Administrative/Biographical History
HISTORY
The history written below was compiled May 1-3, 2004. It summarizes the activities of the Oberlin College Democrats from fall 2001–spring 2004. Contributors include Abigail Deats, class of 2004, Thomas Fazzini, class of 2005, Georgia Hollister-Isman, class of 2004, Matthew Ari Kaplan, class of 2005, Charlie Sohne, class of 2007, Renata Strause, class of 2005, and Melissa Threadgill, class of 2004.
2000 Election
During the 2000 election there was a very active group of students led by Katherine Blauvelt and David Karpf and assisted by Chris Holbein called “Students for Gore.” Before that, the group was named “Students for Bradley.” For all intents and purposes, this organization functioned outside the Oberlin College Democrats. The main function of Students for Gore was organizing volunteers on campus to show students that Gore was just as progressive as Nader and that a vote for Ralph Nader represented a wasted vote, especially in Ohio, an important swing state. After the presidential and congressional elections, the Dems as an organization had effectively ceased to be. At the end of the 2001 school year, the organization failed to re-charter and went defunct. When I came to Oberlin in the fall of 2001, as a freshman, I searched for this organization, failing to find anything.
– Matt Kaplan
Oberlin College Democrats Founding Principles
There are an enormous number of interest group organizations on campus but none that fight for progressive change through the electoral process. The Oberlin College Democrats transfer abstract progressive principles into pragmatic action (working for progressive candidates and casting ballots). In order to do this, students give their support to progressive Democrats prepared to change our political system.
By working within the system of electoral politics, students seek an opportunity to influence the workings of government before the stage is already set.
One of the goals on the Oberlin campus is to showcase progressive Democratic politicians to convince students that the Democratic Party is not a party of corporate elites. Rather, it is an inclusive umbrella that provides a space for forward-looking people who believe in a better future for our society and allows for grassroots change.
– Matt Kaplan
Fall 2001
Upon this conclusion, I went about the process of restarting the organization and recruiting new members. While the Students for Gore people were helpful in the organizational process of restarting the group, recruiting active members was essentially my sole responsibility. During the first semester this work was largely solitary with occasional help from Chris Holbein and Rebecca Kenna-Schenk. This first semester the main activities were as follows:
–Setting up a table at the student activities fair and a speech by Barney Frank. Both activities provided great exposure which helped the list of interested members.
–Rebecca Kenna-Schenk and I wrote an ad-hoc budget and received approximately $500 for the new organization.
–After September 11th, the political environment was changed. The first “political” action that we made as an organization was distributing petitions against the Patriot Act. Along with help from the Oberlin Coalition Against the War (Afghanistan) we got 400 signatures against the Patriot Act. We sent copies of these petitions to Sherrod Brown (Congressman–OH 13) and U.S. Senators DeWine and Voinovich.
–On October 7, 2001 I went to the Lorain County Democratic Party Picnic. At this event, I handed this petition to Sherrod Brown and urged him to stand up against John Ashcroft’s efforts to erode our civil liberties. Along with the efforts of the North Central Chapter of the A.C.L.U., we convinced Sherrod to vote against the bill with and without the sunshine provisions.
–As a result of this successful lobbying session, I applied and was accepted to work within Sherrod’s Congressional Office as a winter term intern. During my work in Sherrod’s office I organized a pizza party for all the Oberlin College Interns on behalf of the Congressman. At the end of the Pizza Party, Sherrod gave a big plug for the Oberlin College Democrats, urging everyone to join the fight locally. This was an enormous boost for the organization. Returning from D.C., three people who were on the list serve, Abigail Deats, Georgia Hollister-Isman, and Darla Migan, decided to join the group.
When we returned to campus in the spring, we moved forward very quickly with our organizing efforts.
– Matt Kaplan
Spring 2002
The first thing that we did on return to Oberlin was begin a successful letter writing campaign to our congress-people in support of the McCain-Feingold Act, the campaign finance reform bill. Since our local congressman, Sherrod Brown, already supported the bill we decided to send letters to our Ohio Senators and people’s home representatives. We had over 250 people send letters to their congressional representatives.
