Right now, we’re in Brooks Hall on Barnard’s campus, where Students for Obama is phonebanking all day. I spoke with the organization’s president here at Columbia, Columbia sophomore Mary McDonald, who outlined the group’s recent activities — phonebanking every night for the past 10 days, having debate-watching parties, participating in the “Walk For Change” for Obama (35 Columbia students attended), setting up tables on College Walk — and expressed hope for the events of today.

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Somewhere in Jersey - The DP is on its way to Princeton, NJ right now. Turns out NJ transit is free for students from Feb. 4-10. Print off a coupon at their website, www.njtransit.com, and go VOTE! This is great for students who live or go to school in PA, NJ, or NY.

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So I’ve been reading an article in Time magazine while I’m on the train — and the statistics in the article are really interesting. According to the magazine’s survey, 74% of young people ages 18-29 say they are paying attention to the presidential campaign, compared to 42% in 2004 and only 13% in 2000. That’s a pretty significant jump.

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Right now, I’m on the train on my way to New York with photographer Aaron Goodman and videographer (and web editor) Albert Sun. We’re in New Jersey and should arrive at Penn Station in a little under an hour.

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I’ll be reporting from Princeton, NJ throughout the day on the Republican race. With 52 Republican delegates at stake, New Jersey is at the heart of the delegate-rich Northeast.

Here’s a quick preview of the district Princeton is in:
Princeton University is represented by the 12th Congressional district’s Rep. Rush Holt (D). Throughout the 1990s, the district trended heavily Republican. By 1998, however, redistricting occurred and resulted in the district becoming more Democratic. In the 2004 presidential election, the district voted for John Kerry by 9 points. In 2000, it went for Al Gore by 16 points. Stay tuned for updates throughout Tuesday’s primary.

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I’ll be reporting throughout the day from Columbia University on what students there are doing to get out the vote, and campaign for their candidates.

With 281 delegates at stake, New York is the second-largest prize in the Super Tuesday lineup, and one that is incredibly important to Senator Clinton in her campaign for president. Columbia is part of the 15th congressional district in New York, which includes upper Manhattan and Harlem. The district is represented in Congress by Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel.

Currently, Clinton has a significant lead in New York state. According to RealClearPolitics.com, Clinton leads Obama 53.5 percent to 36.3 percent, a 17.2-point margin. Considering that Clinton is the senator from New York, this lead is to be expected.

Some background on the area surrounding Columbia:

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The Daily Pennsylvanian is heading out on the road to cover Super Tuesday voting at some of our neighboring schools. While Pennsylvania is not voting Tuesday, and isn’t voting until April 22nd, students at Columbia and Princeton Universities will be.

In what has been called one of the most important elections of our time, Democratic primaries and caucuses have been breaking voter turnout records left and right, especially among young voters. The question on everybody’s mind then, is, on this day where both parties candidates will likely be determined will the trend continue? Are college kids going to turn out and vote, or will they stay home?

To tell the story, we’re sending out two reporting teams of a reporter, photographer and videographer to two states that are voting Tuesday, to find out, “Will the youth turn out?”