Courting Students, And Hoping They'll Actually Cast Votes

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Should Iowa Students Caucus?

In Iowa, some candidates are pushing for student part-time residents to caucus while others call foul-play. Dean Reynolds reports.

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Iowa's public universities have said they will open their dorms to out-of-state students who want to return to caucus. About 21,000 students from other states attend the schools.

Many more Iowa students will be scattered around the state in their home towns, which could blunt their electoral impact. However, veteran caucus watchers suggest that, in certain areas, students could be a potent force.

"My theory is, it could have a massive impact because they could pull themselves and their family members to a candidate," said Steffen Schmidt, a veteran political scientist at Iowa State University. "It could have kind of an interesting positive impact. I call them caucus missionaries." But he added, "We're all guessing because it's never happened."

Schmidt noted that Paul, in particular, has attracted among students "an incomprehensible amount of passion. I've never seen anything like it before. You hear testimonials that are almost religious. Obama also has generated an amazing amount of student involvement. Clinton has the most enthusiasm among young women that I've ever seen."

Brandon Neil, for instance, the 21-year-old founder of UNI Students for Barack Obama, plans to caucus in his home town of Plainfield. He has promised to take his mother, Renee, who has never caucused before. He has given $10 to Obama -- his first political donation -- and persuaded his mom to give $25, a first for her, too.

Since announcing his candidacy in February, Obama has attracted a strong following among college and high school students. He has been the most "friended" Democratic candidate on MySpace and Facebook, sites popular among young voters -- so popular, in fact, that a Facebook group called Students for Barack Obama, created in July 2006 by Meredith Segal, a 21-year-old at Bowdoin College, became an official part of the campaign.

In Iowa, more than 60 colleges and high schools have chapters supporting Obama's candidacy. The one at the University of Northern Iowa is the school's largest candidate group by far, boasting more than 300 students. A core group of 30 has been meeting most Wednesdays to organize events since soon after classes started.

Some of the group's most involved students said they come from Republican families and were coaxed into switching parties by Obama's candidacy.

Lucy Fitzgerald, who wore a red shirt that read "Friends don't let friends vote Republican," said her mother supports Mitt Romney. And this out-of-state student, who grew up in a Minneapolis suburb, said she plans to drive 3 1/2 hours back to Cedar Falls for caucus night.

"I'm 20. As far as I can remember, having grown up in the Bush years, I've been jaded about politics. A lot of my friends feel that way, too," Fitzgerald said. "Now we have Obama, somebody who's saying, 'You can be involved, you can make a difference.' "