1. i-elect
Apathy?
Not here!
We care
more than
you think
a special magazine by journalism students at the Universit y of Illinois
i-elect.com
twitter.com/uiuc_ielect
facebook.com/UIUCIElect
Libya Egypt
Syria
Iraq Iran
Afghanistan
Pakistan
Jobs &
economy u pg 5
Health
care u pg 8
College cost
& quality u pg 3
War &
terrorism u pg 10
Abortion &
gay marriage u pg 4, 9
Top issues in exclusive survey:
November 2012
u page 6

2. 2«« i-elect magazine « novEMBER 2012
not just red and blue
Organized student activism on campus
spans the political spectrum
by George Coventry
I-Elect caught up with four Univer-sity
of Illinois students involved with be-hind-
the-scenes political work with cam-pus
political organizations.
Young Americans for Liberty
Rob Madsen, a sophomore and the social
chairman of Young Americans for Liberty,
a group founded out of the 2008 Ron Paul
campaign for president, said his motivation
as a political activist is to educate people on
the principles of liberty.
“The club doesn’t specially endorse any
candidates,” Madsen said. “We really es-pouse
a general idea of liberty and free mar-kets
and capitalism, as opposed to politi-cians
and political parties.”
Madsen said he dedicates around five to
seven hours every week attending events,
conferences and protests in hope that it will
inspire the uninformed to get passionate
about their individual rights.
“It’s hard to sort of break the line of apa-thy
I find,” he said. “Being in college, you’re
sort of isolated from things that happen out-side
of the academic sphere.”
Madsen said the group has an upcom-ing
event themed after the national debt.
“We’ll have a giant clock that displays all
the numbers for the $16 trillion U.S. debt,”
Madsen said.
College Republicans at UIUC
Sophomore Sam Lawrence offers his
spare time for both College Republicans
and the Champaign Victory Center, spon-sored
by the Republican Party.
“I think the direction of this country
is just not going the way it should be, and
that the ideas of the founders and the ideas
that this country was founded on have re-ally
been ignored,” he said.
A full-time student, Lawrence said he
normally volunteers between 50 and 60
hours a week. He credits the Victory pro-gram
as an inspiration for his productivi-ty
as a volunteer.
“I think that the more work and the more
effort I put into it, … the more that it helps
my candidate win,” Lawrence said. “I’m re-ally
doing something to be a part of some-thing
bigger than myself.”
Illini Democrats
Shana Harrison, president of Illini Dem-ocrats,
is a college senior who’s trying to
make students passionate about the elec-tions
and participate in them.
Harrison has been involved with the Il-lini
Democrats for the past four years. She
started out as a business major who was in-volved
in the organization as an extracur-ricular
activity, but it soon influenced her to
change to a political science major.
“I ended up getting more involved in pol-itics,
and ... it changed the direction of my
academics,” she said.
Harrison said her passion is driven by
those who have started out like her and are
now in a position to make real change. She
attended the Democratic National Conven-tion
in September and was inspired by the
Obama staffers she met.
“There is actually a former College Dems
president from Illinois working for Obama
in ‘08,” she said. “You never know where
you’re going to end up, but it’s important
that you do put your time and effort into it.”
International
Socialist Organization
Daniel Werst, a committee member of
the International Socialist Organization,
is driven to be politically active by his hope
for what he calls a “working-class world.”
Werst believes his activism will help bridge
the gap between the current world we live
in and the world he prefers.
“I think it’s only struggles from below
that are going to get us towards the world
I would prefer - a world controlled by the
working-class and run on the basis of human
need, democratically decided,” Werst said.
Werst blamed the shortcomings and fail-ures
of politicians for the cases of young vot-er
apathy he’s noticed around campus. ISO-related
activities include weekly meetings
and paper sales.
“Lately, we’ve been doing some small
demonstrations basically in favor of the
right to abortion outside Planned Parent-hood,”
he said.
I-Elect: Who Are we?
Photo by Ethan Asofsky
Sam Lawrence makes calls on behalf of Republican candidates as the Nov. 6 nation-al
elections draws closer. Lawrence also works with the UIUC College Republicans.
We are a team of University of Illi-nois
students in journalism and relat-ed
fields who have been working all se-mester
to cover the Nov. 6 election from
a uniquely student perspective. We aban-doned
coverage of the political horse race
in favor of examining student attitudes
toward issues and voting and emphasiz-ing
the personal relevance to students of
top issues in the campaign.
Our project, I-Elect, features a mag-azine,
website and hours of live elec-tion
night coverage on local cable and
streamed online.
Our scientific survey of 924 students
(3.19 percent error margin, 16.4 percent
completion rate, both considerably better
than industry standards) — coupled with
more than 400 open-ended, recorded, in-person
interviews with students — helps
answer the who, what, when, where, why
and how of student voting at the Univer-sity
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Photo by Hannah Meisel
Professors
Nancy Benson
Eric Meyer
Editors-in-chief
Darshan Patel
Emily Siner
Designer
Emily Siner
Graphics editor
Elise King
Survey Editor
Nathaniel Lash
Crowdsourcing
Maggie Huynh
Molly Nagle
Health care
Ethan Asofsky*
Lauren Rohr
Steve Bourbon
Joanna Rothenberg
Jobs
Taylor Goldenstein*
Jarryd Hawley
Molly Nagle
Education
Jamal S. Collier*
Carina Lee
Isabel Morales
Amber See
War
George Coventry
Maggie Huynh
Matthew Rice
Emma Weissmann*
LGBT
Whitney Lynch
Hannal Meisel*
Xing Zhuo
Women’s Issues
Danielle Brown*
Bob Merlo
Rachel Musnicki
Jasmine Wright
Marketing
Lara Khalaf
Rachel Musnicki
IT Director
Mike Bohlmann
Cover photo
Claire Benjamin
Additional thanks:
Yele Ajayi, Ashley An-derson,
Ethan Asofsky,
Claire Benjamin, Chris-tina
Bongabong, An-nie
Chrzanowska, Jo-seph
Davis, Tyler Davis,
Brendan Denison, Sa-mantha
Dotson, John
Edwards, Kara Gar-vey,
Christian Gollay-an,
Lauren Jonen, Sar-ah
Nolan, Candice Nor-wood,
Becky Pauwels,
Liz Polmanski, Blake
Pon, Jazmine Reynolds,
Karyna Rodriguez, Al-ice
Smelyansky, Svjetla-na
Stojanovic, Kathleen
Stark, Shaleigh Terlap
* lead reporter
Members of the I-Elect team plan a live broadcast for
election night.

3. College degrees might be the ticket to a good future, but at what price?
by Jamal Collier
Isabel Morales, contributing
Everything finally became just too
much for Robert Tennison to handle.
A phone call with his mother a couple
of weeks ago reminded him of when his world
came crashing down around him last semester.
Financial struggles, slipping grades and fam-ily
troubles became overwhelming—so much so
that he withdrew from the University of Illinois
for the semester. He was able to return this year.
Paying the University’s tuition outright isn’t
affordable for Tennison, a third-year sophomore,
or his mother, a single parent with three other
children to support. He has taken out loans that
he may not be able to repay. But most of all, he
doesn’t want that burden to fall on his mother.
