

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.

Happy Holidays. Here's what's caught my eye this week:

• The Washington Independent notes that Obama's energy policy is being driven by (young) green votes.
• AlterNet asks, Will the youth movement save the labor movement?
• Daily Kos has data that Join the Impact's anti-Prop 8 protests have changed enough minds in California that the ballot measure would not pass a second time. And they have data to prove it. That's an effective use of the protest model.
• The National Journal credits young voters with Obama's win, noting that his advantage among Millennials is bad news for the longterm health of the GOP. Generation We, YDA and others get good play in this excellent article.
• Oregon local news notes that young people were elected to the state legislature in droves this year, doubling their numbers within the Democratic caucus. Jefferson Smith, one of the founders of the Bus Project, is one of those new Young Elected Officials and he is quoted in the article.
• Netcentric Advocacy gives us the Obama campaign by the numbers. Interesting stats here.
• This is a must read. In the Huffington Post, Jake Brewer of the Energy Action Coalition, son of a GM worker, gives a heartbreaking and insightful account of the state of the auto industry. Word on the street is that this piece is getting read by GM execs.
• MySpace and Change.org are partnering with a number of other youthy and techie c3s to ask for your ideas on what President Obama should do once he takes office. They've got a cool Digg-style site set up to rate ideas, which must be no more than 250 words in length.
• The Obama Transition Team wants your ideas on healthcare.
• The Daily Kos empire expands with the launch of Congress Matters, a new blog that will track what's going on in Congress and offer activists and regular citizens information on how they can most impact the policy process.
• Danah Boyd and some other smarties have finished a three year ethnographic study of digital youth. This should be interesting.
• Engaged Youth has a post up about the "Activism Style of Millennials."
• At Tech President, Micah Sifry interviews Marshall Ganz about Obama's field operation and the upside and dangers of Obama as the first President backed by a full-fledged movement.

The election was seven days ago and I'm starting to get emails from various organizations announcing their victories/contributions. This is not even close to a scientific assessment of the effectiveness of each group, but it's nice to give people a shout out, and it's a good look at what the youth vote world is saying about itself. We will see more rigorous assessments of individual programs as people like David Nickerson, Gerber and Green, etc. start crunching real data. And between now and the inauguration I plan to spend time talking to the major youth groups and writing up individual pieces on each organization's efforts. For now, here's a small taste of what went on in 2008:

Oregon Bus Project

• Bus Project Foundation registered 23,000 new young voters this year, increasing the Oregon youth electorate by 7 percent.
• Bus Trips knocked on over 60,000 doors this year, and is sure to have an impact on Oregon's 2009 legislature. This is double the number of doors per targeted district than in 2006. Quothe a razor's edge state rep candidate today: "I wouldn't be in this race if it weren't for the Bus."
• All told, 7 of the 10 candidates given 1000+ knocks of Bus volunteer support are winning their races, with one more too close to call.
• Trick or Vote was a huge success with 35% of the participants indicating that the event was their first political volunteering experience.
• We know The Bus Federation, working in five western states, has helped reach hundreds of thousands of doors with over 10,000 volunteer engagements.
• The 2009 (Oregon State Legilsative) session will see ten members age 35 and under -- the largest cohort of young legislators in state memory. Of the five new young legislators, two serve on the Bus' board of directors and four have volunteered extensively with the organization.
• After hundreds of thousands of Bus Project "Whole Ballot" contacts - the undervote dropped dramatically. Only 3% fewer votes have been tallied in the incredibly close Merkley v. Smith Senate race than in the historic Presidential race. Compare that to a 14% undervote from the top of the ticket in Merkley's tightly-contested primary race.

Young Democrats

• YDA contacted a record 150,000 young voters in eight key states. Thousands of Young Dems mobilized their peers all over the country.
• Over 1,300 paid canvassers, street teams, and volunteers worked to get out the youth vote for Democrats up and down the ballot.
• Our Young Voter Revolution campaigns targeted young voters and members in all 50 states but focused on Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Utah, and Virginia.

Head Count

• Its 2008 voter registration campaign yielded 105,697 registrations, constituting the largest event-based voter registration campaign in the United States.
• The group more than doubled its voter registration total compared to the previous presidential election by registering voters at more than 1,000 concerts and staging extensive online and college-based initiatives. Of all the voters HeadCount registered this year, over half were age 24 or younger, and three-quarters were under the age of 30, establishing the organization as a leader in galvanizing the
  youth vote.
• HeadCount fielded street teams in over 40 cities and sent volunteers on the road with 10 different concert tours.
• HeadCount registered 53,475 of its total voters at live music events.
• HeadCount worked directly with several colleges and fellow nonprofit organizations to register another 28,598 through co-branded activities. A New York City “Street and Subway Canvass Blitz” staged with partner New York Public Interest Research Group netted 10,161 registrations. An additional 15,546 registrations came from colleges and universities who teamed directly with HeadCount to stage voter registration drives on their campuses.
• The highest number of registrations was generated on the Dave Matthews Band tour – 8,420 in total. Dave Matthews Band’s website and email communication also generated an estimated 10,000 additional online registrations, by far the largest of any HeadCount artist or media partner.
• The artist that helped generate the largest number of registrations per concert was Jack Johnson, averaging 257 registrations at each of his solo concerts (even more at festivals).
• “Touring Teams” traveling with bands racked up over 18,000 new registrations, nearly 40 percent of the concert total.
• HeadCount got more than 50,000 concertgoers and music fans to “Pledge to Vote,” creating a massive database used for Get Out the Vote purposes.

"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