Presidential politics as after-school activity

Attention first-time voters: Anoka High School senior Anthony Maki is planning to attend his precinct caucus on Feb. 5, and he thinks you should, too.

On Wednesday, Maki organized and hosted a caucus primer for his classmates that was attended by representatives of several major candidates for president and the U.S. Senate, the League of Women Voters, the Democratic and Republican parties and a handful of media outlets.

About a month ago, Maki was raving to friends about the Iowa caucus.

"'Why should we care?'" he recalled one of them asking. "'Why should anyone care?'"

Taken aback, Maki approached his teachers about organizing the forum.

"I wanted to show other youth in the Twin Cities area that it is possible to change things in America," he said, "and how you do that is you get out and participate."

As their classmates left for home or after-school activities, about 30 students ambled into John Belpedio's classroom.

He walked his cohorts through a PowerPoint tutorial about the caucus process, from presidential preference to delegate selection and from resolutions to Robert's Rules of Order.

Elwyn Tinklenberg, a DFL candidate for the Sixth District U.S. House seat, spoke briefly to students before he was called to another obligation. Representatives speaking for presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Ron Paul and Senate candidates Mike Ciresi and Al Franken all appeared to be in their 20s and early 30s. Several incumbents, including Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Sixth District Rep. Michele Bachmann, declined to attend, as did representatives of the major Republican presidential hopefuls.

Speaking in styles ranging from personal testimonial to a "we're gonna win" stump speeches, each assured the students of their importance to the electoral system and their power make a difference.

Afterward, most of the students headed out; a few hung around to speak one to one with the representatives.

Ryan Franzman, a senior from Ramsey, said he's not planning to attend a precinct caucus but will wait to see who the front-runners are.

His classmate Paul Foss disagreed.

"I want to have some say into who is nominated," he said, "Better than leaving it to chance and voting for whoever ends up there."

How to reach young voters

Juniors Laura Lee and Katie Elsberry, both of Ramsey, attended the forum, even though they can't vote in November.

"I really like to stay on top of political issues," Lee said. "We can still go to the caucuses, we can still encourage our eligible classmates to vote."

"I think allowing young voters to form their own opinions and giving them the information without a bias, allowing them to make their own opinions without being preached to is important," said Elsberry.

David Sparer, a senior from Andover, agreed.

"I like to know what they stand for," he said. "Personal testimonials are good, but they only go so far. I think it's just needing to know what the candidate wants to do and what they stand for."

Just like voters of any age, he said, "we need to know what we're going to get out of a candidate."