200,000 New Voter Registrations – Yes!

IDEA, the 138th Indiana Democratic Editorial Association meeting, was held this past weekend at French Lick. This is the State Democrat Party backdrop for its statewide meeting of party enthusiasts.

I asked Dave Crooks, former State Representative, why the political meetings at IDEA? I figured he should know. Crooks was one of the daring legislators to push through authorization of the casino at French Lick back in 2003. Originally called the “boat in the moat”, the casino today is one of the most attractive (gorgeous)and unique environments Indiana has to offer.

Dave responded. IDEA was first a gathering of “the Democratic-leaning newspapers. In the golden days of Newspapers, most communities had a Democratic and Republican-leaning newspaper in almost every community.” He added, “The State Party uses the tradition of their annual meeting to fire up the base before the home stretch of the elections.”

And, fired up it is this year. This was one of the best-attended IDEA’s.

I saw many locals including former Mayor Jonathan Weinzapfel, County Party Vice-Chair Genny Tenbarge, Chairs of the surrounding counties, our 8th District Chair Anthony Long, local member of State Central Committee Sherrianne Standley, Senator Joe Donnelly and his staff including Tony Goben, William Tanoos running for 8th District Congress, Edie Hardcastle for State Representative; and local candidates Allyson Clayborn and Jenni Ransom.

Jocelyn Whittaker, once an Evansville teacher running for State Auditor, was everywhere, as well as Jim Harper, candidate for Secretary of State.

The parties and caucuses went on and on. I don’t know how many caucuses there were, but you couldn’t attend all of them. The best party was the Orange County supper. Down home people, great food and one of my favorite retired State Reps.

The highlight for many of us was the sharing of statistics about voting. State Party Chair John Zody announced that from November 2016 through July 2018 there were 200,462 new registrations in Indiana. Of the new registrations, 60.46% were between the ages of 18-29.

No doubt young people are engaged. The big question is who they will support? One indication might be the 2016 youth vote where 55% of young people voted for Hillary Clinton.

But, will they vote? Looking at the 2008 election, 84% of those youth 18-29, who were registered to vote actually went to the polls!

Game on! The young people’s vote is out there. Candidates will have to learn why they vote and what they care about.

One thing is for sure. If a young person ends up being a Democrat and attends IDEA, odds are that person will remain Democrat.