CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER SUE DAVIS
By Liz Robertson

Chasing scandals and covering congressional ethics on Capitol Hill is political journalist Sue Davis' favorite fixation.

"At work, we always joke about what you'd want to happen as a person and what you'd want to happen as a reporter," Davis said Monday to a high school journalism class at Georgetown University.

Davis, head House reporter for Roll Call newspaper, certainly reports on her fair share of behind-the-scenes backbiting on Capitol Hill. During the recent Mark Foley scandal, Davis said her work-day excitement peaked as she competed against hundreds of other publications to find the best edge on the shocking fiasco.

Even after nearly five years as a Washington journalist, Davis still admits to living each day in awe of her stately surroundings at the United States Capitol.

"I can't imagine anything else I'd rather be doing than journalism. It's a really fun job,” Davis told the group of aspiring reporters.

"When I don't get that excitement out of my job anymore,” Davis added, “I'll know that's when it's time for me to do something else.”

TEEN VOTERS MOBILIZED?
By Elizabeth Robertson

At first glance, teen voters in small-town Midland, Texas, labeled themselves as conservative, Republican prototypes of their parents' and community's political affiliations.

"I want the presidential candidate to be Republican," said Midlander Paige Raglin, 17. "My parents are both Republican and so is everyone else I know."

Allyson Davis, 18, said, "My parents are conservative, so my moral roots are conservative."

A handful of teens interviewed in Midland said that they would vote in 2008 in order to take action on their beliefs. The real question, however, lies in whether these young conservatives can make a wave in the largely Democratic pool of youth voters this November.

"Our nation's young people are now overwhelmingly Democratic, more than ever," Young Voter Strategies (YVS) National Field Coordinator Mary McClelland said to a journalism class at Georgetown University.

However, McClelland also stated that, "Young Republicans are the most stable Republicans ever."

Upcoming teen voters Desiree Staples and Daniel Cuevas of California expressed views opposite those of the young Midland voters.

When asked to finish the sentence, "To win my vote a candidate must..." Staples and Cuevas both replied, "not be George Bush."

Although the contradiction between these two groups of young voters is strong, the resolving factor on Election Day will lie in voter turnout.

"High voter turnout always favors the Democratic Party," said McClelland, whose goal for the 2008 election is to beat the 1972 record high of 52 percent youth voting participation.

After 1972, youth voting participation steadily declined until 2004 when 20.1 million Americans under age 30 voted.

According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (www.civicyouth.org), 20.9 million youth voters shows an increase of 4.6 million voters and 9.3 percentage points when compared with the 2000 election. The rise brings the youth voting turnout rate to 51.6 percent, not far behind the national record of 53 percent.

The increase has captured the attention of the 2008 campaigns, which are concentrating more efforts on the youth vote.

"Every campaign has a youth field director, which hasn't before been the case," McClelland said. "Youth voters' ideas are much more fluid, making youth votes a coveted commodity for candidates. There are fifteen organizations across the country to hype youth voters."

According to a 2006 Young Voter Strategies publication (www.youngvoterstrategies.org), a voting mobilization phone call can increase young voter turnout by up to five percentage points.

Candidates receive the best results when the calls are done by volunteers instead of an automated answering service, when calls are made in the two weeks before Election Day, and polling place information is included.

"Young voters are just a phone call away," it said.

However, Young Voter Strategies studies show that overall the most successful way to increase youth voting participation is through peer-to-peer contact.

"It's the most effective way because it's a trusted messenger, and the idea of a trusted messenger is someone who you know who you're talking to and trust them and your going to take what they say into account," said McClelland.

Another factor affecting voter turnout is the often time-consuming task of actually registering to vote before Election Day. Laws for registration are state mandated and continuously changing. Wisconsin and Minnesota practice same-day voter registration, allowing citizens to show up at the poll on Election Day to both register and vote. The state of Minnesota is attempting to obtain automatic registration, registering residents to vote with the renewal of a driver's license.

"States with same-day voter registration have by far the best voter turnout," McClelland told Georgetown students.

The real issue is that young voters need to make their way to the polls. The millennial generation, those born roughly between the years of 1977 and 1995, is said to be even larger than the baby boomers. By 2015, the millennial generation will make up one-third of the presidential electorate.

A recent informal survey conducted by high school journalism students at Georgetown University points to these trends in teen voting:

• 71.6% of surveyed teens plan to vote in November 2008
• The majority (37.2%) of teens surveyed would vote for Barack Obama for President
• 50.7% of teens believe that Rudolph Giuliani will be the Republican nominee
• 71.9% believe either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama will Be the Democratic nominee
• 75.8% said that they do follow politics.
• 75.5% labeled themselves as either moderate or liberal
• 51.1% labeled themselves as democratic
• 79.9% said they have not been contacted by any campaigns
• 65% said that they have the same political beliefs as their Parents
• 75.6% said that they discuss politics at home with their parents
• 57.8% go to either television or web for their political Information
• Cable news is the most popular among teens surveyed.
• The top three issues concerning teen voters are the War in Iraq, global warming, and foreign policy.
• The War in Iraq has nearly double the interest as global warming.