'You have the power,' he repeats on 4-day tour

Tuesday, October 07, 2003

By Maeve Reston, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

DURHAM, N.H. -- On the final stop of presidential hopeful Howard B. Dean's four-day drive to attract younger voters, the line stretched all the way out the door in the University of New Hampshire Student Center and down a long hallway.

There was some pushing, a little too much shoulder-rubbing and more than a few groans from the fresh-faced crowd of college students when Dean volunteers finally announced that they had reached auditorium capacity of about 800, and that the 200 or so latecomers were going to have to listen outside.

Welcome to the Generation Dean tour, where the old rules that young voters don't vote and don't care just don't seem to apply anymore.

It's a movement where a plainspoken former Vermont governor can draw a crowd of 1,000 college students to a University of Iowa gathering, as he did early Sunday afternoon, or inspire a group of devoted volunteers to use up 73 buckets of colored chalk to advertise a University of Wisconsin rally in Madison, which drew some 5,000 young adults later Sunday.

At each stop of a four-day tour, Dean told young supporters that they were not his campaign's foot soldiers, but instead they were driving the campaign. "You have the power," he said yesterday.

And this time, they believe him. Just ask.

Peter W. Benziger, a 21-year-old University of Maine student, drove 3 1/2 hours to hear Dean speak yesterday at the New Hampshire campus. When he walked out after hearing Dean, he had to take a long pause when asked why he supported the former governor.

"I'm sorry, I'm so excited, I'm not thinking straight," he said with a grin. "He's the first candidate I trust. He's genuine. And his lack of Washington connections is a big thing for me. He's not into pleasing everyone, and I like that."

"He's rational, it's all straight talk and common sense," said 26-year-old Abraham L. Viles, another University of Maine student. "They say young people don't vote; well, this time they will."

There are still many months before anyone will be able to predict whether Dean can win the Democratic presidential nomination. But the Dean campaign has undeniably succeeded in one very unusual way, by exciting -- even electrifying -- younger voters in a way no politician has in three decades.

Young voters have traditionally had the lowest turnout rate at the polls. About a third of 18-to-24-year-olds vote, or about half the rate of 65-to-74-year-olds, the most consistent voters, according to a 2002 U.S. Census Bureau report.

But Thomas E. Patterson, the Bradlee professor of government and the press at Harvard University and author of the 2002 book "The Vanishing Voter," said the last candidate to galvanize young voters the way Dean has done was former South Dakota Sen. George S. McGovern, the 1972 Democratic presidential candidate, who ran when sentiment opposing the Vietnam War was running high among the nation's younger voters.

"If you go back and review recent presidential elections in the period 1972 to 2004, there doesn't seem to be any candidacy that has mobilized young people to the degree [Dean] has been able to do it," Patterson said.

Patterson argued that Dean's Internet-centered campaign has drawn in many younger voters who are able to get involved by writing in to the campaign's online discussion and sending e-mails to the campaign. The number of small donors who have contributed to Dean, the size of the donations -- averaging $77 -- and the fact that many donations have come through the Internet are all clear signs, he said, that many givers are new to the political process.

The Dean campaign claims that roughly a quarter of its contributions are from younger supporters.

Yesterday, Dean ended his eight-city "Generation Dean" tour in New Hampshire, which will hold the first state primary Jan. 27. He had rallied young voters in Washington, D.C.; Charleston, S.C.; Norman, Okla.; Seattle; Iowa City, Iowa; Madison, Wis.; Keene and Durham, N.H.

With his white shirt sleeves rolled to his elbow and his speech in his back pocket, he bounded onstage at the New Hampshire campus and urged the under-30 crowd to fight for a change in power to stop the nation's rising deficit, which they will pay for, and care about a foreign policy he believes is creating enemies around the world.

"You are going to inherit this country after this election, and the kind of country you are going to inherit is up to you," he said. "People always say young people don't vote. ... People your age are not turned off by doing something for society; they just don't vote because we don't give you a reason to vote. And we're going to give you a reason to vote in this campaign."

Student after student in New Hampshire yesterday and at Dean's first tour stop at Washington's Howard University, a predominantly black campus, said they would support Dean because they believe he is genuine.

"He tells the truth. ... He gives you the meat," 19-year-old Howard University student Amber M. Elliott said. "Even if he doesn't win, he has gotten people interested that haven't been interested before, ... and I already told my parents they have to vote for him."

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