On Facebook, politicians court Gen Y

Meet Evan, an Indiana University alumnus and facebook.com member. In many ways, his profile on the popular online networking site resembles millions of other users' personalized pages: His list of activities includes running, debating and reading; he says he enjoys rock, bluegrass and country music; he's hooked on the TV shows "The West Wing" and "24."

The Washington resident's reported "interests," however — a laundry list of issues such as "energy independence" and "globalization and trade policy" — seem slightly less typical of Facebook-land. And his job title certainly isn't typical: It's U.S. Senator.

Evan — otherwise known as Sen. Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) — is one of a growing number of politicians and political candidates who are using Facebook in an attempt to reach 18-to-25-year-olds, a coveted demographic often seen as apathetic toward politics and elections. Though Bayh, a rumored 2008 presidential contender, joined Facebook in July following an address to the College Democrats of America, the most recent upsurge in Facebook-surfing politicians comes after the site introduced new Election 2006 features at the beginning of September.

Those features automatically created profiles for 1,600 gubernatorial, senatorial and congressional candidates in U.S. states and territories, with members able to list candidates they support rather than "friending" them, as they would an ordinary member. The candidates' default profiles list the office they're seeking, party affiliation, district and state, and feature a picture of an American flag. At no charge, candidates can request login information from Facebook to create more individual profiles with photographs and personal information.

"The senator understands college students are an important part of the political process and thought Facebook was a great way to reach out," said Bayh press secretary Meghan Keck, who skirted saying whether Bayh ever personally logs on to the site. She noted, however, that he directly provides all information on his profile and regularly passes on updates to the staffer who handles his Facebook membership.

In New Jersey, three candidates — District 5 Democratic House of Representatives challenger Paul Aronsohn, Republican senatorial challenger Tom Kean, Jr., and District 3 Democratic House of Representatives challenger Richard Sexton — have opted for unique profiles that build on Facebook's default entries.

"Elections are largely about young people, about the future," Aronsohn said in an interview with The Daily Princetonian, adding that his interns — whom he called "the heart and soul of my campaign" — urged him to use Facebook after seeing a news release describing the site's election features. "This is one of several tools [to reach out to young people] ... it's hard sometimes to break through, to connect and communicate."

On his profile, Aronsohn, who also uses YouTube as part of his campaign, lists his interests as "my family, public service, baseball, coffee." His profile picture shows him standing next to Comedy Central personality Stephen Colbert, who interviewed him in a segment that has yet to run.

Kean press secretary John Gorman said that youth outreach was their campaign's motivation for using Facebook as well. Kean is currently in a closely-watched race against sitting Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), whose Facebook profile remains generic.

"Facebook offered a good forum for the different candidates to explain their position on various issues as well as their vision for New Jersey," Gorman said in an email. "We were grateful for the opportunity to have a profile and hope it creates some excitement and debate among younger people." Kean's profile, while less elaborate than Aronsohn's, includes a Robert Kennedy quotation on the responsible use of power and features a torso-length shot of the beaming candidate.

Sexton, whose campaign representatives were unavailable for comment, uses a photograph of himself with the U.S. Capitol in the background and is a member of the group "The Colbert Nation."

Despite the enthusiasm of candidates who have embraced Facebook, it remains to be seen how many candidates in total are using the site. It's also unclear how many ordinary Facebook users even know about the election features, especially since the additions may have been overshadowed by the recent hubbub over the site's controversial news feed and mini-feed.

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Brandee Parker, of Facebook's corporate communications division, said the site does not yet have data on the extent to which the election features are being used.

"We just launched the network, so we don't yet have an analysis on candidates' profiles that have been populated beyond the initial information posted," she said in an email. "As election time nears, we expect users to engage with their candidates by using Facebook and provide us with feedback."

Princeton College Democrats president Julia Brower '08 said she did not know about the candidate profiles before being contacted by the 'Prince,' though she had joined Facebook groups dedicated to political candidates and issues in the past.

"I think if [candidates use] blogs or some sort of online networking process, that's one approach," she said, adding that seeing a candidate's Facebook profile might influence her to check out his or her campaign website, but that the profile alone would never secure her vote.

College Republicans press secretary Will Scharf '08 expressed more enthusiasm about the additions, which he said were commendable even if they don't cause a huge upsurge in young people's political involvement.

"Even if it doesn't cause tremendous turnaround, having that option [of supporting a candidate] on Facebook makes a student think for a second, 'What candidate do I support?'" he said. "Even that moment of reflective thought is valuable."

Meanwhile, some Facebook members who use the election features acknowledge that candidates campaigning on the site may see young people's interests and pastimes as somewhat lightweight. In a post on Aronshohn's wall, Georgetown student Tom Hunt wrote: "I'm pretty sure that, given the considerable effort he's put into his facebook profile, as well as the picture with Colbert, Paul Aronsohn has locked up the 18-25 vote."