YDA by the Bay

Young Democrats to hit streets of S.F.

Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer

Monday, August 1, 2005

As the audience of 100 activists settled into their second beer of the evening in the subterranean coziness of San Francisco's hipster hangout Cafe Du Nord, 23-year-old Lilia Tamm stepped onstage and mentioned something bound to offend many in the crowd.
She asked them to join her as a delegate to the upcoming Young Democrats national convention in San Francisco. Although a couple dozen hands shot up, other young liberals had a problem besides the $60 registration fee -- many weren't Democrats.
After last fall's election defeats, the Young Democrats "realized they needed a good swift activist kick in the butt," Tamm exhorted the crowd, "so that's why they decided to come to San Francisco."
Well, yes and no; the Young Democrats chose their convention site two years ago. But leaders of the 73-year-old organization know they have an image problem -- specifically, that many of their fellow young people see Young Democrats as networking dweebs in blue blazers. Even in San Francisco -- the soul of liberal America -- the Young Democrats chapter counts only 50 active members.
"People saw the Young Democrats as boring meetings in rooms with bad lighting among people who were there to build their resumes," said Jane Fleming, who has been advocating for change since she became executive director of the group a year ago.
The makeover starts Wednesday, when 700 Young Democrats open their five- day national convention in San Francisco. Among the throng at the Holiday Inn Golden Gateway will be activists including Tamm, leading the charge to shake up an organization so staid that this is the first time in a decade it will hold contested elections for its leadership.
The under-35 conventioneers will leave the hotel to hit the street for some old-school rabble rousing, something no one in the organization can remember being done at past gatherings. They'll be campaigning against a California initiative on the November ballot requiring parents of minor girls to be notified before their daughters can receive an abortion.
Organizers see it as a symbolic start.
The group "has had a problem with its image," Fleming said. "And if we want to continue to reach out and connect with young voters, we don't have the credibility with them now."
The path to credibility, Fleming and others believe, mimics what was going on last month at Cafe Du Nord. Instead of peppering young voters with "get-out-and-vote" pleas on MTV from celebrity endorsers, progressive youth groups are adopting a new model: Go have a beer with a young person and talk about how they can't afford health care. Or sponsor a club show and take a few minutes to talk about skyrocketing college tuition. Or pop by a cafe and talk about military recruitment.
This kind of peer-to-peer outreach was used to great effect by several youth-based groups that sprang up during the 2004 campaign, including San Francisco-based outfits Punkvoter.com and Music for America, and others such as Vote Mob and the League of Pissed Off Voters.
The result of these grassroots, youth-led efforts: The turnout among 18- to 24-year-olds in November was the highest since 1992. Fifty-six percent voted for John Kerry.
"Republicans organize through their churches," said Molly Moon Neitzel, executive director of Music for America, which registered 22,000 voters last year and is still adding 750 names a week to its 45,000-person database. "And (progressives) are doing it through (music) venues."
Post-election research trickling in since November reinforces this notion. Peer-to-peer outreach increased voter participation among young people by an average of five percentage points in targeted areas, said Ryan Friedrichs, a researcher who is studying the phenomenon for 17 youth-voter organizations.
"Groups doing this really add value in a way that large campaign operations can't," Friedrichs said.
But the Young Democrats face some challenges in transforming themselves.
"They're not cool," said Mike Burkett, better known in punk rock circles as Fat Mike, frontman for the band NOFX and the driving force behind Punkvoter. com. The youth-organizing effort registered 20,000 voters through tours and sales of its "Rock Against Bush" CDs, featuring chart-toppers such as Green Day and the Foo Fighters.
Even Fat Mike's cachet has its limits.
"I'm pretty cool, but I'm not cool enough to get to some people," the 38- year-old Burkett said. "Once you become a Democrat, you're not cool (to some young people). Most of my friends are anarchists or in the Green Party."
Identifying with a party -- any party -- is a turnoff to young people dubious about such institutions, said Music for America's Neitzel.
"If I go up to someone in a club and say, 'I'm a Young Democrat, let's talk,' they're going to walk away," she said. "But if I go up to them, and I live nearby and I start talking to them about how much it costs to go to college, well, then there's a connection."
But new studies conducted by Friedrichs found that it didn't matter if young voters were contacted by Republicans or Democrats or outside groups with a partisan bent. What mattered was hearing it in person from someone who looked like them.
"What really connects with young people is, 'Local face, local message,' " Friedrichs said. "If they feel they are being marketed to in any way -- and this generation probably has been marketed to more than any other in history -- then they'll turn off."
Young Democrats moved in the peer-to-peer direction last year, sponsoring the Young Voter Alliance to reach unlikely voters. Other groups are reaching out to the same crowd as well, however.
Although Music for America will send two representatives to the Young Democrats' gathering, Neitzel will be in Pittsburgh at the League of Pissed Off Voters' national convention.
Young Democrats leader Fleming shrugged at the coincidental timing of the youth conventions and said she is friends with a founder of the League of Pissed Off Voters. Still, a league spokeswoman declined to comment on the Young Democrats' makeover.
To bridge their credibility gap with young voters, the Young Democrats are connecting with activists such as Leighton Woodhouse. The 30-year-old San Franciscan was the main organizer behind Driving Votes, which organized road trips to swing states last year.
Woodhouse enjoys credibility among youth organizers -- Music for America's Neitzel said, "Leighton is rad. We wish him super well." And Woodhouse is among the activists who think he and others can benefit from the nationwide organization the Young Democrats have already built.
"I thought it would be better to work within the party to make it better than to try to work outside it to make it come to us," Woodhouse said. "There is a lot of good infrastructure there in the Young Democrats."
And changing their image may be easier for the Young Democrats than many think. After all, "there's a new group of 18- to 24-year-olds coming along every few years that doesn't know the history," said Carrie Donovan, youth director for CIRCLE, a University of Maryland organization that studies youth voter patterns. "It's not like you're trying to change the habits of a 50-year- old person who has been voting the same way for the last 15 years."
E-mail Joe Garofoli at jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com.