The process we employed for sending the letters is as follows:
–We set up a table on Wilder Bowl or the basement of Wilder with a computer connected to the wireless Internet. We drafted a sample letter and had people send their letters via the “write rep” site where you enter your address, enter your text, and a letter is electronically sent to your representative. People could either use our draft letter or send a personalized copy. If people didn’t have the time to do it themselves, they gave us their address, approved of the letter, and we sent the letter after they left.
Then, on the day of the debate (February 13th), we sat in East Hall and watched the debate for about 7 hours until the bill was voted on at 3 a.m. on Valentine’s Day (February 14th).
– Matt Kaplan
Fall 2002
September–November 2002: Sue Morano State Senate Campaign
We poured our hearts and souls into the fall 2002 election. We nearly always do, but this time it was with particular gusto. Sue Morano ran for the State Senate seat, and we did lit-drops, canvassing, and just about everything we could for her. We registered students to vote and got to know all of the area surrounding Oberlin. We also welcomed Tim Hagan to campus. Hagan was the progressive-leaning Democrat running against Ohio Governor Bob Taft, who is, quite frankly, a sleaze ball. I doubt Hagan ever stood a chance of winning, so his defeat on election night was not such a huge shock to us. Morano’s defeat, however, was a serious morale setback. Losing the U.S. Senate was pretty depressing, too.
– Renata Strause
November 2002: Union Forum
Our work with the college unions started as a reaction to the layoffs, which took place in the fall of 2002. As a first link between the unions and the Dems (and as a way of getting Sue Morano onto campus), we organized a forum on labor activism on campus, bringing Sue, campus labor leaders Sarge Aviles (U.A.W.), and Diane Lee (O.C.O.P.E.), to speak. Turnout was moderate–30 or so people during the lunch hour–but the event was a lot of fun.
– Melissa Threadgill
December 5-8, 2002: Run-Off Election, U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu
Shortly after the Election in 2002, we went to the national conference of the Young Democrats of America, held in Cleveland. We pretty much raised a ruckus with our socialist-style constitution and our anti-establishment votes. It was there that we were offered the chance to drive to Louisiana to help Mary Landrieu win re-election in a very tight Special Election for the U.S. Senate. So, one week before finals, seven very crazy college students (Abby Deats, Tom Fazzini, Matt Kaplan, Renata Strause, Val Baron, Georgia Hollister-Isman, and Kyle Smith) drove straight through the night to La Bossier, Louisiana, a small town with a large army base in the northern part of the state. (They had originally wanted us to drive to Baton Rouge, but that would have been impossible.)
We spent two full days–the day before Election Day and then Election Day itself–canvassing towns in the middle of rural Louisiana. The majority of us being “Yankees,” we saw poverty and racial resentment like we’d never seen before. We survived dogs chasing us, Abe the canvass director chasing us, and even a terrible bout of food poisoning. But we helped Mary Landrieu keep her Senate seat, and we all came home very satisfied and very proud. (And exhausted.)
– Renata Strause
This trip was extremely important to the future of the Dems because it really helped to form the group into a cohesive unit. There’s nothing quite like an 18 hour car ride to bring a group of people together.
We arrived in Shreveport at about 3am on Friday, slept for about 4 hours, and then headed out for a full day (8am-8pm) of lit dropping through rural Louisiana. After about 5 hours of sleep the second night, we arrived at the campaign headquarters around 6am on Saturday morning. Saturday was Election Day, so we did everything from lit dropping (before people woke up) to phone banking to GOTV to poll watching. It was an EXHAUSTING day, but loads of fun. That night we began the drive back around 10pm, and despite my severe case of food poisoning managed to make it back on Sunday evening. Thanks to all who helped me survive the car trip home and especially to the hotel who kindly donated a trashcan to the Dems—it’s still in our office!