“It’s damn hard to pay for your school,” Ten-nison
said. “There’s financial aid, and it does do
a lot for people, but there’s some situations like
mine where the government just says, ‘Yeah, you
make too much money. We can only give you
so much help.’ But in reality, I mean, that mon-ey’s
really not there.”
Tennison is not alone in the struggle to pay
for his education. About 60 percent of Univer-sity
students surveyed through an I-Elect ques-tionnaire
ranked the quality of college education
as an “extremely important” issue, and just be-low
58 percent ranked the cost of college as ex-tremely
important.
And once the graduation caps go flying each
May, the financial responsibility of many post-graduates
is just beginning. About 57 percent of
college graduates from public four-year institu-tions
graduate with some sort of debt, averaging
around $24,000, according to figures released by
the College Board in October.
But Tennison’s financial reality is even more
immediate. His mother works as a nurse, sup-porting
his three siblings—his brother, age 17
and his two sisters, ages 19 and 10. Tennison’s
grandmother also lives with the family. While
her social security check provides some means
to the household, there is hardly any left over for
Tennison’s tution, which is more than $10,300
per year for students who entered the Univesi-ty
in fall 2010.
Tennison does not receive financial aid or
scholarships. He said he did not fill out applica-tions
for them because he didn’t feel his grades
were good enough.
He recalls the phone conversation in which
his mother was reduced to tears and apologized
for not being able to do more.
“I kept trying to tell her and convince her,
‘Mom, I don’t blame you at all, and I’m grateful
for everything you do,’” Tennison said. Then he
paused. “She was too emotional, and it hit her
too hard. She feels like she’s in a bind, too. I know
how my pressures feel, but I mean, I can’t even
imagine how it must feel for my mom.”
This isn’t new territory for Tennison. He
wasn’t sure he’d be able to return at the start of
last year after the federal government denied his
mother a Parent PLUS loan, a federal loan grant-ed
to parents to help them pay for their children’s
college costs. The family tried everything, even
attempting to take out nontraditional student
loans from banks. But those were not granted.
Tennison isn’t the only student stuck between
a rock and a hard place in terms of finances.
“Sometimes, there are students that are ob-viously
very deserving, and there’s either not
enough money available, or they didn’t know ear-ly
enough where to get the money,” said Charles
Mayfield, associate director at the University’s
Office of Student Financial Aid. “They didn’t fill
out the FASFA early enough because they didn’t
know they were supposed to. So the frustrating
part is trying to make them more aware earlier.”
The FAFSA, or Free Application for Federal
Student Aid, is a gateway to tuition assistance
from the U.S. Department of Education. The
application process for this financial aid begins
on Jan. 1 each year, and is a kind of first-come,
first-served system for the $150 billion offered
in federal grants, loans, and work-study funds.
But not everyone is approved for these forms
of assistance.
Tennison feels this federal financial aid should
be greater. As a political science student with a
vested interest in the economy, he has been fol-lowing
this fall’s presidential race closely. As he
watched the third presidential debate, he just
shook his head when the candidates mentioned
education. He is skeptical about what the candi-dates
can do for him.
“I feel like they don’t take it maybe as seri-ously
as they should,” Tennison said. “Teach-ers,
people can say what they want, and I know
it is a tough job … but I know from experience,
and the education system’s lacking.”
President Barack Obama has backed a $1 bil-lion
“Race to the Top” program, which would
provide incentives to states for reforming their
educational system, and he has said he would
stop providing aid to universities that do not
meet requirements.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney
says federal spending is driving up the cost of ed-ucation,
partially because colleges charge more
to help compensate for students who receive an
increasing amount of financial aid. But he said
government will no longer “write a blank check
to universities” that increase tuition.
For Tennison, college was supposed to be a
“way out” out of a cycle of empty bank accounts
due to lack of education.
“I see how hard it is coming from the lower
class to the lower middle class and just not be-ing
«« 3
able to take that next step,” he said. “I see my
mom, and I see people in my neighborhood, and
I think like, ‘I don’t want a life like that.’”
Tennison knew he couldn’t live in the Uni-versity
residence halls this year, so he, along with
three friends, rented an apartment at about $400
per month per person. His roommates have trin-kets
around their rooms, but his walls are bare,
and only six shirts hang in his closet. He recently
ripped one of his three pairs of jeans—“the only
good pair of good jeans” he had left. But buying
a new pair isn’t an option right now.
Tennison just found a job at an Espresso
Royale coffee shop, where he works about 20
hours a week, earning minimum wage. Most
of that money is going to rent, and he hopes to
have a little left over for himself.
But he still owes his three roommates a
month’s worth of rent because Tennison real-ized
there was no way he’d be able to pay Sep-tember’s
rent, buy books and purchase food.
While his roommates like to order takeout of-ten,
Tennison tries to limit his spending on food
to about $2 or $3 a day. He was excited to learn
recently that he was approved for food stamps.
Tennison said he didn’t anticipate financial
troubles when he decided to attend the Univer-sity.
He was one of only three people from his
high school class that attended a Big Ten univer-sity.
Most chose to start at community colleges,
if any college at all.
“It’s a lot to expect of a young person to be able
to make those very mature decisions, to sacrifice
so much at a young age and really look forward
into the future,” Tennison said. “Like I said be-fore,
I hadn’t even really thought about paying
back my loans and not being able to pay back
my loans, but it’s just been hitting me more and
more as I get older.”
i-elect magazine « novEMBER 2012
I care about education
Photo by Jamal collier
Robert Tennison shows his exposed
foot through the sole of his shoe. It’s
been ripped since the start of the year,
but he can’t afford to throw them out
or buy a new pair.
Photo by Jamal collier
The 20-year-old third-year sophomore, Robert Tennison, sits at his desk to study.
His roommates have closets full of clothes and trinkets around their rooms, but
Tennison’s room is sparse.
@UIUC_IElect
Oct. 22 - Third presidential debate
#Obama: I want to make sure we’ve got the best #education system in the world.
#Romney: I don’t want to cut our commitment to education, I want to make it more efficient #ielect

4. 4«« i-elect magazine « novEMBER 2012
point/counterpoint: women’s issues
by Bob Merlo
I-ELECT invited Ashley Degrud, a graduate adviser for the University of Illinois chapter of National Organization for Wom-en,
and Morgan McFarland, programs director at the Students for Life of Illinois, to debate abortion, which showed up in the
I-Elect survey as an issue of importance among some portions of the student body.
I-Elect: Where do you stand in terms of the Republicans’ plan to
pass legislation to stop abortion and cut contraception funding?
AD: I believe that funding contraceptive plans in schools is a very
important concept. To cut abortion spending is a very wrong
way to do it. It’s not something the federal government can say.
MM: I do believe if the government wants to maintain and stay
firm in that stance that abortion should be rare, then let’s make
it rare. Contraception has always been available. There’s not an
issue getting contraception. You can go to your health center
and get condoms willy-nilly, no problem. You shouldn’t make
organizations whose fundamental belief system is against con-traception
and abortion fund what they’re directly opposed to.
I-Elect: Do you see this election as either party waging a war
against women’s rights?
MM: As a woman, I don’t feel personally attacked. However, I
don’t believe telling someone that you cannot terminate anoth-er
human being’s life is running a war on women.
AD: To make it illegal to have an abortion other than to save
a life is wrong. The government cannot tell you what you can
and cannot do. Being pregnant is a medical condition; you can
either embrace it or you don’t have to.
MM: What we need to define is what is pregnancy in particu-lar.
