This week, Gen-Y Magic will be profiling 4 young leaders on the political landscape. All 4 are dedicated to covering the involvement of young voters in progressive politics and write for multiple sites and communities. All 4 are players in Future Majority, a site started in in August of 2006 by Michael Connery, Alex Urevick-Acklesberg, and Josh Koenig. Today we are chatting with Kevin Bondelli, the YDA Southwest Region Director from Arizona and a member of the DNC Youth Council. He can also be seen writing for the Young Democrats of America Blog. Enjoy. 

Gen-Y Magic: Being a recent leader in your school, as the VP at ASU, what was the single greatest obstacle you had to learn as a leader?

Kevin: Not that recent. It was more than 4 years ago and a lot has changed since then, but the most important thing I had to learn was how to make sure I was doing what was right for the students and not just serving myself or the administrators. University administrators are quite good at getting their student leaders to sell out. They give perks such as being able to travel with the football team or getting a letter of recommendation to grad school from the university president. It’s a lot like how lobbyists do business. I chose not to accept the perks. It’s important to represent the students to administration instead of representing administration to the students.

GYM: Can Gen-Y really swing the vote, as the quote on YDA reads so loudly?

Kevin: I don’t think there is any question about it. Look how close the last two presidential elections have been. When states are being decided by a few thousand votes the effect of young voter turnout is dramatic. At the college level alone there are schools that have 50,000 students. Young voters will be the margin of victory this year.

GYM: Can the politicians reach Gen-Y, in the way they want to be reached? How do they want to be reached?

Kevin: The best way for candidates to reach Gen-Y is to actually include youth outreach into their campaign plans. Peer-to-peer campaigning works, and if the campaigns are willing to hire a young person to recruit other young people to contact their friends they can reach this generation.

GYM: You have an Internet heavy background. Are politicians moving at the speed of technology, or do they seem scared to alienate the traditional voters who come out in traditionally stronger numbers?

Kevin: Honestly nothing is moving at the speed of technology. I don’t think that candidates are afraid of alienating older voters by using technology. I think that they don’t believe they are going to get enough return on their investment and that they have always run campaigns a certain way. Change is hard, and when a campaign believes it can win just by running the same campaign that’s been run for 20 years, they aren’t going to spend the money to hire someone that knows how to leverage technology.

GYM: Communities or networks? Which has the best reach for social change?

Kevin: I don’t think you can say one is better than the other. They are too intertwined. Networks reach in to communities and communities build networks, all with a great deal of overlap and connectivity.

GYM: Kevin, you are off the Gen-Y Hot Seat. Thanks for participating! To check out part 1 and 2 in this series with the Future Majority Team, please click below:

Mike Connery

Craig Berger