– Abby Deats
The November 2002 election threw all of us into a deep downward spiral of depression (the only bright spot was, of course, Ed Rendell’s election as governor of Pennsylvania). Things were looking bleak for the Dems nationally, and locally the candidate that we had worked the hardest to support (Sue Morano) had lost her bid for State Senate by such a small margin of votes that a re-count was automatically triggered. It was within this soul-searching, will-to-live-crushing environment that the OC Dems decided to do what we could to help the last remaining shred of hope for the Dems, Senator Mary Landrieu. With no clear majority candidate coming out of the November election, Louisiana election “law” ruled that a runoff election would take place, between the two top vote getters. This meant an early December match up between Landrieu, the incumbent Democratic Senator with deep family roots in Louisiana politics, and Suzanne Terrell, an inexperienced Republican former chair of the Louisiana board of elections who had tremendously strong backing from the RNC (if my memory serves me correctly). Some of the big issues of the campaign were abortion rights (Landrieu was technically pro-choice, but in highly Catholic Louisiana, this meant that her message surrounding abortion had to be very delicately addressed. Terrell was pro-life.) and general unemployment/economy issues (apparently Terrell had been attacking Landrieu for voting “yes” on a trade bill that would have made it easier to import sugar into the U.S. This didn’t sit very well with all of the sugar growers in southern Louisiana who were finding themselves already under attack from cheap sugar imports. It was all very out of context and easy to refute.) This election was also during the period of Bush’s push to send us to war with Iraq. Answering the question of “whether or not you would support a resolution to go to war with Iraq” was dicey in the very polarized (and poorly informed) environment that preceded the war. Terrell ran on a very strong “I’ll do what president Bush tells me to do, which is good because most people in Louisiana support Bush” platform, while Landrieu had a much more difficult time talking about it without sounding like she didn’t support our troops.
Anyway, the Dems rented a 7 person Chevy Venture minivan from the college, piled in the car on a Thursday morning, and began our drive. The total time spent in the car was about 18 hours and our route took us on a whirlwind tour of the South. We went Oberlin to Columbus to Louisville to Nashville to Memphis (where we took our picture under 100 foot tall crosses outside of a church mega-complex near the highway) to Little Rock to Hope (birthplace of Bill Clinton!) and then south on back roads to Shreveport/Bossier City where we would be volunteering for the campaign.
The campaign itself was pretty well organized. They had good lists of solidly Democratic voters and our job was alternately to doorbell or to lit-drop at these houses. We were taken to different small towns in the area including some extremely small trailer home communities outfitted with dogs the size of bison and much more fierce. After some close calls, all of us remained unscathed. The next day, the day of the election, we were up again at 6am, and campaigned solidly all day, knocking on doors and asking people (in the most muted northern accents we could muster) if they had voted yet today. Most people were kind; no guns were pulled on us (as some of us had feared), and by nightfall it seemed as if we had collectively talked to each and every Democratic voter in Northwest Louisiana. But no rest for the weary! With an 18-hour drive back to Oberlin, we said goodbye to the folks in the campaign (especially Abe, our campaign appointed pseudo-leader with a penchant for yelling at us for being too slow, and literally running full speed from door to door on Election Day). And, we headed to a Subway, grabbed some food, and hunkered down in the van for another 18 hours of enforced Democratic bonding. Speeding away onto Louisiana back roads that night, we estimated that, if we took turns sleeping and driving, we’d be back at Oberlin sometime Sunday evening just in time for dinner. That evening, somewhere outside of Bossier City we heard on the radio that Landrieu was the probable winner (in a very close race) and we all smiled, contented as we all drifted into (much-needed) sleep.