I don’t believe it’s a war on womanhood because you can’t
do whatever you want with you body. You can’t kill another liv-ing
being just because you don’t want it.
AD: I do believe it is a war against women. Then again, war is a
strong term; it is a lot of attacks against women’s rights. Attack-ing
contraception, attacking abortion, attacking women in
the workforce, attacking concepts of equal pay are
arguments we’ve had for years and are going
to continue to have for years, this is not go-ing
to be the year we solve all these things.
I was a child born out of wedlock,
and my mother chose, through her re-ligious
background, that she wanted
to keep me. Arguably, if I could have
made the choice, I may not have done
it because my mom’s life became so
much more difficult because of me. If she hadn’t have had me,
she might have had a better life. I love my mother so much that
if I could have made the decision I would gone, ‘No, it would
be better if you didn’t have me as a child.’
I-Elect: Do you think abortion should be a federal matter or be-tween
a woman and her doctor?
MM: If we’re saying that a fetus is a human being, they are in-nocent
and vulnerable and don’t have a voice, then I think the
consensus would be that they should have the chance, the op-portunity
to experience life.
AD: It’s not necessarily the idea of ‘should abortion be OK’; it’s
the idea of choice.
MM: This is a forever decision.
AD: If they are adamant in their decisions, it can change
a lot, and if they are successful in doing what they’re
saying they’re going to do, it could be devastat-ing
in one aspect or another.
MM: Abortion, for me and many
women, when we’re looking at it as a
war against women, abortion isn’t
just about the unborn life; it’s al-so
about the women. I under-stand
it’s not going to happen
overnight. Abortion is a big
deal for me in this election. I
try to always think about the
woman and the child.
3 hot-button issues
for women during
this year’s campaign
by Danielle Brown
During the one hour and 37 minutes
of the Oct. 16 presidential debate, only
nine minutes were spent on women in
the workplace and contraceptive coverage.
The topics never came up in the first or third
debate. But President Barack Obama and for-mer
Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney are still
paying attention to the women’s vote, especial-ly
over three key issues.
Contraception
Obama emphasized the need for every-body
to be covered by health insurance and
included contraceptive coverage in this. The
Affordable Care Act, or “Obamacare,” enacts
a rule that requires employers to provide fe-male
employees with birth control options in
insurance policies.
Romney does not agree with “Obamacare”
or mandatory contraceptive coverage. He con-tends
that the act puts too much control in fed-eral
government hands.
“I don’t believe employers should tell some-one
whether they can have contraceptive care
on not,” Romney said during the town-hall
presidential debate.
Abortion
Obama believes that women should have
a right to choose whether to get an abortion.
Romney, during a June 2011 interview for the
National Review, said he believes that abor-tion
should “be limited to only instances of
rape, incest or to save the life of the mother.”
UI does not offer abortions, but local op-tions,
like Planned Parenthood do. During
the town-hall presidential debate, Romney
said he plans to retract federal funding for
Planned Parenthood.
Equal pay
According to a 2012 U.S. Census Bureau re-port,
women made 77 cents for every dollar
that men made. According to the study, wom-en
with a college degree will make the same
amount of money over their lifetime as a man
who has only a high school degree.
In 2009, Obama signed into law the Lilly
Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which made it easi-er
for women to file lawsuits alleging pay dis-criminations.
Romney has not opposed this
act but said the president simply has not pro-vided
the right jobs for women in America.
“You are going to graduate one day,” said
Patricia Morey, director of the Women’s Re-sources
Center. “Nothing is more important
to women that maintain their jobs and making
an income that is equal to that of men in the
same line of work and support their families.” @UIUC_IElect
Oct. 16 - Second presidential debate
#Obama: There are millions of people who rely on Planned Parenthood. #ielect
#Romney: I don’t believe employers should tell women that they can or can’t
use contraceptives. #ielect
Morgan McFarland (left)
and Ashley Degrud

5. «« 5 i-elect magazine « novEMBER 2012
I care about Jobs
Election comes at a pivotal
time for new job seekers
by Taylor Goldenstein
Jarryd Hawley and
Molly Nagle, contributing
Austin Beebe is one of the 9,113 students
that will graduate from the University of
Illinois this academic year and will en-ter
a job market that is still lagging but slow-ly
recovering. With a political science degree
under his belt, Beebe hopes to secure a job in
foreign policy analysis.
“Just looking at the numbers day to day for
recent college grads, it is kind of scary, but …
I think it’ll work out — you’ve got to remain
positive,” Beebe said.
Despite the still-struggling economy, the
Class of 2013 has better prospects than classes
in past years, experts say. But as the 2012 elec-tion
approaches, many college students like
Beebe are looking to the presidential candi-dates
to further alleviate their concerns. In a
2012 I-Elect survey, 57.4 percent of the polled
UI students ranked jobs and employment as
their highest priori-ty
in the upcoming
election.
“I believe in the
power of the vote,
and I’ve got to do
everything I can do
to expand my hori-zons,”
Beebe said. “I
do believe that my
vote could count to-ward
my future [em-ployment].”
Since the last presidential election, unem-ployment
has increased. In November 2008,
Americans faced a 6.8 percent national unem-ployment
rate. Now, as the 2012 election ap-proaches,
unemployment as of September is
7.8 percent, the first time the rate dipped be-low
8 percent since President Barack Obama
took office in January 2009.
But Gail Rooney, director of the UI’s Career
Center, said she has seen signs of improvement.
“We certainly have had less employers on
campus doing recruiting since the recession
began, but we saw some pickup last year,”
Rooney said. “We’re continuing to see that.”
She added that there have been nearly
10,000 interviews on campus this fall alone,
which she speculates is an increase from pre-vious
years.
The Career Center has also seen more vis-its
in the past couple of years. This fall, 3,000
students met one-on-one with career center
representatives for services such as appoint-ments
or mock interviews,
and 5,500 students attend-ed
career workshops in the
first eight weeks of school.
“I think things are get-ting
better,” Rooney said.
“I think that our college
graduates this year are go-ing
to see increased oppor-tunities.”
Projections from the Na-tional
Association of Col-leges
and Employers are al-so
optimistic. The associa-tion
is predicting that em-ployers
will hire 13 percent
Photo Illustration by Christian Gollayan and Carina Lee
more graduates in 2013 than
they did in 2012. Students going into certain
technical fields – business, computer science
and engineering – may have better odds than
their peers.
But in general, college graduates are lead-ing
the job market’s recovery, according to a
study from the Center
on Education and the
Workforce at George-town
University.
Since early 2010,
employment for bach-elor’s
degree and ad-vanced
degree hold-ers
had increased by
two million jobs, and
for associate’s degree
holders increased by
1.6 million jobs, by February. Despite gains,
as of September, the unemployment rate for
those with bachelor’s and advanced degrees
is 4.1 percent, down by only 0.1 percent from
a year ago.
Those pursuing advanced degrees may have
the right idea. In 2011, advanced degree hold-ers
faced a 3.3 percent unemployment rate in
contrast to a 5.2 percent rate for bachelor’s de-gree
holders.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated
that between 2010 and 2020, the number of
jobs requiring a master’s degree will rise by
21.7 percent while the number of jobs requir-ing
doctoral or professional degrees will rise
by 19.9 percent – higher than the estimates for
other requirements.
