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Kansas City, MO – This year's presidential election sparked many new people to get into politics. Two campaigns in particular engaged young people using online tools of social networking - Barack Obama's campaign and the campaign of Republican candidate Ron Paul. We were curious about people who got involved during last year's presidential election, and have stayed involved in local issues.
Last year, Cokethea Hill left her position at the Kauffman Scholars program to pursue her doctorate in educational leadership at the University of Kansas. She had a little extra time to take an unpaid internship with the Obama campaign. It soon turned into a full-time gig, and Hill was hooked on organizing. Cokethea Hill is now member of Kansas City Missouri's school board. She talks about how the Obama campaign has created a new network of people interested in local politics.
24-year-old Catherine Bleish greets people coming to a meeting of the Liberty Restoration Project at the Uptown Theater. Bleish started this organization with a group of supporters of Republican candidate Ron Paul, the Libertarian-leaning Congressman from Texas. After the election, she led the group that took all three delegate seats from Missouri's 5th district at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis. But she said it wasn't long ago, that she thought of herself as a liberal.
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