But alas, disaster struck not far from the border with Arkansas! Grumbles coming from the back of the van prompted the driver of the van to pull over to the side of the road—it seemed as if someone was getting ill. No sooner had the van been pulled over, than one of the Dems launched himself out of the van, headfirst, and vomited profusely all over the side of the road. It seemed that our subs from Subway had been riddled with some kind of bad meat that caused profuse vomiting in people unfortunate enough to have consumed the meat. We cleaned up and continued on our way, yet, with the specter of more food poisoning (and more vomiting) on the horizon, our plan to continue through the night quickly seemed untenable. Our solution was to stop in Forrest City, Arkansas (somewhere between Little Rock and Memphis) at a ‘dive’ to get some sleep and recharge for the drive home. One Dem, unfortunately, had no chance to sleep. During our stay in Forrest City she became the second victim of Subway Puke Disease, and was up all night over the toilet. (“Every 45 minutes I would barf. It was like clockwork,” she later remarked.) We woke up about 4 hours after we had fallen asleep (due to our tight schedule) and sallied forth from Forrest City with a hope, a prayer, and a stolen garbage can for the second victim of food poisoning. She stayed in the front seat the entire ride back, garbage can in her lap, chin perched on the edge of the garbage can’s rim. Remarkably, she managed to vomit in every state after Louisiana (except Ohio). For this reason, the trip became known as “Vomitfest 2002.” And, it was all for the greater good of course! What were a few thousand miles of discomfort when we knew that, thanks to our efforts, Mary Landrieu would continue to grace the Senate with her presence for 6 more years? It was the kind of trip that each of us will be sure to mention to our children when they ask us if we ever did anything fun before they were born. “How about a road trip across the United States of America that involved knocking on trailers in rural Louisiana, a contested Senate runoff election, and tons and tons of puke?”
– Tom Fazzini
<h1> December 2002: Union Holiday Party</h1> Following the union forum, we met with Tracy Tucker (O.C.O.P.E. VP) to figure out ways the Dems could support the unions in their efforts. We came up with the holiday party idea. The party was held in the Science Center Commons the last day of classes, with lots of free food, music, a huge raffle, and the selling of links in a chain to “send a message to Nancy” about the union layoffs, etc. It was a lot of fun, established closer ties to the unions, and raised awareness of the union presence on campus. This year, we did a repeat of the event, with similar results.
– Melissa Threadgill
Spring 2003
February–May 2003: Anti-War Caucus
Aside from the local tax levy campaign (YESYES for Oberlin Schools), most everyone was preoccupied with the war in Iraq. It’s safe to say that the general sentiment on campus was anti-war. Many of the OC Dems were in Washington, D.C. over winter term, and a lot of us went to the huge anti-war rally in January. (Not all though, as I’ll explain in just a moment.) A few even traveled with many other Obies to N.Y.C. in February for another protest. Finally, when the bombs began to drop on Baghdad, the majority of the Dems walked out of classes with about 2,000 other students and professors and spent the day at lectures, discussion forums, and a march through the streets of Oberlin.
Not all of the Dems, however, disagreed with the war. The subject sparked debates from the first sight of the possibility of military action, during the previous semester. However, in the spring of 2003, the debate turned from simply one over foreign and military policy to a discussion of the role and objectives of the OC Dems as an organization. With the majority of the group adamantly opposed to the war, and two active members in reluctant favor of it, a decision had to be made regarding how the OC Dems would participate in the various anti-war activities taking place on campus. The discussions went on for weeks, often taking on rather emotional tones, until finally a solution was reached: the Anti-War Caucus of the OC Dems was officially created. With separate meeting times and a semi-autonomous objective, the Anti-War Caucus was free to participate and co-sponsor campus events that shared its purpose. In particular, the Anti-War Caucus also worked to reassure students that many Democrats in Congress and throughout the country were vehemently opposed to the war. One of the ways in which this was done was by postering campus with quotes from famous Dems expressing strong anti-war sentiments.
The other important activity of the Anti-War Caucus relates specifically to the OC Dems’ relationship with the Ohio Young Democrats. After discussion with the OYD President, the OC Dems’ Anti-War Caucus decided to present a resolution to the quarterly meeting of the OYD decrying the then ongoing war in Iraq. A very strongly worded resolution was presented, toned down in a committee meeting, and then presented again to the general assembly. The OYD members, not being accustomed to having their organization discuss anything of substance, were split between horror and delight. After an extraordinarily heated debate and the best attempts by Matt Kaplan (through schmoozing with other delegates) and myself (through a heartfelt speech given to the assembly) the resolution was defeated through something that I liked to call “masturbatory parliamentary procedure,” essentially split between the college delegations who favored the resolution and the county delegations who opposed it.