Aisha Conner-Gaten, first-year master’s
candidate at UI’s Graduate School of Library
and Information Science, learned that lesson
the hard way. When Conner-Gaten graduated
in 2010 and began looking for work, she wasn’t
Jobs? Seems
so far away.
How am I going
to make money
in this economy?
Will I need another
degree for the job
that I want?
How can I
prepare myself
for the real
world out there?
“I believe in the power of the
vote, and I’ve got to do everything
I can do to expand my horizons. I
do believe that my vote could count
toward my future.”
—Austin Beebe
Students speak:
Jobs and the economy
“Within the next
year, two, three years,
I will be looking for a
job, and if there are
no jobs out there,
it kind of sucks.”
Ricky Kokoszka,
sophomore
ACES “Giving people
jobs is the most
important issue.
Directly, it would
impact me in the
next few years.”
Kevin Glauber,
sophomore
ACES ““The economy
is always there
and always stinks,
and … it’s just that
it’s going to take
longer than four
years to fix it.
Meredith Hyland,
senior
Media
as qualified as she had thought she would be
with a degree in anthropology.
“When I got out of college, all the jobs that
I wanted to do or the ones that I felt that I was
even qualified for ... required an advanced
degree or certification in something I also
hadn’t acquired yet,” she said. “So I felt like
there was a gap.”
There were options, of course, but Conner-
Gaten said she didn’t see them helping her ad-vance
her career in the direction she wanted.
“I didn’t want to settle,” she said. “I think,
basically, reality hit.”
For Conner-Gaten and Beebe, the election
of the next president may provide them with
the answers they’re searching for. Beebe said
it was a huge point in the debates. It may be
the biggest issue in this election, said Jeff Mon-dak,
professor of political science.
Mondak said the pattern of unemploy-ment
this year mirrors the re-election of Ron-ald
Reagan. In 1980, the unemployment rate
began at 7.5 percent, then rose to hit a high of
10.8 percent, exceeding 10 percent for about
a year, until it dropped below 8 percent right
before the 1984 election.
“President Reagan was re-elected in a land-slide,”
he said. “There will not be a landslide in
2012. However, if Barack Obama is re-elect-ed,
the decline in unemployment to below 8
percent surely will be a contributing factor.”
But Beebe said he favors Massachusetts
Gov. Mitt Romney because he believes he will
not reduce spending in the defense industry.
Mondak warned, however, that “voters
should be cautious about expecting too much.”
“There are important political and financial
parameters to consider,” he said. “No matter
who wins the presidency, there will be enough
division in Congress to restrict what the pres-ident
can accomplish in terms of policy.”
Oct. 16 - Second presidential debate
#Obama: There are some jobs that aren’t going to come back. Those are low wage and low skill jobs. I want high wage,
high skill jobs. #Romney: A lot of manufacturing jobs have been l @UIUC_IElect ost in the last 4 years #ielect

6. 6«« I-Elect survey sheds light STUDENTS weigh on interests, prevalence
In our survey, we asked students to rate the personal importance of issues that factor scale. Future employment and the quality of their education ranked the highest, followed ‘War’ falls in ranking
When I-Elect conducted a similar survey in
2004, the war was ranked second as the
most important issue headed into the
presidential election. Now, it’s number
eight on students’ lists.
Decit, taxes, spending: 4.14 Elem., high school education: Health care availability: 3.99 Health insurance mandate: War, terrorism: 3.68 Pensions, Social Security: Internet censoship, privacy: 3.65 Environment, climate change: Foreign policy, trade, intervention: 3.60 Political waste, corruption: Size of government, role in lives: Gun concealed Mean: 4.55 Mean: 4.37
Mean: 4.10 Mean: 4.48
Mean: 3.2 Mean: 3.7
Mean: 4.2 Mean: 4.7
Republicans Democrats
Republicans Democrats
Partisan split on top issues
The top three issues rated among students
correlated to political preferences.
Sixty-three percent of students who who
reported a Republican lean gave the issue of
jobs and employment the highest possible
rating, versus 54 percent for left-leaning
students.
The highest rated issues by Democrats
were the quality of higher education and the
cost of education.
Overall
Jobs, Employment
Mean: 4.44
Quality of college education
Mean: 4.44
Cost of college education
Mean: 4.34
of student voters
On Oct. 10, I-Elect sent a survey to 5,639 undergraduate and
graduate students attending the University of Illinois. at survey,
which comprised 57 questions geared towards shedding some light
on the voting behavior of college students. When 924 responses
came in by the time the survey was closed two days later, it was
found was that, contrary to popular belief, that students actually do
vote — or at least say they do.
OF THOSE ELIGIBLE TO VOTE...
The vast majority of
students were
registered ...
HUMANITIES
EDUCATION, SOCIAL SCIENCES
BUSINESS
But where’s my major?
Based on our ndings, not every major correlated with a specic
political ideology. We could not graph each university specialization
for this project as a result.
Republicans
37.3%
62.7%
Partisan preferences among students
Responses showed that campus on the whole leans strongly to the
le; however, further analysis showed that these preferences are
not uniform among majors. Students in the College of Business
— as well as those majorings in biological and biomedical
sciences, and health — leaned less to the le than their peers in
the College of Education and those studying the humanities, who
reliably responded as more regularly supporting Democrats.
Democrat Republican OVERALL
BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Democrats
87%
registered
... and most of them
typically support
Democrats
Survey vital statistics:
Participants: 924
Response rate: 16.4 %
Margin of error: 3.19 %
Students who identified as African American
or Hispanic are more likely to be registered
and to vote than their Asian or White peers
at the University of Illinois.

7. « NOVEMBER 2012
7 weigh in on the ISSUES
«« factor into the election on a 1-to-5
followed by the cost of education.
education: 4.12
mandate: 3.85
Security: 3.66
change: 3.63
corruption: 3.56
lives: 3.54
Signicant dierences seen between genders
Cost of college education
Quality of college education
Environment, climate change
Gun control laws
LGBT issues; family values
Health care availability
Health insurance mandate
Drug abuse/ tracking
Decit, taxes and spending
Foreign policy, trade
Political waste, corruption
Eleven issues were discovered to be
correlated with gender. Women tended to
rate social issues higher, like gay rights, access
to education and access to health care. The
greatest dierence in personal important to
an issues is seen with gay and lesbian issues,
which women on average rated 0.6 points
highest on average than men on a 1 to 5
scale. The second-largest disparity was seen
in ratings of issues surrounding the environ-ment,
which women rated 0.48 points higher.
Men, on the other hand, rated scal issues
more highly, citing decit, taxes and spend-ing,
as well as foreign policy, higher than
women.
Aordable Care Act mandate linked to voter status
Students not registered to vote were less likely to highly rate
the issue of the health insurance mandate going into this
election.
Mean: 3.89 Mean: 3.51
Gay, lesbian issues;
family values: 3.49
control,
concealed carry: 3.15
Drug abuse and
tracking: 3.10
Mean: 3.53 Mean: 3.21
Campaign nance: 2.73
3.7
Registered Unregistered
Democrats
Registered Unregistered
Concerns about LGBT community, family
values linked to political, voting status
Republicans were very nearly split on the issue of gay rights,
dividing responses evenly between rating it as an important
issue versus a rather unimportant one. Democrats, meanwhile,
tended toward giving the issue a higher rating at greater
frequencies. These trends were mirrored somewhat by the split
between registered voters and those who didn’t register.
