chris van hollen

Jose Antonio Vargas has a piece on the Huffington Post asking what happened to all of the young people that turned out for Obama. He also asks where too is the mainstream media

"the same MSM that declared 2008 as "The Year of the Youth Vote" -- in covering how young people are impacted by the health care debate, which has dominated the news for months? (Studies show that a quarter of Americans ages 25 to 34 don't have health insurance, while about a third of Americans ages 21 to 24 live without it -- more than any other age group."

Vargas says this is in part due to the high unemployment among young people and that many employers don't offer health insurance.

"Where is the Team Obama that adeptly leveraged the enthusiasm of its digitally-plugged young troops, who scheduled rallies on Facebook, passed YouTube videos around their network and sent text messages reminding their friends to vote? Speaking last month at George Washington University, just a few blocks from the White House, Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe told the college crowd: "Your generation won the election. . .Obama simply wouldn't have been the nominee without you."

He goes on to quote our friend Tobin Van Ostern who created Students for Barack Obama but who is now working with Campus Progress

"But, as far as I can tell, engaging young people hasn't been a top priority for the OFA, DNC and the White House."

Sad but true. Vargas talks about who is knocking doors for OFA and who is doing the work for the DNC but the long and short is that the work done by the campaign to do outreach to young voters, on campus, online, in their communities isn't even half of what they did during the campaign.

We were lucky to have a representative from the Treasury Department speak at the 80 Million Strong Conference and had Interior Secretary Ken Salazar talk about the outreach he is doing to young people to encourage them to get more involved in our state and national parks. Beyond that there is very little outreach to young people, particularly considering that young people were such a large portion of the voters.

"The sentiment is echoed in a blog on the popular site Tech Crunch that's gone viral in the past few days. "On the night of your acceptance speech, just before you walked on stage, 'you' sent out an email saying 'I will be in touch soon' -- but you disappeared and all we were left with was the strange feeling you get when your older brother ditches you for his cooler friends," began the post, which blogger Edo Segal wrote as an open letter to Obama."

He goes on to quote many who say that Obama the candidate ran a new and different campaign based on change, but governs in the same old way politicians always have. The New Media Strategy has also seen a major change. While it was a major facets to the campaign with their director reporting directly to the campaign manager, the White House new media strategy falls under one of the many outreach tools in the communications department.

Not mentioned by Vargas is the office of public liaison whose youth outreach representative is the same as the faith based and non-profit outreach person. Can you honestly tell me that one person can handle all of the faith based outreach and non-profits and then have time to do an aggressive youth outreach strategy? Not a chance. At the same time, faith based groups are accustom to having a seat at the table in the White House, and they know very well how it works. Youth are accustom to being ignored, so they aren't as likely to stick their neck out and demand a meeting with someone from the White House.

At one point there was a monthly conference call among youth leaders and the office of public liaison, but one youth leader who asked to not be identified said it was such a colossal waste of time that he quite participating and he doesn't know if they continue.

While the process might seem trite, the result has the appearance that youth aren't a major concern to the White House, the DNC, or OFA.

By contrast, Congressional Democrats have done a lot more in efforts to reach out to young people. While I consistently criticize Chris van Hollen for the DCCC's youth outreach program being "showing candidates the data," chairs of Congressional Committees (particularly Rep. George Miller) have worked with several youth groups and young leaders as partners in policy initiatives and in passing legislation. The Speaker's office continues to be an open door to young people, and Speaker Pelosi reaches out to youth more and more each year.

Reporters and bloggers have been writing about the upcoming election saying that young voters won't come out for the midterms. It's the same thing we've heard over and over again, and each year we work to show them they're wrong, we are relevant, and that we can't be ignored. But in a year when we've been so consistently ignored, placated, and the once "You're the change in this movement" has turned into "you think you're invincible," makes me wonder if its a self fulfilling prophecy.

Vargas closes his piece quoting youth ally Morley Winograd who spoke about the outreach the White House could have done around health care to guarantee it was passed:

"There's been a missed opportunity here in showcasing the kind of youthful, optimistic, hopeful energy that greatly Obama benefited from during the campaign," said Morley Winograd. . ."But of course it does not at all mean that the opportunity has gone away."

Continuing our coverage from Washington DC, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi along with Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Kathy Dahlkemper (D-PA) held a press conference with representatives from several youth organizations in support of the Young Adult Health Coverage Act which allows young Americans remain on their health insurance plan until they turn 26.

