Karl Rove Will Target the Youth Vote

In case you missed it, there have been some oversight hearings lately about improper partisan political activities on the part of our government. You can watch a video of Henry Waxman and other committee members grilling a clueless government official about these allegations here.

A happy outcome of these hearings is that the public now has access to some Republican strategy documents (pdf) related to the 2006 and 2008 elections, and it looks like Young Voters are going to be a priority for the GOP in 2008. Here's a slide from the presentation discussed in yesterday's committee hearing:

This doesn't surprise me at all. We already know that young voters were a decisive part of many Democratic victories in 2006. As was the Latino vote (which is also a young vote).

The presentation also noted that in 2006:

• 22 races were decided by 2 points or less
• 18 races were decided by fewer than 5,000 votes
• 6 races were won by fewer than 1,000 votes

Increased young voter turnout probably makes the difference in lot of those races. It's what makes the work of groups like the League of Young Voters - who reach out to youth that are normally passed over by traditional GOTV - all the more important, and makes me wonder even further about the strategic thinking behind recent funding decisions by the Democracy Alliance.

We know the GOP will be targeting us and our peers in 2008 (or at least looking to suppress our turnout). This is not the time for Democrats to take our vote for granted.