Then and Now Students compared their sentiments about the current candidates
now to how they felt about the party candidates in the 2008 election.
The results showed that about half of students feel less favorably
about the candidates.
56% 47%
Feel less favorably about
Mitt Romney
Feel less favorably about
Barack Obama
Women lean further to the left
You can just look at the simple numbers: those who said they typically
support Democrats and those who said they typically support Republi-cans.
tendancy among women especially is toward the left.
Where
are you
voting?
Right-leaning students more likely to vote at home
Most of the registered students are slated to vote on campus. But survey results
showed that Republicans were much more likely to vote at home than Democrats,
rather than in a polling station on campus.
Supports mainly
Democrats
Though students overall support Democrats more often, the
Males
Supports mainly
Republicans
Females
26% 34%
34%
Voting at...
Home
School
Unsure/not voting
Not registered
40%
60%
66%
More typically support Republicans
More typically support Democrats
Page designed by Nathaniel Lash
Elizabeth Polmanski, Candice Norwood and Emily Siner, contributing
Survey written by Bob Merlo

8. 8 «« i-elect magazine « novEMBER 2012
I care about health care
by Ethan Asofsky
Stephen Bourbon and
Lauren Rohr, contributing
Nobody knows exactly how the Patient Pro-tection
and Affordable Care Act will affect the
landscape of the medical industry.Regardless,
the I-Elect survey showed health care was a
primary concern of students.
Health care availability and the health in-surance
mandate ranked sixth and seventh
respectively out of 18 total issues.
I-Elect talked to students with connections
to the field and asked whether they were con-cerned
with current health care policy. Their
answers ranged from people who were unfa-miliar
with the new legislation while others
were passionate about how it would affect their
lives in the near future.
David Hyman is the director of the Ep-stein
Health Care Law and Policy Program.
He teaches health care law regulation at the
University of Illinois. Hyman took the time
to respond to some of these responses using
his expertise in the area.
Students rank health care primary concern
Hyman: Payment makes practice
Brenton Popiel, pre-med student
“The health care debate will affect me in
the next 10 years more than it is right now.
I see doctors discussing the move from pri-vate
practices to more hospital community
settings. Whenever I ask doctors ... what will
be the main difference under ‘Obamacare’ ...
they say:‘You’re not going to notice the same
difference I noticed... You’re growing up in the
transition phase now.’ ”
“I guess something that was nice (was) the
extended coverage, which I like. I haven’t re-ally
been following this year’s elections at all,
so I don’t really know what’s going on. I just
know a bit about ‘Obamacare.’”
“I want (health care) to be more affordable
... I don’t want to see the world one day where
we all can live in a place where, ‘I can’t afford
that surgery’ or ‘Oh, I have so many medical
bills.’ It shouldn’t be that like; we should all be
able to live healthy lives.”
“I’m kind of indifferent this election. I feel
like if the government regulates your health
care, it’ll be harder for you to get the things
you need. From surgeries or whatever, you
have to go through government validation,
and if you don’t meet their standards, you
won’t be able to get it. If it’s through the state,
then I say they have more options to try and
get what they need.”
Renee Beitz, junior in AHS
and personal assistant for a
disabled student in Nugent Hall
“I actually don’t know a lot about ‘Obam-acare,’
just because I’m so young. Working
with the boy I work with, I kind of have his
perspective, and so I care about how health
care will influence the way I take care of him
... and his personal life plays a role into how I
should feel about healthcare.”
There are two structural approaches to (expand-ing
coverage): the expansion of Medicaid … and the
exchanges, which is a place where people can go and
get standardized coverage from multiple sources.
States are supposed to set up exchanges ... , but so
far only a little above half have planned to do so. Illi-nois
has been one of those states.”
Hyman: Lower price, not cost
There’s going to be a huge amount of back and
forth because the health reform law left so many is-sues
to be determined at a future point.
The funding is contingent, the degree of oversight
is going to depend on who is running Congress, the
amount of pushback for appeal or implementation is
going to vary tremendously on who is running things.
“‘Obamacare’ really doesn’t affect students right
now. It allows for students to stay on their parents’
coverage in case they can’t get jobs that provide their
own health care ...
Students should start caring because of the expense
and the rising cost of health care that they’ll have to
deal with down the road. Federal health care is an
expensive tax that students could potentially pay for
the rest of (their) lives.”
Jon George, Ph.D. student
who plans on entering medical field
“How we pay for services is inevitably going to in-fluence
how people practice. If you went around and
interviewed the people who are responsible for the
legislation, they’d tell you people practicing in groups
will be able to deliver care more efficiently. They’ll de-liver
high quality care. They’re not very enthusiastic
about the sole practitioner practicing on his own.”
Hyman: Coverage could increase
Julian Nallabelli, sophomore in LAS
‘Obamacare’ does not make health care as a whole
more affordable. It’s a reallocation of the expense. If
you have certain people footing a higher bill to give
other people a break, health care may cost less for
certain people, but, overall, is no more affordable.
Tyler Brinkman, freshman in AHS
and wheelchair basketball player
Hyman: Nobody knows
Hyman: Students foot the bill

9. «« 9
i-elect magazine « novEMBER 2012
I care about LGBT ISSUEs
Single-issue voters for or against gay marriage are few but passionate
by Hannah Meisel
Whitney Lynch and Xing
Zhuo, contributing
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS students
David Mor and Lazaro Ramos are con-cerned.
Mor sees society on the brink of legally ac-cepting
his sexuality – but sees the possibility
of a Republican in the White House as a threat
to that acceptance. Ramos sees society posed
to make what he considers a moral blunder.
“If (Massachusetts Gov. Mitt) Romney is
voted in as president, or a Republican that is
as conservative as him, I’m afraid that the fact
that I’m a middle class, lower middle class,
openly gay American is going to basically put
me on the lowest level of society,” Mor said.
Ramos, on the other hand, thinks that the
government’s duty is to protect the moral in-terests
of the country.
“The government has rules against suicide
or against shooting someone else,” he said.
“In the same way ... when it comes to LGBT
issues, America has to realize we don’t have
free-reining will on what we can do.”
Ramos and Mor reflect the population of
voters who vote primarily on issues such as
LGBT rights and abortion. According to the
2012 I-Elect survey, about one-third of UI
students ranked lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender interests as extremely important.
Students’ majors tended to correlate
with their ranking of LGBT issues. Those in
visual and performing arts tended to rank
LGBT issues high on their list. Mor is study-ing
theater in Fine and Applied Arts.
But students in science, technology, engi-neering
and mathematics – known as STEM
majors – tended not to rate these issues as
highly.
Mor is a member of PRIDE, a UI registered
student organization that advocates for equal-ity
for members of the LGBT community. A
recent PRIDE meeting focused on political
issues important to the population, includ-ing
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Gins-burg’s
plan to retire in three years. Ginsburg
has been one of the more liberal members of
the Supreme Court.
“Knowing that (President Barack) Obama
or Romney will have the power to choose who
gets to take her place — I don’t think people
realize that that’s almost scarier than hav-ing
whoever you wanted to vote for not get
president because the Supreme Court truly
has a lot of power,” Mor said.
Both Mor and his peers have high hopes
that a New York case that could decide the
constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage
Act will make it to the Supreme Court soon.
