Danielle Brazil leans back with a pensive but active gaze. She’s carefully weighing her thoughts; considering her options. Like many Rhode Island voters, Ms. Brazil, a Salve Regina University junior and president of the campus chapter of the College Democrats, plans to vote in next Tuesday’s presidential primary. And like many Rhode Island voters, she’s currently forming her thoughts on each of the candidates.
This will be a special election for the West Warwick native. Not because she is anxious to vote for “change;” not because she has been told by political pundits it is an important election. Rather, March 4 will be the first time she casts a ballot in a presidential election.
That means both opportunity and responsibility to Brazil.
“This is a big deal for me,” she said. “I’m really excited about it. I tell everyone I run into on campus to get out there and vote because I believe that college students definitely can make a difference.”
Brazil, who began the primary season supporting Delaware Sen. Joe Biden still sports a Biden for President sticker on the back of her car. However, with her preferred candidate long since departed from the race, like many young women, she has thrown her support to Hillary Clinton. “It really just comes down to experience,” she said.
Asked if there was any way that she would vote for a Republican, Brazil responded “Yes.”
“If Obama - without Hillary - gets the ticket, I would vote for McCain” she said.
Meeting in a group of other Salve Regina students, Brazil’s sentiments were shared by several of her classmates at an interview on Monday.
Salve student and Clinton supporter Nicole Warren agreed. Saying that her first choice would be for a Hillary Clinton, Wesley Clark ticket, Warren joined with Brazil in pledging her support for McCain should Obama be the nominee.
“I actually plan on voting for McCain,” Warren, a Massachusetts resident, said. “I believe Obama is all words and no substance.”
Robert LaRiviere-Tougas, however, disagreed. While he said that Obama is a skilled orator and that some of his supporters may be “uninformed,” he holds out hope that the Illinois senator will be able to change the culture of Washington.
Meanwhile, unaffiliated Emila Shosho urged both first time and experienced voters alike to do their homework. “Make sure you don’t judge a book by its cover,” she said. “Do your own research so you can form you own opinions.”
That could be good advice for Rhode Island’s more than 665,000 eligible voters including the more than 43,000 new voters that have registered for this year’s election and the approximately 21,000 new voters between the ages of 18 and 29.
Asked if she had any plans of replacing the Joe Biden stickers on her car with that of her party’s nominee, Brazil replied “Yes. Eventually.”
Other insights offered by the Salve students:
- The students were unanimously dismissive of blogs as a way to gather news and information describing them “too opinionated.” However each said that social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook play a valuable role helping young voters connect with the political process.
- The economy was cited as the most important issue going into November, while the war in Iraq followed closely behind.
- The panel was split in its general election predictions with John McCain predicted as the eventual winner by a plurality of the students.