Young Candidate in New York

Thirty year old Jon Powers never anticipated running for office, but after his military service in Iraq he knew that he needed to do something more. So, he started a non-profit that aimed to help keep kids from turning to extremist groups.

"War Kids Relief worked with Iraqi ministers to develop programs for the Iraqis to implement. It provided needed research on the state of Iraqi youth. It brought Iraqi youth to the attention of a Washington devoted solely to military tactics.

War Kids Relief worked to prevent a future generation of terrorists from growing in Iraq. It briefed Marine commanders on counterterrorism and the importance of engaging Iraqi youth." According to the site.

But Powers didn't stop there. He decided to run for Congress to continue his efforts to give back. One reason his site says he is running hit home with me. Evidently not all of New York is Manhattan or the Hamptons. Indeed there are many parts of New York that are just as rural as parts of Kansas and Oklahoma. Powers says that in his travels throughout Western New York he has met "folks who are worried that their sons and daughters are leaving the area because there are not enough job opportunities." Those are definitely tough issues that both parties work to navigate here in my home state.

Powers approaches issues in much the same way as people do around here. His enthusiasm as a young candidate brings something unique to the table. I caught up with him making care packages to send overseas to the soldiers as part of the Netroots for the Troops program.

Young Voters Matter at Netroots Nation

The yearly convention of progressive bloggers known as Netroots Nation took Austin, Texas by storm this past weekend. Last Thursday, bloggers met in caucuses tailored to their interests where everything from rural bloggers to LGBT bloggers to young bloggers Latino bloggers ... all were represented.

The youth caucus combined bloggers, activists, and representatives from organizations together in a circle to discuss the youth movement, issues that matter most to young people, and best practices when doing outreach to there peers. A major conversation thread was the difference between college students vs. non college students and how we can do outreach to both communities.

Barack specifically addressed the ease of energizing his college campus and the difficulty in finding young voters when they aren't congregating on a 50,000 person campus.

Many candidates and politicians joined in the conference to court the endorsement and coverage of their candidacy from bloggers within their state and nationally. Candidates from California, Florida, Washington state, to Kansas held events and plugged their social networking sites in panel discussions and some broadened the discussion to better ways they can do outreach to the netroots community.

All had an enthusiasm around young voters. Particularly, Democratic National Committee Chairman Governor Howard Dean who spent a few minutes with us and talked about the ways in which he sees young voters making an impact this election. According to Dean, young voters are a key component to the DNC strategy. He plans to drive the "Register for Change" bus through many college towns across the country.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also spent some time with us talking about her faith in young people and her belief that they are not only the future but the leaders on many new communications and technologies. Pelosi said she felt young people truly cared about global warming and the war on climate change.

We ran into tons of politicians from Mayor Gavin Newsome from San Francisco to Joe Garcia running for Congress in south Florida. We talked with Secretary of State Robin Carnahan about voter ID laws and their impact on young voters, and met up with candidate John Powers running for Congress in New York in the Netroots for the Troops room where volunteers were putting together care packages to send overseas.

Even Libertarian candidate for president Rep. Bob Barr stopped by Netroots Nation to talk to folks and sit in on a few panels. Rep. Barr told us he thought young voters were about to impact this election like never before.

As a blogger it was a profound experience to finally meet people I've read for years and discuss important topics that can help me be a more informed citizen. At the same time it was great to just have fun with friends. Many of whom I'd never actually met in person but have known for a year or more. It was a wild weekend! I heard some people even rhode the mechanical bull! Anything's possible in Texas!