The marriage act, which legally defined mar-riage
as a union between a man and a woman,
was signed into law under Bill Clinton in 1996.
“To have any country say that you can’t
have equal rights when it comes to something,
to me, as simple as marriage, it flabbergasts
me,” Mor said.
He identifies himself as liberal, but LGBT
issues aren’t the sole factors that go into his
voting decision. He pays close attention to
economic issues as well, as he sees Obama’s
concern for the middle class as more intense
than Romney’s.
Josh Jochem, senior in Engineering, said
there is more to the election than social is-sues.
Jochem is a member of the UI student
organization oSTEM, which stands for Out in
Science, Technology, Engineering and Math-ematics.
The group is dedicated to encourag-ing
LGBT students to get involved in STEM.
He separates the political ideology of LGBT
issues from his personal platform.
“It’s not just about LGBT rights for me,”
Jochem said. “I think people who are single-issue
voters are … misinformed voters. The
vital issues for me are LGBT rights but al-so
how tax code should be structured, how
much should the government invest in pri-vate
sector,” he said.
Fellow oSTEM member and senior in En-gineering
Daniel Greil said these issues ex-tend
far beyond political platforms, making
single issues less important than some may
make them out to be.
“The trend to recognize LGBT rights is a
cultural trend,” Greil said. “Policy follows cul-ture.
So all you have to do to continue the trend
is to continue accepting LGBT people. Make
it so that being member of this group is nor-mal
and acceptable.”
According to a September poll by the Paul
Simon Public Policy Institute at Southern Illi-nois
University at Carbondale, support for gay
marriage in Illinois has increased by 10 per-cent
in just two years, to 43.6 percent.
But the rapid acceptance of homosexuali-ty
in the U.S. is exactly what Ramos, a senior
in LAS, wants to prevent. He identifies him-self
foremost as a Roman Catholic and sec-ondly
“The government has rules against
suicide or against shooting someone
else. In the same way ... when it comes
to LGBT issues, America has to realize
we don’t have free-reining will on what
we can do.”
Lazaro Ramos “If (Massachusetts Gov. Mitt) Romney
is voted in as president, or a Republican
that is as conservative as him, I’m afraid
that the fact that I’m a middle class,
lower-middle class, openly gay American
is going to basically put me on the
lowest level of society.”
David Mor
as a right-leaning conservative on the
political spectrum.
Ramos’ views, he said, are framed by his
Catholic faith. He cited the Bible, using the
church’s terminology “homosexual tenden-cies.”
“The church teaches that homosexual acts
are of a disordered nature,” he said. “Human
bodies are not made for it.”
Unlike Jochem, Ramos believes single-is-sue
voting defines a nation’s interests.
“People vote on a candidate to allow them to
do what they want to do,” he said. “For exam-ple,
people who own big businesses will vote
for candidates who will tax them the least.”
Ramos and Mor do not agree on what is
“best for America,” but both students want
to see governmental support for their views.
“The government should be building us to
be the best country we can be,” Ramos said.
“That’s what America was founded for.”
Photo by Christian Gollayan
Sarah Mowitz, sophomore in FAA and president of PRIDE, hangs fliers in Allen
Residence Hall for an LGBT-friendly event on the Quad.
“Policy follows culture. So all you
have to do to continue the trend is to
continue accepting LGBT people. Make
it so that being member of this group is
normal and acceptable.”
daniel greil

10. 10 «« i-elect magazine « novEMBER 2012
by Stephen Bourbon,
Danielle Brown,
Whitney Lynch,
Bob Merlo and Amber See
Keith Brauer thinks that living in
Illinois, which has voted Democrat-ic
since the 1988 presidential election,
deters voting.
“I feel like my votes don’t count in these
elections,” said Brauer, a sophomore in En-gineering
at the University of Illinois. “If you
disagree, you aren’t really heard.”
Illinois is not the only state where young
voters choose not to head to the polls. Vot-ers
ages 18 to 24 have the lowest turnout per-centage
in the country – although that per-centage
has increased during the last three
presidential elections, according to a study
by Tufts University.
Thomas Rudolph, a University of Illinois
professor who teaches political science and
political psychology, said that changing life-styles
of college students is a main contribu-tor
to their relatively low turnouts.
“Part of it has to do with sort of a transient
nature of their lifestyle at that age,” said Ru-dolph.
“They’re away from home; they’re at
college; they’re busy; they’re studying; they’re
interacting with friends.”
This is particularly true for Ariel Garcia,
a junior studying philosophy. She is eligible
to vote by age, but forgot to register in time
for the upcoming election.
“I like to think that I do a lot of other
stuff: studying at school obviously, home-work.
I like reading a lot,” Garcia said. “In
terms of actively searching out and reading
political things, it’s not really high on my list
of things to do.”
In the 2008 U.S. presidential election, the
U.S. Census Bureau reported that of the 28.3
million eligible 18 to 24-year-old voters, 49
percent voted in the election, a slight increase
from the 47 percent in 2004.
Although it does
not look like a ma-jor
increase, espe-cially
compared
to the 65.8 per-cent
rate for ages
25 and older, po-litical
scientists see
the 2008 U.S. pres-idential
election
as an “anomaly”
in terms of youth
turnout levels, Ru-dolph
said.
“You had an ex-citing
new candi-date,
the first Afri-can-
American can-didate
with a via-ble
chance of win-ning
the presiden-cy,
Barack Obama,”
said Rudolph.
The excitement of being part of history
brought in new college-aged voters in 2008,
he said. Now that the excitement has faded,
college students aren’t expected to partici-pate
as much.
Although 18 to 24 year olds have voted in
relatively low numbers, some states like Wis-consin
and Minnesota have voter-friendly
laws to stress importance to young voters.
These states allow voters to register at the
polls on Election Day, which may be more
convenient for young students.
In 2004, voter turnout among 18 to
29-year-old citizens was led by Minnesota
with 71 percent turnout.
Jonathan Langan, sophomore in LAS, be-lieves
that every state should have this policy.
“You can do it all in one trip, and it is
convenient and quick. They also have peo-ple
there solely dedicated to helping people
register,” Langan said.
Sarah Fiedler, a junior from Lake Zurich,
Ill., said she would be more motivated to vote
if the state of Illinois had the option to reg-ister
on Election Day.
“It would limit the inconvenience of hav-ing
to register before you go to the polls. Peo-ple
are lazy and technologically challenged,
like me,” said Fiedler.
Gordy Hulten, Champaign County Clerk,
said that although the law has been success-ful
in Minnesota and Wisconsin, this would
not be the case in Illinois due to the state’s
history of voter fraud.
Currently, the Illinois law allows for grace
registration and voting until three days be-fore
the election.
“My personal opinion is that given the
enormous publicity and outreach we do for
voter registration, it’s hard to imagine a lack
of opportunity or convenience being the rea-son
that people don’t register,” Hulten said.
I care about war
Why is defense so far down on the list?
by Emma Weissmann
Maggie Hyunh and
Matthew Rice, contributing
In the POST-9/11 ERA, young voters have
been exposed to countless front-page head-lines
about the conflict in the Middle East.
But as years have passed, U.S. involvement
overseas is no longer in the forefront of their
minds, according to an I-Elect survey of more
than 900 University of Illinois students. The
2012 study shows that war ranks eighth among
16 issues, including education, economy and
healthcare. A similar poll of UI students in
2004 shows that war on terror was ranked as
the second most important issue, preceeded
only by the job market and economy.
