Taking the party to the party

By 11 p.m. last Wednesday night, Jan. 21, Lt. Gov. Mark Taylor and DJ Biz Markie had posed Tupac-Snoop Dogg style for the camera, the secretary of state had shut down voter registration, Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe had danced and Zell Miller still hadn’t arrived.

All of this had something to do, ostensibly, with getting young people to vote in 2004 and proving Democratic bona fides with the hip urban set.

The DNC-organized event, at Vision nightclub in Midtown, brought out 1,148 people as Democrats looked to cultivate new voters in the 18- to 24-year-old crowd with headliners such as Biz and R&B group 112.

Only 20 percent of registered voters 18 to 24 years old actually voted in Georgia’s last election, as Secretary of State Cathy Cox noted.

“If we could get young people to register in large numbers, and vote in large numbers, you can bet the policy makers of this state would listen to what they have to say in terms of policy,” Cox said.

Unfortunately, soon after, Cox had to shut down the DNC’s voter registration table because the group didn’t check Georgia law to find out that it’s illegal to register voters in a place where alcohol is being sold.

The night was geared for people like Dee Tennille, 23, who doesn’t identify with either party. She went to college, as her parents did, but doesn’t think she has as many opportunities as they did.

“The payoff, it’s just not there,” says the Hampton University graduate. “It’s been really tough finding employment. I know a lot of my friends and associates are still living at home.”

McAuliffe tried to capitalize on this frustration in his speech to the audience. He bashed Bush — the 2 million-plus job losses, the president’s stance against affirmative action, etc.

McAuliffe is relentlessly optimistic and hyperbolic. (State Rep. Calvin Smyre, D-Columbus, for instance, was the greatest chairman of a state Democratic Party in America, according to McAuliffe. Um, yeah.) If you were dying of cancer and he was your doctor, McAuliffe would not only tell you that you weren’t dying but that you were going to grow 3 feet and replace Shaq as the starting center for the Lakers.

But he was frank with the audience Wednesday regarding Democratic chances for presidential success in Georgia, just as he was earlier in the evening at a separate gathering at Manuel’s Tavern. He exhorted the crowds to do everything but tackle people in the street to get them to the polls for the Dems’ candidate.

If that doesn’t happen, “let me be crystal clear, folks, we’re going to lose,” McAuliffe barked.

But it was guest DJ Biz Markie, clad in giant chinchilla coat and matching hat, who perhaps summed up the evening’s vibe best. “I liked Bill Clinton, and the Democratic ways, and when Democrats was in office, it was a beautiful day.”

Thank you, Biz. I smell VP material.






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