Rock The Vote Looks For The Youth Vote

By Jonathan Karl/CNN

NEW YORK (June 13) -- Six years ago, a couple of record company executives predicted they could use rock 'n' roll to get young people to vote. It worked and even President Bill Clinton acknowledges that they helped him get to the White House.

This year, Rock the Vote faces its biggest challenge yet. Coming off a lackluster performance in 1994, a new team is pushing to redefine the get-out-the-vote effort.

Their goal is to become a political forum for young people and register one million people by November.

Rock the Vote started with more modest aspirations. It was founded six years ago after the arrest of a record store owner for selling a banned rap album by 2 Live Crew.

During the last election, even Madonna weighed in with flag- draped public service announcements that sported memorable lines like "Dr. King, Malcolm X, free speech is as good as sex."

The anti-censorship message concluded with a threat from the pop superstar: "And if you don't vote, you're going to get a spanking."

Maybe Madonna needed a spanking. She never even bothered to vote, but millions of others did, bringing youth turnout to a 20-year high and prompting charges that Rock the Vote was biased towards Democrats.

"I think it's pretty clear that the history of this organization has been one that is purely a launching pad for Bill Clinton and the liberal Democrats," said Joe Galli, the chair of the College Republicans (128K WAV sound)

Today, Rock the Vote is led by former Clinton scheduler Ricki Seidman and Mark Strama, a former advisor to Texas Democrat Ann Richards. The tour manager for the MTV Choose Or Lose bus, which works closely with Rock the Vote, is a former Clinton press aide.

But Rock the Vote insists it is nonpartisan. "What we're about is not telling people how to vote; it's telling them that it's important to vote," said Seidman.

With a budget of nearly $2 million, Rock the Vote wants to be a major political player this year. As one young voter put it, "I think this sort of thing kind of makes it, for 18-year-olds and people who are our age, it makes it cool, I guess, in a way. It's not something our parents are doing now; it's something we are doing."

Rock stars will, of course, play a strong role again this year. Art Alexakis of the band Everclear said, "The numbers of people in our age group who vote is pathetic. Just do it. Exercise your right. Get off your butt and do something."

Dave Dederer of the group The Presidents of the United States of America agreed, "In a democracy, people should be educated and make intelligent choices, and I'm all for that. Whatever the choice you make is great, but make a choice."

Dederer's group sums up this philosophy well in one of their songs: "We solemnly swear to uphold the Constitution. Got a rock 'n' roll problem? Well, we got the solution."

This time, the stars may vote, too. "I'm an absentee ballot voter now," Dederer said. "We're on tour all the time so all my voting is done through the mail."

This story originally appeared on CNN's "Inside Politics."

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