Though the resolution’s indefinite tabling frustrated the Anti-War Caucus, this story does have a happy epilogue, if not a happy ending. Immediately after the voting was finished, the next item on the agenda was a speech by Congressman Sherrod Brown. Having not been present for the debate and vote on the anti-war resolution, and knowing nothing of its existence, Brown proceeded to admonish the OYD assembly to take every step possible, no matter how small it may seem, to speak out against the war in Iraq. He warned the group not to sit idly by, because history must record that “traditional” organizations, even those connected to the Democratic Party, spoke out against the grave injustices that went on that spring.
– Renata Strause
March–May 2003: Yes-Yes School Levy Campaign
In March Paul Dawson asked me to call Ken Stanley, who was organizing the Yes-Yes campaign, and help him find interested students. Owing Dawson numerous favors, I set up a meeting with Ken, Georgia, and a couple other Yes-Yes people—which lasted about 3 hours. Ken was looking for student help, and Georgia and I helped him set up some aspects of the campaign, particularly the on-campus part of it. Then we passed his info over to Renata, who we thought might be interested in helping Ken in a more hands-on way. She was, and the rest is her story. I’ll add that the Dems were heavily involved in the Yes-Yes campaign, however, from voter registration on campus (registering 100 students), to canvassing in the community, to GOTV on Election Day. And the results showed it, I think.
– Melissa Threadgill
This was when the OC Dems perfected our voter registration skills. We conducted a massive drive to register students to vote and to educate them about the two tax levies that were on the ballot to fund the Oberlin public schools. I’m still a little too bitter to talk about this in depth, but I will say that in the end, both tax increases passed by large numbers and we were very pleased with the result.
– Renata Strause
Fall 2003
September 2003: Congressman Sherrod Brown
The idea to bring Sherrod in as the “kick-off” to our Fall Voter Registration drive came up over the summer during one of our numerous emails back-and-forth in our respective jobs.
I emailed his office (think I got the contact from Matt), and they got back to me at the very end of the summer. We had hoped they’d come mid-September so we’d have time to plan the event—they decided to come the first full week of school. So we spent a VERY busy week getting that event together. Press releases out to the media, mad postering, booking a space, lining up someone to introduce Sherrod (Daniel Gardner, now City Council chair, then a good friend of Sherrod’s who had done lots of work with him on Grassroots Leadership), and all the typical fun speaker-planning events.
It went off without a hitch, I believe…around 90 people showed up, and Sherrod gave a great speech.
– Melissa Threadgill
September–December 2003: Voter Registration and Voter Education
Based on the voter registration work that the Dems did during the Yes-Yes campaign and at the beginning of this school year during freshman orientation, we became the most successful and trusted group that does voter registration on campus. This relationship with the college and the student body allowed us to run an exceptionally successful voter registration drive during the fall 2003 semester. In November the main election was the city council race—we managed to register at least 300 people for this race alone. After that election we turned our attention to registering voters for the primary. Because of the Ohio law that requires voters to register 30 days before an election, we had to finish our registration drive before winter term arrived. This year, we didn’t start back to school for the spring until Feb 9, which fell within the 30 day window. Therefore during December we stepped up our voter registration efforts once again and registered about 150 more people.
We also made voter education a big part of our GOTV effort this year. Rather than simply reminding students that there was an election coming up, we put together two voter guides (one for the Nov. election, one for the primary in March). These guides gave brief bios of each candidate and also included their answers to questions about local election issues. We distributed these guides all over campus, and also had them at the voter info table on Election Day, which was set up to help students figure out where to vote and help with last minute questions about candidates or voting in general.
