Low pay, long hours, and a virtual guarantee of being laid off in November might not seem like the most appealing job to most college students. However, despite the fact political campaigns fit that very description, a large number of young people are planning to enlist in politics over the summer and into the fall, considering such an opportunity a dream job of sorts.
“Just knowing you are part of something big is a really great thing,” UW junior Jason Stephany said. “That is something you [definitely] can’t put a price on.”
Stephany has worked on numerous Democratic campaigns from campaigning for Gore in 2000 to working for Gov. Jim Doyle’s staff during his 2002 bid for state governor. Currently working for the Assembly Democrats, he plans to land a job managing a race this summer and will take off next semester to work campaigns in the fall.
“It is not an hourly job. In a campaign, a part-time job is 30 hours at least,” he said.
A number of other college students are also being recruited to fill the ranks of the plethora of campaigns lifting off this summer. In particular, the U.S. senate race and the presidential showdown between Bush and Kerry will require a large amount of grassroots campaigning, typically done by young people.
Young people are often the only individuals who can devote the time and energy to knocking on hundreds of doors a day, distributing thousands of pieces of campaign literature, and calling potential voters from dusk until dawn. Students, working sometimes 18 hours a day for just enough pay to get by, are usually the “legs of a campaign,” according to Stephany.
A number of UW students plan to get their feet wet in campaigns over the summer and take on full-time jobs this fall, pulling out of school for a semester to devote themselves full time as election day approaches.
“I feel like this is a really good experience,” Jacqueline Helmrick, a UW junior planning on taking off the fall semester to work for the Bush campaign, said. “This is one of the only times in my life that I’d be able to take time off … for a cause like this.”
Helmrick indicated the upcoming 2004 election would be “huge” in Wisconsin, particularly after the close election in 2000 where Bush lost the race here by less than one vote per ward. Stephany agrees.
“Everyone talks about how 2000 was a big year. But 2004 will be even bigger. It will be a rematch,” he said, adding that the upcoming contest will spotlight the 18-to-24-year-old age group, which has often been ignored in major elections as a source of political energy and support.
“This election is really going to hinge on our age group. Not just the voters themselves, but the workers for these campaigns.”
Indeed, most political campaigns would collapse on their face without the support and the leadership of young people who have both the time and energy their older counterparts cannot offer candidates. And although their work on campaigns can often go without direct thanks or large monetary rewards, many students would not trade working on issues they care about or for candidates they believe in for a higher-paying job.
Simply put, once they catch the political bug, students are hooked to politics — often for life.
“Politics is addictive,” Stephany said.
