RNC

Clear back on February 4, 2009, Mike wrote a post about being asked whether or not Michael Steele, Chair of the RNC, could serve as a bridge to the youth vote for the Republican Party. A story posted this morning on TPMDC sheds some light on Steele's struggles with the youth vote, even within his own party.

22 year old Thomas Shultz, a student at Brigham Young University, is fed up with Michael Steele, so he's starting a petition drive to kick him out of the chairmanship of the RNC.

On Monday, Shultz launched ReplaceMichaelSteele.com, an online petition he hopes will centralize what he sees as general opposition to Steele among rank-and-file Republicans across the country. He, like a lot of establishment Republicans here in Washington, said Steele's tenure has done more harm than good to the GOP as it gears up for the presidential election in 2012.

[...]

Shultz is not a voting member of the RNC, nor are young Republicans like him expected to play much of a role in the selection of the next RNC chair, whomever it may be. But for Steele, who has sold remaking the party as more accessible to groups who traditionally stay away from the GOP -- like young voters for example -- a cornerstone of his tenure, Shultz' view that the RNC chair is bad for the party can only be seen as a setback, even if only a minor one.

Shultz wasn't ready to say that young Republicans have turned on Steele entirely, but he said the ambivalence toward the RNC chair wasn't reserved for higher age brackets.

"I think there's definitely a consensus that's building that he needs to go," Shultz said. "He's a solid individual. I just question his ability to lead us to victory in 2012."

The story here isn't necessarily that Michael Steele is in turmoil; that's a perpetual state. This development is discerning, rather, given Steele's habit of playing up what he claims to be a connection with grassroots voters, resolving "to [build] an enduring majority party -- from the grassroots up," and his plans for an "off the hook" hip-hop makeover of the GOP.

This development suggests he's not even winning the Brigham Young vote - quite troubling for someone dedicated to attracting youth to the party and growing the GOP's grassroots.

The Republic National Committee has added a new tool to its arsenal in the high-stakes battle for the lifetime allegiance of Millennial voters. FarmVille, a popular Facebook application game with over 80 million monthly users, allows players to "grow delicious fruits and vegetables and raise adorable animals on your very own farm!"

The RNC is hoping to capitalize on the "neighbors" component of the game. Neighbors, who are friends and contacts who connect with each other through the game, allow players to level up faster and accumulate more plants, animals, and decorations for their farm. The idea is to turn their FarmVille neighbors into fans of the RNC Facebook page as a foot-in-the-door to more meaningful outreach and participation.

The official RNC Farmville account will be managed by staffers within the organization's new media department. A video explaining the new program has been posted to YouTube.

Come on Democrats, you let the RNC beat you to FarmVille. You have to at least try for Mafia Wars.

Update: PFAW's Right Wing Watch blog has more on this including back story on Peter LaBarbera, who apparently has a vendetta against the Log Cabin Republicans.
----------------------

I know, my blog title sounds like a really bad (as in not good and also offensive) Christian Rock band. Unfortunately, it is also the dead serious subject of an article that hit my inbox via a Google Alert.

Two individuals who were intimately involved with John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign will be addressing an April gathering of homosexual activists in Washington, DC.

Meghan McCain, the 24-year-old daughter of former Republican presidential nominee John McCain, will be among the featured speakers at the annual convention of the Log Cabin Republicans, a homosexual activist group. The title of Meghan McCain's speech is "Winning the Next Generation -- How can the Republican Party attract more young voters."

Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, says McCain is taking the wrong message to young voters.

"I'm afraid that some Republicans are going to think, 'Hey, we have to go pro-gay and try to be hip to get the youth vote,'" suggests LaBarbera. "Look, the kind of youth who are going to be the long-term heroes in the Republican Party are going to be the principled youth of today -- and the principled youth don't want us to play around or go half-way on homosexuality, or just fight gay marriage and not anything else."

Actually, articles like this - and the people who believe in them and are active in GOP politics - are the reason that the Republican party is going to continue to struggle with young voters. We've beaten up on Meghan McCain pretty hard here these last few days for her somewhat shallow diagnosis of how Republicans missed the youth train, but kudos to her for delivering this speech and for at least broaching the subject within GOP politics. She's going to have a long, hard slog fighting against dead-enders like the guy who wrote this article.

Tomorrow, President Obama will give a major speech in which he will roll out his budget, and discuss the economic crisis and health care reform. The GOP has tapped Louisiana Governor (and 2012 Presidential candidate) Bobby Jindal to deliver their response. In preparation for that, CNN is running a fairly large profile of the governor in which many GOP reps acknowledge Republican failure to connect to young voters, and pin their party's future hopes on Jindal:

The GOP, still reeling from election beatings in 2006 and 2008, is looking to revamp itself by rebuilding from the states up and reaching out to young voters. At 37, the popular Louisiana governor embodies that mission, experts say.

"The job is very important in framing the Republican message really for the rest of the year," said Nick Ayers, executive director of the Republican Governors Association, referring to the response speech Tuesday. "Gov. Jindal provides the outside-the-beltway, not D.C., perspective. And he's one of the smartest policy minds in the country. He's not perceived as a overtly political person."