According to the Speaker

"Young adults are the most uninsured group in the country. They often lose coverage at age 19 when they graduate from high school or a few years later when they graduate from college. Once they enter the workforce, they face new obstacles to getting insurance. Today, they are speaking out and their voices are being heard. For many weeks, young Americans have added to the call to the chorus for reform. They have offered specific proposals about health insurance reform that works for everyone.

Our legislation answers their call by: ending discrimination based on pre-existing medical conditions, capping out-of-pocket costs, focusing on preventive care, investing in workforce training to boost the number of primary care doctors and nurses, creating a health insurance exchange to give Americans a better deal in the individual insurance market, and speaking personally, a public option in the House bill. Today, I’m pleased to announce that our bill will allow young people to stay on their parents’ policy until their 27th birthday if they need it.

Our young people are our future. This is our opportunity to lay a foundation for growth, progress, and prosperity for our youth, and provide affordable, quality health care to every American. It is an opportunity we will not miss."

The Speaker has been a consistent ally to the youth movement, frequently lending her leadership to issues that support my generation. Reps. Van Hollen and Dahlkemper should be proud of their work on something so meaningful in the health care battle.

Ezra Klein riffs off a new book released by James Monrone and David Blumenthal on health care. I agree with both him and the authors that in 2010, Democrats need to focus on the voters on the progressive base. First, some backfill with Klein quoting Monroe on the topic of the 1994 midterm turnout:

Go back and look at the midterm tsunami that swept the Democrats out of office the last time. The turnout for that wave was just 36 percent. Moderate, fence sitting independents don't vote in midterm elections with a 36 percent turn out.

What really happened back in 1994? The Republican base — jubilant, mobilized and angry — turned out. The Democratic base — dispirited, disenchanted and demobilized — stayed home. As Democrats ponder which way to go in this latest round, they ought to read the political lessons more carefully: Short-term
electoral success rests with the base, the people who got excited about "change we can believe in." Long-term electoral success rests in designing and pushing through a program that then grows very popular.

And now Klein's analysis (emphasis mine):

That's well-phrased: The political danger is not just that a failure on health-care reform will anger the electorate. It will also change the composition of the electorate. Dispirited Democrats will stay home. Energized Republicans will press their advantage. Add in that the wave of young voters who were energized by Obama's campaign probably aren't going to turn out for the midterm election anyway, and you're looking at a pretty unfriendly landscape.

Young voter turnout, was one point lower in 2006 than in 1994, but the fact to really care about is that 2006 was actually an increase in midterm participation. First. Time. Ever. Ezra Klein is no slouch; this guy knows his wonk material. But bringing the negativity to a demographic that really liked the "Change" and "Hope" slogans is counterproductive and a poor strategy. That is, unless throwing in the towel is your thing. In a large part, this blog and the book Mike wrote are dedicatd to the yes we can philosophy. Not for Obama, but for the future of Millennials and our own capacity to take control of our political destiny.

Klein might have missed the analysis by Stu Rothenberg, which Mike blogged about last month, that basically calls for "Democrats to maintain the interest of the youth vote and African Americans." (The constituents who brought the excitement, energy and the votes to the Obama campaign.)

This sounds familiar, doesn't it? That's because it is the exact same analysis produced by Obama/DNC Pollster Cornell Belcher as a sort of "exit interview" on Howard Dean's tenure at the DNC.

Rothenberg goes on to point out that young voter turnout tends to drop precipitously during midterm elections (which is true), however he fails to note that 2006 was the first midterm election in decades in which youth turnout increased, and that young voters swung critical races including the Montana and Virginia Senate races (pdf).

Even party leaders like Chris Van Hollen have talked about the importance of young voters.

So, there's a lot of talk about the youth vote in 2010. What Ezra Klein probably also knows, and perhaps why he so easily slights the youth vote, is that he may know that the DCCC isn't doing youth outreach. Remember that youth turnout went up by three percentage points from 2002 to 2006; that's massive, and there's room for growth. Youth groups can't be the only ones doing field work; their budgets aren't what they used to be. The DCCC needs to step it up and put their money where their mouth is, because that is the path to victory in 2010. Youth outreach today is about winning in 2010 and the future. We'd much rather see our future majority sooner rather than later.