Idaho’s colleges and universities are infamous for their political activity…or lack thereof. In fact, most student groups from Idaho’s biggest universities are almost entirely defunct; they feature stale websites with expired leaders, almost no political content and no events for the foreseeable future.

That is, until 2008.

Prior to this heated election year, Idaho’s student political groups have been disorganized, lazy or entirely nonexistent. But a combination of factors have led to an increased awareness in politics among Idaho’s usually dormant youth, and it just might be enough to change the composition of Idaho’s voting blocs.

“I started spring of 2007,” said Justine Cook, state coordinator for Students for Obama and spokesperson for the Boise State University College Democrats. “College Democrats was almost completely inactive. We had to hurry to meet the deadline to keep it going, we barely saved it. Now we have officers and it’s grown immensely.”

Cook said the activity level has flipped from previous years, where they had to seek out members and volunteers to get anything done.

“Obviously with the craziness of what’s going on in the media…we now have people coming to us wanting to take part in activities and do more on campus,” Cook said. “It’s literally done a 180 within a year.”

Trevor Grigg, president of the Boise State University College Republicans, said they’ve seen the opposite effect.

“Whenever we go out to recruit people, it’s highly successful,” Grigg said. “Most of them just don’t know where to go or what to do to get involved. There aren’t people going out of their way to get involved, we have to go get them. That’s how it is with most things on campus, though.”

Although Grigg said that the lack of enthusiasm is not only due to Obama’s popularity among college students but also because of John McCain’s relative unpopularity in Idaho and among youth voters.

“If there’s one candidate who’s caused trouble, it’s Ron Paul, more than anybody,” Grigg said. “His signs are up, his people are always walking around, his supporters have done the most on campus, probably more than Obama. Ron Paul, his people are out there.”

Grigg said Ron Paul’s support is a huge problem for McCain, both because Paul is highly popular among libertarian-trending Idaho Republicans and also among young Republicans. 

“Ron Paul will definitely cause a youth vote problem for McCain. On May 27, we saw 10 percent uncommitted, 25 percent for Paul. Conservatives in Idaho protested. If Paul did run as a third party, it would affect McCain a lot.”

Grigg said he’s not personally that excited for McCain, but he and his group will support him anyways.

“Our group and myself is behind McCain,” Grigg said. “I’m not gung-ho, to be honest. But we’ll definitely campaign for him.”

But Grigg said campaigning for a Republican on the BSU campus is an uphill battle.

“If there were an election on campus, [Obama] would win. It’s difficult, if a candidate can figure out a way to get the youth to vote, they’ll dominate. I’m sure Obama will get a dominant vote from students at BSU.”

Grigg said it isn’t necessarily because of Obama’s message, although it does help that he’s got a new message and McCain is an older candidate.

“The first reason is George W. Bush,” Grigg said. “There’s so much hatred and resentment that the democratic candidate will have a lot of momentum. Kerry and Gore were pretty boring guys, while Obama connects a lot better with the youth. He is like JFK; he’s younger and more approachable.”

Cook said Obama’s strength in Idaho is going to permanently bolster youth activity in politics, as well as help provide support for down-ticket candidates.

“He’s going to help a lot locally,” Cook said. “Working on the [Boise Mayor] Bieter campaign was awesome. Everyone’s feeding off of the Obama craze. There are so many young people interested and the local candidates are using Obama as an outlet to get to students that were never interested before. I would have never volunteered for [Senate candidate Larry] LaRocco or [Congressional candidate Walt] Minnick if it weren’t for Obama. I definitely credit Obama for running almost a revolutionary type of campaign.”