– Abby Deats
<pre><tt>In the fall of 2002, I started to have lots of people tell me that while at my insistence they had registered to vote and they were willing to heed my calls to vote, they really had no idea who to vote for. Now I could and wanted at some level, just to tell everyone to vote for everyone with a D next to their name. But Obies are a strange bunch; they like to feel that they are thinking for themselves. They like to go through the process that leads to the partisan conclusion, not just give way to partisanship. I too, it turned out, am odd in this way. It bothered me that I didn’t have reasons and information to offer people—that I had to fall back on my own partisanship. I think this is because I and the other Dems and I think most Obies are small D democrats as well as the big d kind. The voter registration guide was my idea, born mostly out of my frustration at not having more to tell people, but also partly out of my faith that, given the information, people or at least Obies will make the right (and by that I mean Left) decision. As an Oberlin College Democrat I experienced for the first time the odd and slightly uncomfortable power of having people ask me how to cast their ballots, as the Dems we decided to exercise the even greater power of giving a real honest choice back to the voter. I am perhaps of all of the accomplishments of the Dems, most proud of this. We have met with the distain and mistrust of the town Democrats for the Voter Information Guide, because it involved us in every race and every ballot issue, whether or not there was a Democratic position or candidate. For us, however, this project and its detractors cemented our commitment to small D democracy. It was also part of our over all efforts to do what we could to make the world a better place.</tt></pre><pre>– <tt>Georgia Hollister-Isman</tt></pre>
September–November 2003: Oberlin City Council Race
The Dems faced a new dilemma with the City Council race. In the past, we had been very active in campaigning for local Dems (Sue Morano, for example), and once we found out politics professor Eve Sandberg was running, we assumed we’d get involved in this as well. There was a slight problem, however—the race was non-partisan, and really, everyone running was a Democrat. We were approached by several campaigns for help, Rob Calhoun plus the Sandberg/Gardner/Peterson campaigns, and we did our best to make sure everyone in the group felt they could help anyone they wanted.
The decision we reached was this: we would not endorse, and the Dems would not officially work for any race. (Individual members, of course, were free to work for any campaign they wanted, and a majority did do some work for Sandberg & co.) We would do some non-biased voter info activities on campus, however, including a forum for City Council candidates, creating a voter guide, and conducting our usual GOTV efforts.
– Melissa Threadgill
November 3, 2003: City Council Candidates’ Forum
The city council election this year was a hotly contested race with much student involvement. Eli Rosenfield, an OC sophomore, ran for a seat, as did politics professor Eve Sandberg, so students were particularly interested in the outcome. However many students did not feel adequately informed about the candidates and the issues of the campaign. The Dems tried to help solve this problem by organizing a forum so that students could ask the candidates questions about local issues. The event was a HUGE success—all but one candidate came, and they addressed an audience of 120-130. We passed out index cards to audience members and asked them to write a question for the candidates, then went through as many as possible in the time we had. I was the moderator of the debate, and Renata was the timekeeper.
– Abby Deats
February 11, 2004: Presidential Candidate and Congressman Dennis Kucinich
If we thought bringing Sherrod Brown to town was a lot of work, we had NO IDEA what we were in for with Kucinich.
It started in December, when Michael Kay, a Kendal resident and active local Dem, approached us about co-sponsoring an event with the Lorain County for Kucinich Committee. Charlie Sohne began working with Michael, getting a broad coalition of student groups to sign the invite – groups from OPAL to the Oberlin Guatemalan Group.
Low and behold, Kucinich actually decided to come, which I found out about when Michael emailed me in the middle of January asking me to come to an organization meeting, which turned out to be a Kucinich meet-up. Anyway, Michael and I went to work, with the Dems organizing the campus details and Michael the community details.
What followed were two to three weeks of insanity. Finney was booked, Concert Sound set-up, fancy posters printed (thank you Pres. Dye’s office), and 4000 meetings and conversations were had with Michael. Press was notified (and notified and notified), Kucinich’s advance team came out to look at a setup for a press conference (which would never happen), Senate candidate Eric Fingerhut was drafted to introduce Kucinich, and 8000 phone calls were exchanged between me, Michael, and Eric and Dennis’s campaign.
Once classes started and more Dems came to campus, we postered like crazy, made announcements everywhere, and got prepped for the big day. Finney was absolutely packed...standing room only, crowd estimated at 1300. Dennis, of course, was 20 minutes late...and his staff wanted to hold a press conference BEFORE the event. Lots of press...several TV and radio stations and 7 or 8 print media were there. Finally, Michael took the stage to thank a long list of people and then introduced me. I gave a quick introduction (and plug for the Mock Convention...), and introduced Nancy Dye. Nancy then introduced Eric Fingerhut, who then introduced Kucinich.
