Buckwheat Counting on Big Showing From PA's 700,000 College Students

http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/04/06/obama-counting-on-big-showing-from-pennsylvanias-700000-college-students/

Obama Counting on Big Showing From Pennsylvania's 700,000 College Students

Sunday, April 6, 2008

PHILADELPHIA - Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton are hustling for the

youth vote in Pennsylvania as if they've never heard this is a state where

the old hold sway.

Campuses in the cities and mountainsides are alive with political activism,

stirred most notably by Obama in student registration drives aimed at

replicating his success with young voters dating to the Iowa caucus in

January.

How motivated are his youthful supporters? So motivated that Alyssa Beasley,

20, endured an encounter with the DMV so she could switch her driver's

license from New Jersey and register to vote at the same time.

And how high are their expectations? In Beasley's case, very.

"I feel like my entire hope and dream for America lies on this man's

shoulders," she said on the tree-lined campus of the Jesuit-run University

of Scranton.

That heady courtship is matched by a vigorous effort on Clinton's side.

Altogether, the April 22 primary is becoming more of a can't-miss event for

the young instead of just another why-bother one on the political calendar.

Doug Jones, 19, got so caught up in the excitement that he registered as a

Democrat to vote for Clinton, even though he'll probably vote Republican in

the fall.

"I'm not doing it out of sneaky and scheming motives to down the Democratic

nominee," said the University of Scranton student. "I'd like to take part in

the process."

Pennsylvania ranks third in the nation in the percentage of people 65 and

older, a group that has favored Clinton elsewhere and appears strong for her

here.

Obama is counting on a big showing from the state's nearly 700,000 college

students on more than 150 campuses.

The Illinois senator has received the support of about 60 percent of voters

aged 18-24 in competitive states, exit polls indicate, and his advantage

with that group doesn't appear to be waning in Pennsylvania.

The question is whether that will be enough to prevail in a state where

polls have found Clinton consistently ahead, if by shrinking margins.

"We have a long way to go in Pennsylvania and maximizing the votes of young

voters is critical if we're going to be able to close the gap," said Sean

Smith, an Obama spokesman.

Pennsylvania makes voting easy for students from other states because it

only requires 30 days residency to register. However, no one who voted in an

earlier primary elsewhere can vote again here.

Mia Prensky, 21, of Harrisburg, said Obama supporters have been on her

campus at Bryn Mawr College - a women's school with stone buildings nestled

in Philadelphia's wealthy Main Line - handing out stickers, distributing

information about the Iraq war and encouraging students to vote. They struck

a chord with her.

"I still don't really like the fact that Hillary voted for the war," she

said.

In Philadelphia, where more than 100,000 college students live, Obama

volunteers with voter registration forms in hand have been on campuses and

at train stations around Philadelphia's bustling University City district,

encouraging their peers to register.

Among them was Seth Dean, 23, a University of Pennsylvania student who said

he decided in January to register as a Democrat in Pennsylvania. At home in

Florida, he was a registered independent.

"I kind of thought from the beginning it was going to be kind of a long,

drawn-out fight and it might come down to Pennsylvania, so I just made a

tactical decision," Dean said.

Aside from Obama's strong base among black voters, young voters are probably

his strongest group, said Scott Keeter, director of survey research for the

Pew Research Center.

"I cannot recall another candidate in the past couple of decades that had

such consistent support from young people," Keeter said.

A recent Quinnipiac University poll found Obama leading Clinton 51 percent

to 42 percent among likely Democratic voters ages 18-44 in Pennsylvania, but

trailing nine points overall.

Obama's campaign ran an ad in Pittsburgh and Harrisburg before the state's

March 24 registration deadline aimed at drumming up new young voters. It

cited his opposition to the Iraq war and his plan to help loan-burdened

college students.

Additional efforts by Obama to reach young voters in Pennsylvania include a

text messaging program that allows supporters to communicate with each other

and receive information about events, said Sean Smith, a campaign spokesman.

Facebook co-creator Chris Hughes has been in the state training people how

to use the social networking site for outreach, Smith said. In all, the

campaign has more than 50 student chapters in Pennsylvania.

During a recent Obama rally at Penn State University in State College, more

than 20,000 people crowded onto a campus lawn to see him, many of them

students wrapped in blankets against the cold.

Clinton's campaign also is after younger voters with registration drives,

rallies and about 30 student groups. "Ugly Betty" star America Ferrera is

among celebrities who have campaigned in Pennsylvania for Clinton, as has

the New York senator's daughter, Chelsea.

The campaign says it is reaching young people who are not in college as well

as students.

One of them is Ashley Langdon, 23, a waitress in Allentown who said she

would like to go to college but can't afford it. Langdon said she's

hypoglycemic and has struggled to pay emergency room bills because she doesn't

have health insurance.

"She has the experience and the knowledge to help clean it up a little bit

better, rather than Obama," Langdon said of Clinton.

"He's kind of new. He's fresh. He's got outstanding ideas, but who knows

what's going to happen?"

More than 235,000 people have registered as Democrats in Pennsylvania since

last year. State authorities estimate nearly 10 percent of the 4 million

registered Democrats are ages 18-24 and about 20 percent are 65 or older.