Teenage Politicians

As always, I’m hoping to steal from the collective knowledge of all the folks who happen onto this blog. I have no problem with intellectual theft…everyone wins in the end, right? Ha.

Anyway, I am working on a project dealing with young elected officials. I’ve been scouring the academic and journalistic landscape on the topic. I have also conducted (and am still conducting) dozens of interviews with a variety of young officials, activists, and other experts in the political game.

We have an impressive array of young officials here in Illinois, but I’ve also had long conversations with young political leaders across the nation…the 19 year old mayor of a town of 30,000 in Conneticut, twentysomething state reps throughout the country, and others.

Here's a sample of some common themes that are developing. If you get the urge, please let me know if any of them jump out as particularly true, completely false, interestingly unique, or anything else.

1. The vast majority of young politicians have serious family connections. They are either related to elected officials or big time ‘players.’ Is this because having the connections helps them to win? OR Do the connections make more interested in politics than their non-political counterparts? Likely a mix of both?
2. Barring family connections, being ridiculously wealthy helps too. A lot. But family connections and wealth usually to go hand in hand.
3. Age itself doesn’t seem to be a barrier in the campaigns. Young candidates don’t lose more often that others…they simply rarely decide to run at all. Political scientists have shown that this is the same with women and minorities. We don’t have lower numbers of female and minority officials because they are beaten by white men; we simply have fewer female and minority candidates.
4. Most have careers outside of the political world. It’s not so impressive to say: I’m 22, just graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree in political science, elect me. It sounds much better to say: I’m 22, just graduated with a bachelor’s degree in education and am starting work teaching at a local school.
5. Young staffers rarely make the jump to the ballot. Sometimes they do…but not often. This is interesting considering many of the most politically active young adults end up in those jobs. Why do they rarely end up running, especially when that was often their original goal? Is it because you can’t get elected if you live in Springfield (or D.C.)? Is it because they become disillusioned? Is it because the job is a black hole sucking everyone onto an unalterable career track? I’ve talked with Rich about this one quite often.

Thoughts?