Being tapped for this prime-time speech, a job normally for congressional leaders, has helped to elevate Jindal's standing in the party dominated by old pros, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader John Boehner, as well as personalities, such as Alaska's Sarah Palin and California's Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"It's time for another generation to come into play," said GOP strategist Ed Rollins, a CNN contributor. "A lot of Republicans came of age under Reagan, which was 25 years ago … and we just haven't built on that with young people."

Rollins, a veteran of the Reagan White House, called Jindal, a first-generation American born to Punjabi parents, a "young dynamic governor" with "appeal to younger voters."

The governor is a "textbook Republican" who is "scary smart," Cross added.

And, having an accomplished minority figure represent your party's message doesn't hurt, he said.

"The Republican Party very strongly wants to have a new look," he said. "They're saying, 'We're not just a party of old white guys' and he's part of that appeal."

As I've written before, Bobby Jindal certainly gets young Republicans fired up and ready to go, but I'm not sure he can cross-over and pull independents back to the GOP. It certainly doesn't help when Jindal, purely out of ideological and cynical political motives, is refusing millions of dollars of stimulus money that could help out poor, struggling families in his state.

I'm looking forward to seeing polls tracking how Jindal plays with young voters on a national level. My bet is that he doesn't do nearly as well as many conservatives are hoping he will.

Looks like NextGenGOP's prayers have been answered. New RNC Chairman Michael Steele is finally paying attention to young voters. By the time he's done, they're going to wish he hadn't:

Newly elected Republican National Committee Chairman Michael S. Steele plans an “off the hook” public relations offensive to attract younger voters, especially blacks and Hispanics, by applying the party's principles to “urban-suburban hip-hop settings.”

I guess this means we're going to see the return of "MC Rove?"

I just got off the phone with a reporter from Medill News Service who is doing a story about Republicans and the youth vote. During our conversation she asked if Michael Steele, the new Republican Party Chairman, could act as a bridge to the youth vote for the GOP. I was instantly reminded of Steele's performance at the RNC. I don't think this will fly with young voters:

A quick roundup of what's been going on at Overdetermined.net. Enjoy!

• Blue Leader speculates on the RNC's new in-house think tank

• The latest installment of Building a Voter File discusses matching between lists without a persistent and unique ID. Hint: read the earlier entries first, it will make things much more comprehensible.

• Pluribus explains why he doesn't trust proprietary voting machines

• Dirty D talks about using census data as a pollster

• And of course, a little graph-related humor

There will be 631 youth delegates from all 50 states (and several territories) at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, or 14.9% of the 4,234 total delegates. Adding in pages and alternates, young people make up 16% of the total official DNC convention participants.

I just received word that there will be - um - slightly less youth representation at the Republican National Convention. The RNC will feature 42 youth delegates, or 1.76% of the total 2,380 delegates. These delegates come from only 24 states.

14.9% vs. 1.76% of the total delegates. 631 delegates vs. 42 delegates.

That's a 15 - 1 ratio. And it's not just grassroots "celebrity support." These are activists and future players within the party. If that doesn't tell you something about the directions in which these parties are heading, nothing will.

Still no word on data from CIRCLE . . . sorry. Waiting on them for my post-election recap.

• Rolling Stone skewers the Senate in The Senate Caves.
• Peter Levine - Director of CIRCLE - splashes some cold water on the idea that party identification forms early and hardens for life. Yikes, let's hope not.
• In the past I've had real disagreements with Courtney Martin's reading of today's youth activism, but she does us all proud in this op-ed for the Women's Media Center.
• The RNC tried to pull ahead of the DNC in the race for Facebook friends. It backfired hilariously. Full story at Tech President.
• Campaigns and Elections has released a list of Rising Stars Under 35. A few are familiar. Most are not. What do you think of the list?
• Apparently, in his quest to craft a "better" GI Bill than the one offered (and recently passed) by Jim Webb, John McCain didn't actually consult many veterans. You stay classy, McCain.

Stuff you should know and see that I won't be blogging in depth:

• Looks like we have another YEO! John Tyler Hammons, a 17 year old freshman at the University of Oklahoma was elected the mayor of Muskegee, a town of 38,000 people. He ran on a good government platform and won in a run-off against the former mayor, capturing 70% of the vote. Way to go John. - The Politico
• Young evangelicals continue to abandon Bush and the GOP over Iraq and the economy. - Huffington Post
• The Godfathers of GOTV testing and research, Gerber and Green, have a new book out pimping Peer to Peer as the best form of organizing. Direct mail and robo-call consultants everywhere are not happy. - Campaigns and Elections
• Two articles say that Obama will need the "senior vote" if he is to beat McCain. I tend not to agree. There are more voters under 30 than over 65, and in some contests we are already performing on par with their turnout. It all depends on how many new young voters show up in November. - Democratic Strategist
• Obama is the king of voter-generated music tributes. - The Politico
• Republicans held a fashion show on the National Mall to show off their new convention swag. This was my favorite photo. And no, this is not a joke. - Minnesota Monitor

Who at the GOP thought it was a good idea to bring back MC Hammer pants? And I'm pretty sure that if that little girl were a lib'rul, we'd hear wingnuts screaming about flag desecration.