– Melissa Threadgill
February 26, 2004: Local Candidates’ Night
We co-sponsored this event with the Town Democratic Party, which provided students and town residents the opportunity to question local candidates. Many had been so bombarded with presidential primary information that they didn’t know the local primary issues until they heard the candidates speak.
– Abby Deats
February 28, 2004: Mock Democratic Convention
This one I have to talk about from a more personal perspective. The Mock Convention is one of the things I am most proud of in all my life, but it also nearly killed me. The idea came up at a meeting in the fall, when we just started generally discussing what to do next semester. Georgia, one of our co-chairs at the time, mentioned that she had heard that Oberlin used to do big mock conventions in presidential election years. Well, we loved that idea, so we started planning to have one of our own in the spring. Abby Deats and I pretty much took charge of the project and made it our baby. We organized planning meetings, figured out what we would do on the day, and made all sorts of reservations. But it always seemed so far away.
Then winter term came, and by the time it was nearly over, we realized we had just over a month left until the Mock Convention, which was scheduled for February 28th. In that month, everyone really came together to pull the day off. Distant plans became concrete as supplies were purchased and advertising began. In the final days before the convention, it seemed as though our lives had been sucked into a black hole of red, white and blue signs and decorations...
The payoff came on the day of the Mock Convention. We began around 10am by setting up in the Science Center. Food was set-up in Love Lounge, along with information about candidates and a display about the history of the convention. (I should point out that a few days before the convention, we learned the real history of what we were trying to revive—the tradition began in 1860 and was held every four years until 1968. It was the biggest event of a student’s time at Oberlin, as it came only once every four years, and it included keynote speakers such as the actual presidential candidates and parades complete with live elephants and donkeys. It’s a very good thing we didn’t know this before we started planning everything, or the notion of living up to this history would have been entirely overwhelming.) The actual event began at 1pm, when the “candidate boxing” started. We had rented a large inflatable boxing ring and students (and professors) jumped in to spar off against a friend, each wearing the campaign tee-shirts of different candidates. That lasted until 3pm, when we all headed into the West Lecture Hall for the big debate. Various professors and President Dye portrayed each of the nine Democrats competing for the presidential nomination. It was nothing short of hysterical. Finally, at 4pm, the actual voting commenced. Students, faculty members, and whomever else available formed delegations from all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and we held three rounds of voting. Each state received one vote, to be designated to the one candidate that the majority of delegates supported. After the final round, Howard Dean, who had been portrayed by politics professor Chris Howell, beat runner-up John Kerry (history prof Steve Volk) by only one vote... thus demonstrating what could happen if Washington, D.C. were granted further representation.
After a short moment to enjoy the success of our event (it was very well-attended, considering it was the first time since 1968 that it had taken place) and the fun we all had that day, we spent a little over an hour cleaning the Science Center. Unfortunately, our office still houses the remains of the event.
– Renata Strause
Future of the Dems:
I won’t be here next year, so I have little control over this. But I will comment on what I think the future will look like from the precedents we’ve set. In the past two years, our work has established the Dems as the premier voter education and campaign activism group on campus. We’ve taken the lead on voter registration (literally hundreds of students registered in the past two years), coordinated GOTV efforts for four campaigns (including systematizing the efforts with voter guides, voter info tables, etc.), and become a resource for numerous local campaigns. I believe most people that have worked with us (student, campus, local leaders, etc) have been impressed with our organization, energy, and effectiveness.
I would imagine this will continue. We have a number of strong leaders next year, and I believe will recruit more during the election. There is a ton of work to do next year, but I think the Dems are up to the challenge. Luckily, we’ve got so much experience doing much of what we do that it’s become second nature: planning GOTV is no longer as much work as it once was. We can take the extra time we have to devote to making our presence stronger in the community, helping even more with local campaigns, and recruiting students interested in politics into our group.
