Yesterday a Sun-Times story about "young voters" cited a post-election WBEZ interview with Illinois State Comptroller Judy Baar Topinka, in which she was asked about the comparatively lower turnout of young voters compared to older ones.
When asked if young people don’t vote because they feel their message is not being heard, Topinka said "No...They don’t vote because very often they’re lazy, and they’re too busy playing with their little machines . . . They’re just too in tune with texting and not in tune with what’s going on around them.”
We assume Judy was attempting to be funny. Still...not helpful for Republican attempts at reaching the demographic.
The Sun-Times also quoted Jeremy Rose, 27, a Republican political consultant with Cor Strategies who was on the campaign trail with the Romney advance team. Rose said he believes the GOP can still connect with young voters by focusing on the “issues the next generation cares about” — with the economy and jobs at the top of the list.
“I just don’t think our party has done a good job communicating that and emphasizing that,” instead allowing itself to get “sidetracked on issues not important to us,” Rose said.
The ILGOP has work to do. The 2014 campaigns started November 7th.