For returning veterans, however, it’s more
personal. Champaign native John Milas, 23,
served in the U.S. Marines from 2008 to ear-ly
this year, spending part of his term in Af-ghanistan.
He enlisted because he wanted to go over-seas
but said he has always cared about Amer-ica’s
international conflicts. Milas said his gen-eration’s
increased indifference is simply be-cause
they have “grown up with it.”
“The stuff started when (we) were so young,”
said Milas, who was in seventh grade in 2001
and 2002, when the United States entered Af-ghanistan.
“Everyone’s so numb to the fact
that it’s just a given now that the military is
in the Middle East.”
Janna Eaves, 19, secretary for the political
student organization Young Americans for
Liberty, said that although the war is some-thing
students still care about, it has been
“pushed to the background because we’ve
been there for so long.”
“There’s not a lot of new activity going on,”
Eaves said. “The issues that have been pushed
to the forefront this year mostly …(are) the
economy and how we’re going to get out of
our debt. I think people hear those buzz words
more often.”
I-Elect survey results mirror a study by the
Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a nonpar-tisan
policy and research organization, which
surveyed American adults. According to its
analysis, millennials “see the world as less
threatening” and “show less concern than
other age groups about international terror-ism”
and other war-related issues.
UI history professor John Lynn said that
unlike veterans, most voters probably will
not be focusing on the military when cast-ing
their ballots.
“People are going to be voting in this elec-tion
not because they know about war but be-cause
they know about a fantasy of war,” Lynn
said. “Americans don’t think much about mili-tary
policy unless they’ve got somebody there.”
Despite students’ reduced interest in the
war since the 2004 elections, Milas said that
they should look into a candidate’s stance
on war.
“There’s still money being spent on it. There
are still people who don’t think that’s impor-tant,
but the issues most important to them are
this country trying to necessitate its economy
and the value of the dollar,” he said. “The mil-itary
comes into play in (the economy) proba-bly
more than they want to know.”
Libya Egypt
Syria
Iraq Iran
Afghanistan
Pakistan
Graphic By emily Siner
Despite U.S. involvement in the Middle East, the interest of the student body
seems to be waning. I-Elect.com has information about the candidates’ stanc-es
on these countries.
Youth vote increases but still low
@UIUC_IElect
Oct. 22 - Third presidential debate
#Obama: To the issue of Iran, as long
as I am president of the U.S. Iran
will not get a nuclear weapon.
#Romney: When there are elections, people
tend to vote for peace, not for war. #ielect
70%
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Closing the age gap on voting
Ages 25 and older
Ages 18 to 24
’72 ’76 ’80 ’84 ’88 ’92 ’96 ’00 ’04 ’08
SOURCE: CENTER FOR INFORMATION RESEARCH ON CIVIC LEARNING AND ENGAGEMENT
Graphic by christina bongabong

11. «« 11 i-elect magazine « novEMBER 2012
campaigns and social media
Political candidates share online campaign strategies
Social media may create opportunities for candidates — if they can be seen
by Lauren Rohr
With Election Day rapidly ap-proaching,
candidates have been tak-ing
advantage of recent technolog-ical
developments by using social media in
their campaigns. But the majority of voters
who use social media do not report it has in-fluenced
their political views, according to a
2012 I-Elect survey.
Participants were asked to rate the influ-ence
social media has on their political deci-sions
on a scale of one (lowest) to five (high-est).
Only 9.6 percent rated it a five, while 31.7
percent of participants scored social media at
one. The average was 2.55, lower than the rat-ings
for the influence of parents, friends and
other news sources.
A Pew Research Center study showed com-parable
data. A quarter of social media users
said discussions regarding political issues on
social media sites have made them more “ac-tive”
in that issue. Only 16 percent of social me-dia
users said it actually changed their views.
David Tewksbury, head of communications
at the University of Illinois, said he noticed
through his research that social networking
sites, such as Twitter, Facebook and Flickr, are
expanding the way people are getting politi-cal
information, both directly through links
to news articles and videos and indirectly
through other social media users.
“It has always been the case that people
talk about politics to
their friends and fam-ilies,”
Tewksbury said.
“But the number of peo-ple
that you’re potentially
hearing from about poli-tics
is what has really in-creased
and really multi-plied
through social me-dia.”
But he said that ma-ny
users are not actually processing and us-ing
the political information they find online,
despite the fact that it has become more easi-ly
accessible, because they are selective about
what information they view.
For example, he said voters typically have
their minds made up about whom they are
voting for based on an established set of be-liefs
and values. Therefore, voters will tend
to follow or subscribe to the parties and can-didates
that they care about, while ignoring
the other side.
“The biggest problem that campaigns have,
whether it’s through social media or even tra-ditional
media, are the filters that we as voters
have,” Tewksbury said.
People do tend to pay
attention to what their
friends and followers
post and share, making
it easier for candidates
to reach voters indirect-ly
through other social
media users.
As a result, Tewks-bury
said it does create
great opportunity for in-volving
more people in political discussions,
especially during the election season.
“It’s not as though we’re just creating all
this interest that didn’t exist before social me-dia.
The interest was there; it was just kind of
spread around,” Tewksbury said. “But if polit-ical
organizations can channel more of what
people want and are interested in through so-cial
media outlets, this can have a net increase
in political participation.”
Christopher Lowery, junior in LAS, said it is
important for candidates to use social media in
their campaigns to keep voters informed and
to receive feedback on a campaign or an issue.
“I like to have everyone that I support on
Facebook and Twitter because then you know
all the news of what’s going on with their cam-paigns,”
Lowery said. “Even following oppo-nents
is important because then you know
what they’re doing, too.”
But Amanda Arneson, freshman in Engi-neering,
rarely uses Facebook or Twitter for
following candidates because, “in the end, I
know I’m only going to look at the (informa-tion)
I’m interested in,” she said. Instead, she
follows debates and news sites such as CNN
and ABC. She also searches Google News for
updates on the issues she cares about.
“I’m going to vote for (candidates) based
on their policies and goals, not based on fun-ny
pictures and videos that they post on Twit-ter,”
she said. “Whatever information I want
to get about a candidate, I can find it without
the help of social media.”
“If political organizations can
channel more of what people want
and are interested in through social
media outlets, this can have a net
increase in political participation.”
—David tewksbury
by Emma Weissmann
Some local candidates may not
be using social media to its fullest
potential, according to guidelines
set forth by Chicago Tribune Social Me-dia
Editor Scott Kleinberg.
Kleinberg said a successful social
media campaign follows the “Rule of
Thirds.” Candidates should split their so-cial
media content into three equal cate-gories:
self-promotion, linking to differ-ent
pages and people and creating per-sonal
content.
“Clearly, the election is going to hap-pen
with or without social media, but I
think the use only helps to solidify it,”
Kleinberg said. “I think whether it’s the
candidates tweeting or Joe Smith tweet-ing,
someone who only posts links isn’t
going to be interesting for long. People
look for variety. Candidates have to show
they’re one of us.”
Mike Frerichs, Illinois senator
Kevin Wilson, campaign manager to
Democrat Mike Frerichs, manages Fre-richs’
social media accounts by primar-ily
focusing on Kleinberg’s first catego-ry,
self-promotion. Facebook is the most
used social networking site in Frerich’s
campaign, although it also has a You-
Tube channel and Flickr stream.
