Admitting that he doesn’t excel at debates where “snappy prepared answers are expected to summarize complex problems,” state representative hopeful Evan Wolf organized a more “informal event” to make young voters aware of his presence.

By “informal event,” he meant a kegger “two doors down from The Boot.”

After speaking to students on campus, Wolf and his volunteers informed them there would be a party in a house on the corner of Zimpel and Audubon streets, which is a block away from the popular college bar. It serves both as Wolf’s campaign headquarters and personal residence, said William Nunn, a finance freshman and Wolf campaign volunteer.

“Word definitely got around campus,” said Richard Tucker, an 18-year-old political science freshman. “People had been talking that there would be a keg. I saw it as I walked back from the Boot Store to buy cigarettes.”

After returning to campus, Tucker and several friends decided to attend the party, motivated by the promises of free draft beer.

According to Tucker, the promised keg was being pumped on the front porch as people holding clipboards and wearing Evan Wolf T-shirts offered him a beer and presented him with a voter registration card.

After declining the card, Tucker and his friend took their beers and proceeded into a house blaring music, where people served Jell-O shots and “cranberry vodka like no other.”

“For a while, there was a lot of traffic in the house,” said Tucker. “Most of them were Tulane students, but I saw several Loyola students that I recognized enjoying the festivities. I also noticed that a lot of people were completing the voter cards. Everyone I knew there was underage.”

Despite the rowdiness of some of the guests, audible from the street, the objective of the party was “to get the word out that (Wolf) was running, to meet him and get informed of the issues and to have a good time,” Nunn said.

In addition to holding parties, Wolf, who calls his opponents “utter morons,” campaigned on Tulane and Loyola’s campuses, which constitute a large portion of District 95.

According to Wolf, students constitute 10 to 15 percent of the voting population of Loyola’s adjacent neighborhood, giving the traditionally more liberal student vote more power in an election with eight candidates.

“No one has tried to motivate the students,” said Wolf, who describes himself as the race’s “underdog.”

Believing the universities weren’t taking an active role in encouraging their students to vote, Wolf began recruiting voters at their homes: the dorms.

In an apparent breach of dorm security, Wolf and several campaign volunteers entered Biever Hall.

After getting into each wing, the campaign members knocked on individual doors. The politician then informed the primarily non-local students of his platform and the issues facing Uptown New Orleans. After this preface, Wolf presented students with voter registration cards to complete and return to him.

According to Nunn, the Department of Residential Life stopped the canvassing campaign and forced them to leave the building, saying that it’s against university policy to solicit in the dormitories.

“I understand their no-solicitation policy,” Wolf said, “but I believe the university failed its students by not encouraging them to vote.”

After encountering similar problems at Tulane, Wolf’s campaign, still intent on recruiting student voters, employed unaffiliated workers to set up a table in the Danna Center with voter registration cards.

More than 100 Loyola residents registered through both of these methods, Wolf said.

“We want to reach people,” Wolf said. “I believe that students tend to be more compassionate voters, more in touch with the needs of the city. The students who have come to the city since Hurricane Katrina are looking for more. They want to be involved. They want to do more than eat good food and get drunk on Bourbon Street.”

Justin Templet can be reached at [email protected].