When appealing to student workers and voters, Republican candidate Pat Robertson focuses on his fundamentalist religion and his conservative views on family and education, says Michael D. Lord '90, Robertson's youth co-ordinator for the New England region. He says that these views run counter to those held by "the Washington and party establishment."
Youth outreach groups like Robertson's serve two purposes: they win over college-age voters and drum up more volunteers for the crucial canvassing that can win primaries. The Democrats in particular have made strong efforts to send volunteer to meet New Hampshire voters.
The student volunteer efforts center on small core groups of workers which consistently travel to New Hampshire or campaign headquarters in Boston where they man telephones and lick envelopes, leaders say. These groups vary in size from a handful of supporters for candidates such as Al Haig or Bruce Babbitt, to 20 or 30 backers for Dole, Bush or Dukakis.
Benefits for volunteers may include after-hour visits from candidates, social mixing with other students, and debating with voters. Brown says New Hampshire residents are "fiercely politically and willing to question canvassers about their candidates while maintaining an independent viewpoint.
Dukakis' young campaign workers last fall tried another campaign technique. Gross says college students helped create the first-ever satellite conference in a presidential election when Dukakis addressed students in 56 colleges in 25 states via a satellite hookup last November.
Registering New Voters
While most candidates ask their volunteers to concentrate on winning votes, the Rev. Jesse Jackson's supporters at Harvard and nationwide have been an exception. The Jackson workers instead try to register new voters. Jackson's Massachusetts campus coordinator H. Edward Young Jr. '89 says volunteers at the College will be recruiting voters in Cambridge. "Jackson keeps pushing that Americans need to vote," Young says. He adds that Jackson's campaign registered 3 million voters in 1984 and hopes to beat that record this year.
Besides the Jackson campaign, however, candidates' student groups have similar agendas for this spring. Most plan weekend canvassing trips to New Hampshire over the next two weeks, coupled with more campus publicity. Most groups do not anticipate any more visits by presidential hopefuls, although every candidate except for Vice President George Bush came to Harvard's Institute of Politics this fall for Murrow Professor of Press and Public Policy Marvin S. Kalb's series of interviews.
Although most of the campaigns have been able to assemble small collections of individuals for canvassing, most have had trouble pulling in larger groups of students. L. Ellen Cox '89, co-president of Harvard's Republican Club and co-chairman of Harvard Students for Dole, says, "With Harvard kids, it's tough to pin them down with volunteering. Everyone has a lot of activities."
Other student leaders say that apathy keeps the majority of the student body inactive. However, Ann-Marie Leshkowich '89, president of the Harvard Democrats Club, says she thinks student activism is on the rise and will continue to grow as the campaign progresses. "Students are interested but they need a sense that they make a difference," Leshkowich says. She adds Harvard's schedule makes campaigning difficult, because exam and registration schedules in the fall and winter conflict with important political events.