Young Voters Weigh in on Negativity in Recent Senate Election

By Maggie Roth

Gordon College News Service

January 26, 2010
(This article appeared in the Foster's Daily Democrat.)

For last Tuesday’s special election, Christina Johnson, 22, hauled herself out of bed and drove to the voting polls to cast her vote. But that doesn’t mean she was happy about it.

“The campaign between Scott Brown and Martha Coakley was extremely negative—specifically Coakley’s—and I think that could have something to do with why she did not win,” said Johnson, a Republican and elementary education major who is also the president of the senior class at Endicott College in Beverly. “I almost didn’t want to vote.”

Like Johnson, many young voters became discouraged with the political process as the race between Democrat Martha Coakley and Republican Scott Brown for Ted Kennedy’s seat turned nasty. The onslaught of negative television ads and snide comments from both sides turned off many young voters and in the end, sent a Republican to the senate— something that has not been done in Massachusetts since their parents were their age.

According to CIRCLE, the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University, youth (ages 18-29) turnout in the recent Massachusetts senate election was just 15 percent compared to 57 percent for older citizens. Young voters also preferred Coakley over Brown by 58 percent to 40 percent according to a recent CIRCLE survey of voters.

Pat Johnson, a 20 year-old political studies student at Suffolk University and the current president of College Democrats of Massachusetts, said he thinks campaigns often shift their tone because candidates are surprised by developments and feel threatened.

“Campaigns turn negative when one person is either in the lead but loses steam, or is slowly gaining but hits a snag,” he said. “I think campaigns also become negative when a politician is not entirely comfortable with their current strategy.”

The young democrat said he believes many begin attacking their opponents when they can’t come to a consensus on a positive message or when they sense discontent and anger amongst the electorate and try to tap into it.

But if candidates concentrated on their own race, Christina Johnson believes the campaigns would be more effective and more attractive to other voters like her. “But it seems like it is much easier to just go for the jugular,” she said.

Charlie Gribbell, a 15 year-old freshman in high school at the Waring School in Beverly, MA, isn't old enough to vote but he still recognizes the negativity of the recent senate race.

"I think politics get negative because people really get invested in their choices,” he said. “They will become angry if they don't win when they've worked so hard."

Many young voters feel that it is difficult to pinpoint why politics tend to spiral into negative campaigns, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have hope for a change.

“I think it is important to vote for people who are civil and reasoned and who have track records of bringing diverse groups of people together. Barack Obama and Deval Patrick ran those kind of campaigns, focused on bringing both sides together and not engaging in petty name calling,” said Pat Johnson. “But it is also important that citizens call out those who engage in petty discourse and shine some light on them.”

Christina Johnson agreed that candidates need to work on running more positive campaigns that highlight the good being done, not the negative aspects of the competition.

“The voting process is what makes America so great, and the fact that we can voice our opinion should never be taken for granted," she said. "People need to be patient, and candidates need to be less negative. Voting shouldn't bring out the worst in politicians."