April 7, 2004
O'Leary works to place voters up on Soapbox
CHS graduate works with new coalition to motivate and educate young voters
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Jim O'Leary, a 1998 graduate of Traverse City Central High School, is part of a nationwide effort to motivate and educate young voters.
Since January, O'Leary has been part of the Soapbox Coalition, a non-partisan organization determined to mobilize people ages 18-30 and bring them into the political process. With statistics showing that 30 million eligible voters in this age group did not vote in 2002, O'Leary and this coalition hope to see that number plummet during this presidential election cycle.
"What we've seen this year is that they are starting to participate a little bit more," said O'Leary, who was graduated from Michigan State University in 2002 and now lives in New York City. "Look at Iowa or New Hampshire and the exit polls from primaries there, we've seen that young voters are beginning to participate."
The Soapbox Coalition reaches out to this age group through educational forums and other non-partisan events. Recent forums were held at the Catholic University of America and American University, both in Washington, D.C. Both events featured presenters from both main political parties.
"We pulled in 30 people at American University and were happy with that," he said. "Our efforts really paid off at the Catholic University event because there were hundreds of attendees and 125 new members signed up."
The Soapbox has ambassadors from the program currently in 20 states with plans to have one in all 50 as soon as possible. The coalition roughly divides the targeted age group into college students and recent graduates, with each group having a slightly different focus.
"College, for some, has more free time while recent grads are young adults with more constraints on their time," he noted. "They often are immersed on the issues at different levels."
Traverse City is targeted for an ambassador and O'Leary is interviewing a promising candidate for that position. O'Leary has another full-time job in New York City with a major public relations firm so he will not be relocating to Traverse City for this position.
"We're going to conduct forums there and we want to make it easy for the 18-30 year olds to get informed and involved," he said in a telephone interview.
O'Leary said it is a challenge for his generation to follow up the very vocal and active Baby Boom generation. But the Soapbox Coalition believes that its inclusive approach to fostering open debate will strike a chord with voters in this age range.
"Our slogan for Soapbox is 'Creating the Voter Generation,' said O'Leary, who has been fascinated by politics since high school. "The issues of today really impact our generation."
Mike Mitchell founded the Soapbox Coalition in Alexandria, Va., earlier this year. He had been informally pursuing the idea for nearly five years but finally completed the non-profit paperwork, recruited a volunteer board of directors and began outreach in January.
Mitchell, who admits that at 33 he is out of the target range, is determined to get the organization up and running, then turn it over to more youthful directors. Even the start-up board of directors, which includes renowned organizers as well as politicians from both major political parties, will eventually be transferred to younger members.
"You can get arrested as an adult at 18, serve in the military at 18," he noted. "To be quite honest, we're not looking to hold anybody's hand, they are adults and can formulate an opinion in their own way."
"Really, there is so much at stake at the local, state and federal level and people don't have an idea about how to access this information and how to get involved," Mitchell noted.
For more information on Soapbox Coalition, visit their web site at www.soapboxcoalition.org