“It has been an effective tool for us
to kind of get out our message and keep
people informed about what we have go-ing
on in our campaign,” Wilson said.
“We use it more as a way to keep peo-ple
up to date about what we have going
on, where the senator is going to be and
where he’s been.
“With having the University of Illi-nois
in the senator’s district as well and
having the Danville area Communi-ty
College, as well as Parkland College,
we find we have a lot of students who
are interested in helping out or finding
out more about the senator. Facebook is
probably one of the easier ways to har-ness
that enthusiasm and channel it in-to
something positive.”
Gordy Hulten, Champaign County clerk
Republican Hulten uses social media
to remain accessible to citizens. He fo-cuses
on speaking directly and person-ally
to his followers, especially through
Facebook and Twitter, and he will often
tweet directly to them.
“I’ve never really sat down and had a
strategy for how to grow my number of
Facebook friends or Twitter followers be-cause
it’s always been sort of a person-al,
organic thing,” he said. “So if people
follow, they follow.”
His target is “anybody who is willing
to listen. The nice thing about social me-dia
is that your audience sort of self-se-lects,”
he said.
Katie Blakeman, circuit clerk candidate
The social media campaign of Ka-tie
Blakeman, Republican candidate for
Champaign County Circuit Clerk, fol-lows
the first two components of Klein-berg’s
“Rule of Thirds.” She and her em-ployees
update Facebook and Twitter
regularly to reach potential voters, and
her postings range from promoting cam-paign
events to photos and links. But she
prefers to do the more personal parts of
campaigning offline.
“I use social media to communicate
how active my campaign is, let people
know about events, let people know
things we’re interested in and commu-nicate
with my supporters,” she said. “[If]
a candidate doesn’t have a social media
campaign or doesn’t have a website or
doesn’t have a Facebook page or no Twit-ter
account, it just seems like they’re not
dialed in. So I think its important to take
advantage of all opportunities like that
and it just needs to be a combined part
of your overall campaign.”
But social media is certainly not a
substitute for personal interaction, she
said, which is far more useful for con-necting
with voters.
Facebook and Twitter are among the social media out-lets
local candidates use to publicize and garner sup-port.
Above: The networking sites of Mike Frerichs,
Gordy Hulten and Katie Blakeman.

12. 12«« i-elect magazine « novEMBER 2012
I just want to Laugh
by Emily Siner
Grace Haka, contributing
Nick Martin looked out at his cof-fee
shop audience from behind the
mic, all these people staring back
at him with their lattes and scones. They
had been receptive enough so far – now
he was going to tackle some political sub-stance:
voter apathy, the sad state of po-litical
affairs. Couch it in a few jokes, get
a few laughs, get them to think. Isn’t that
what comedy is for?
“A wise man once said, more people
have smoked marijuana than voted for
President (George) Bush,” he said. He had
their attention. Did they get it? “That wise
man was the bassist of Nirvana.”
A few of his friends in the audience
snickered. Otherwise, nothing.
That show was in September. After his
attempt at provoking thought on voter
turnout failed, Martin said he was steer-ing
clear of politics in his stand-up.
“I think if I was a better comedian,”
the University of Illinois senior in Eng-lish
said. “I would be able to cut through
John McCombs, a recent UI graduate, jokes about political figures in a recent stand-up per-formance
the partisan-ness of it and say, ‘Well, look
what’s really going on.’ ”
After performing for two years in the
Champaign-Urbana stand-up scene, Martin
believes comedy is not all about farts and pe-nis
jokes, although he frequents those sub-jects
as well. Humor has an influence on po-litical
ideology that reaches beyond, say, a se-rious
discussion in the media, he said. After
all, you’re more likely to remember a joke than
a line from the news.
Of course, it’s not always that easy, as Mar-tin
experienced. Recent UI graduate John Mc-
Combs, who performs stand-up at local bars,
said anything that delves into America’s prob-lems
loses some of the audience, and anything
with a partisan flair is too divisive. He tries
to keep his political routines to jokes every-one
can understand, like making fun of pol-iticians’
names.
“You almost want to go for the lowest com-mon
denominator and get as many people in-to
the joke as possible,” he said.
Comedy used for a political cause
at Memphis on Main. “What kind of name is Mitt? Is that short for Mitten, Mitsy?”
But he commended comedians who can in-form
their audience about real political issues
by deconstructing and poking fun of them.
Take Stephen Colbert, for example. In 2011,
the political satirist created a super PAC – a
kind of political contribution fund that arose
from a 2010 Supreme Court campaign fi-nance
decision. On “The Colbert Report,”
he interviewed the former chairman of the
Federal Election Commission multiple times
to show how simple it was to create a super
PAC and how donations can be kept anony-mous
when filtered through a 501(c)(4), civic
leagues that are operated for the promotion
of social welfare.
“Wait, super PACs are transparent, and the
(c)(4) is secret. So I can take secret donations
from my (c)(4) and give it to my supposedly
transparent super PAC,” Colbert confirmed
with his lawyer after signing his shell cor-poration
into existence on his Sept. 29, 2011,
Photo by Emily Siner
show. “What is the difference between that
and money laundering?”
“It’s hard to say,” his lawyer replied.
Colbert’s super PAC, Americans for a Bet-ter
Tomorrow, Tomorrow, raised more than
$1 million by January 2012. It won a Peabody
Award for its efforts to bring awareness to the
inadequacies of campaign finance reform.
Martin found this to be a brilliant display
of the power of comedy.
“It seems that’s kind of Colbert’s end goal
always: to take this broken ideology and then
just over blow it and hyperbolize it until in col-lapses
in on itself,” he said.
Robert McChesney, UI professor of com-munication
and co-founder of the media
watchdog organization Free Press, said Col-bert
and his colleague Jon Stewart also bring
awareness to the faults of traditional media
outlets. For example, McChesney said rep-utable
news organizations aren’t allowed to
“I think America has this
perception that comedy shouldn’t
be involved in politics. But I think
it would probably help.”
call someone a liar, a convention that he
called “idiotic.” The poignancy of the
Colbert’s and Stewart’s humor comes
from blatantly ignoring this mainstream
media convention, he said.
“When you think about it, we
shouldn’t be romanticizing that too
much,” he said of political comedy. “It
only exists in the way it does because the
official media that everyone depends on
does such a terrible job.”
Martin, too, criticized the media for
watering down issues to rhetoric. But he
also pointed his finger at humorists for
their lack of insight on the current pres-ident.
He pointed to comedian Fred Ar-misen’s
impression of President Barack
Obama on “Saturday Night Live.”
“He doesn’t make fun of the guy. He
just sort of tries to replicate his speech pat-terns,”
Martin said. “How neutered is that?”
Comedy, he said, is not just about being
funny; it’s about taking something conven-tional
and breaking it down into something
unexpected. But that unexpectedness can also
give the audience a new understanding, espe-cially
about everyday, watered-down politics.
And he commended comedians who cross
the line into politics — Colbert, who ran a fake
campaign in the Republican primaries with
his super PAC money; Roseanna Barr, who is
running for president with the Peace and Free-dom
Party; and even Champaign mayor Don
Gerard, who performs at local open mic nights.
“I think America has this perception that
comedy shouldn’t be involved in politics,”
Martin said. “But I think it would probably
help.”
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