Boston rocks the vote

College was back in session for the democratic presidential nominees last night at CNN's "Rock the Vote." Held in Faneuil Hall last night, they fielded tough questions about what they were like as 20-year-olds, whether they'd ever smoked marijuana, and who they'd like to party with.

In a town-hall style 90-minute debate, the candidates fielded questions from young voters and the show's host, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. Several Tufts students and alumni were in the audience, and over 50 others stayed outside to rally for their candidates or work inside as event staff.

Focusing on job creation, civil rights, access to education, and the conflict in Iraq, Gov. Howard Dean, Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun, Gen. Wesley Clark, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, Sen. John Edwards, Sen. John Kerry, Rev. Al Sharpton and Congressman Dennis Kucinich tackled issues at the hearts of young voters.

The tensest moments of the debate came in the beginning when a student asked frontrunner Dean about his comment in the Des Moines Register last week that he wants "to be the candidate for guys with Confederate flags in their pickup trucks." Dean said he intended the comment to broaden the Democratic party's appeal to voters in the South who live in poverty, but consistently vote Republican. "If we don't reach out to every American we can't win," he said. "I've had enough of campaigns based on fear, I want a campaign based on hope." He nevertheless drew harsh criticism from Edwards and Sharpton who demanded he apologize for the comment, Dean spent the first six minutes of the debate defending himself. Students said they were surprised at the comments.

"I was shocked by the way some of the candidates reacted to Howard Dean's comment about people who fly the confederate flag, and I was equally shocked by Gov. Dean's response," said Justin Krypel, a senior and treasurer of Tufts Democrats. "I personally think that is something he should apologize for, insulting our friends in the South." Krypel worked at the event.

As usual for a "Rock the Vote" event, the evening was full of surprises. Clark said he opposed a trade embargo on Cuba and Kerry said he would have taken star Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez out of the game that cost the team the World Series.

When asked about marijuana use, there was no talk of inhaling or not inhaling. Rather, Edwards, Kerry, and Dean admitted freely that they had used the illegal drug. Braun, however, took the fifth. Instead of the boxers or briefs question that revealed Clinton wore Boxers in the 1996 forum, a student from Brown University asked if the candidates used PC's or Macs. Most said they were PC users.

Throughout the evening, Sharpton, and his slogan, "walking the talk," brought laughs from the crowd with his critiques of other candidates and Bush. "We believe in dreams, Mr. Bush believes in hallucinations," he said.

Tufts students and alumni were some of the most vocal audience members. Senior Courtney Demesme-Anders from California asked the candidates how they would reach out to young people like her, and Greg Propper (LA '01) prompted the candidates to discuss Bush's cuts to Americorps. Alethea Pieters (LA '03), now a fiscal policy analyst, ended the evening by asking, of those present, who would be the best to party with. Though Sharpton said he'd like to party with Kerry's wife, Lieberman said he'd like to party with Pieters.

Though senior Jackie Fields did not ask any questions, she sat in the second row, and said the event made her hopeful. "They were very lively and compassionate people who I knew very little about before attending the event, so I felt very honored to do something like that," she said. Fields was nominated to attend the event by Dean for Undergraduate Education James Glaser.

Congressman Richard Gephardt was the only candidate who did not attend.

Many students rallied outside of Faneuil hall before and after "Rock the Vote." Freshman Amy Helms, who rallied with Tufts Students for Dean, said she was excited for this event. "[Rock the Vote] is the one event that targets young student," she said. She said she was campaigning for Dean because she felt he "is the only candidate that speaks to our generation." Other students attended "watch parties" at nearby pubs, sponsored by the candidates, or held their own parties much closer to home.

Boston was chosen to host this year's "Rock the Vote" because the winning candidate will return to Boston this July to receive the party's nomination at the Democratic National Convention.

Yesterday morning the Convention Committee held a preparatory meeting targeted at young democrats to gear up for "Rock the Vote." A handful of Tufts students joined those from other local colleges and universities to discuss similar issues of unemployment, access to education, healthcare, and how to mobilize students on their campuses.

Convention Chairman Terry McAuliffe urged students to "embrace" the issues, share them with other young voters, and most importantly, that, "the time to pull together is when we have a candidate." At age 33, McAuliffe himself is the youngest Democratic Convention Chairman in history.

Krypel said this was another positive step by the Democratic committee in trying to reach out to the youth vote -- a vote that could be very important in the crowded primary. "Its great to get together with other college democratic leaders, and just hear ideas about how to get young people in this area involved," he said. "It was great to see the Boston convention committee reaching out to young people."

As reflected by informal votes at this meeting, it appeared that candidates Kerry and Dean have been most effective at reaching out to college students, particularly with their youth-targeted website campaigns, Generation Dean and Students for Kerry.

This outreach to the nation's youth comes in the wake of last week's Harvard Institute of Politics poll, which revealed that this year's youth vote is up for grabs more than ever before.

The poll, which identified 31 percent of students as Republicans, 27 percent as Democrats, and 38 percent as Independent or unaffiliated, is reversing the adage that college voters are liberal voters.

Though "Rock the Vote" mainly focused on the Democratic party, over half a dozen members of Tufts Republicans joined other local groups in rallying for Bush in front of Fanueil Hall. Phil Tsipman, Tufts Republicans president and a senior, said he thought the forum was a good way to put candidates on the spot about some of the issues, but criticized the organization for not appealing to all voters.

"As far as the organization goes, I'm all for trying to get young people to register to vote," he said. "On the other hand [Rock the Vote is] kind of politically biased in the kind of stuff that they do."

Established in 1990, "Rock the Vote" is a non-profit and non-partisan organization dedicated to engaging young people in the political process through the incorporation of youth culture. In addition to the "Rock the Vote" debates, the organization has created Street Team programs in urban centers distributed voter registration kits throughout the country. Last night's forum was aired live on CNN and simulcast on CNN Radio.