The one thing the Dems will need to work on in coming years is expansion of the active membership base. For years, we existed as a tight-knit group of friends, and while this will continue in many ways, I would hope, we need to work on being more inclusive of people not in that “circle.” This has improved this year, and we’ve attracted members that are involved more in the political side of the Dems than the social side. It’ll be a delicate balance, keeping the organization fun, supportive AND open.
– Melissa Threadgill, Co-Chair Fall 2003–Spring 2004
The OC Dems have, in the past few years, developed themselves into a reliable, highly mobilized on-campus group. We’ve proven to the local community that we are valuable campaigners, and proven to the student body that we are active contributors and facilitators of political discourse in the Oberlin College community. Due to this improving reputation, the future of the OC Dems looks bright. Our efforts for voter registration have received statewide attention and our GOTV efforts are becoming so regularized that students are beginning to expect “remember to vote” reminder emails and a Voter Information Table in/outside Wilder on the day of an election. To maintain this momentum, of course, requires that future students continue to become involved and believe in the mission of the OC Dems. The Dems will probably continue to concentrate on a few core roles such as voter registration and GOTV efforts, and will keep providing volunteers for local campaigns. In the future, the OC Dems could potentially become much more involved with the Ohio Young Democrats as an organization that could help shape some of their efforts to get young people involved in the Democratic Party. I would love to see the OC Dems do the occasional road trip to other areas to see how politics outside of Ohio operates (see Mary Landrieu campaign invasion of fall 2002 semester). Also, once OC Dems start to find jobs in the world of campaigns, developing a network of alumni would be extraordinarily beneficial to members of the group—in politics, connections are key to landing campaign work and getting a foot in the door.
– Tom Fazzini, Co-Chair Spring 2004, Treasurer Fall 2004
Becoming an active member of the OC Dems was truly one of the best decisions I have ever made. The group allows politics geeks to work together to explore the field of politics. Be it voter registration or hanging with party officials, the Dems provides students the opportunity to get real hands on experience in politics. I hope that the foundation has been laid for a strong Dem presence on campus for many, many years to come. And I hope that future groups will learn as much about politics from each other as I have from this spectacular group of people that I have had the pleasure to work with for the last three years.
– Abby Deats, Secretary Fall 2002–Spring 2004
Remember, the only way to make the benefits of our society more inclusive is by taking an active role in the systematic choices being made everyday by those with power.
– Matt Kaplan, Ohio Liaison Fall 2003–Spring 2004
I believe that in everything, the OC Dems should follow two guiding principles—service to the student body and service to the Democratic Party, as one of its branches. What do I mean by this? The former—service to the student body—takes on many forms. In many cases, this is where the majority of our energy is focused, as well it should be. We work with other student groups to bring speakers, both for campaigns and for issue education. We register voters, remind students to vote, and publish voter information. In the past two years, we have been the only organization that is primarily electorally focused. Even if this does not continue, and new groups are created, we should keep this as a key element of all that we do. We are a self-taught and self-made organization—we know what works because we have made mistakes in the past and learned from them. Aside from these general services to students, we also provide fantastic opportunities for ways to get involved in politics. Oberlin College is fortunate to have a very strong politics department, and the OC Dems is a tremendous supplement to the classes and internships available there. (We are, in many senses, a training ground for programs like the Cole Initiative in Electoral Politics, and have been recommended by professors as the way to get some experience in campaigns before applying.)
Now, the latter of my two “guiding principles” fits in well with service to the student body, and that principle is service to the Democratic Party. If we did not have specific political leanings, we would do all of our service work in a non-partisan manner. However, the members of the OC Dems have joined because they believe that on the whole, the Democratic Party will do a better job of running things than the alternatives. That is a broad sweeping statement to make, but the party itself is a broad coalition of causes and characters. We have a duty to help organize students to volunteer on Democratic campaigns, not just for the benefits reaped by the students, but for those reaped by Democrats as well. We also have a duty to the Party to keep it in check. We pride ourselves on being “progressive,” again generally speaking, and we must continue to lobby the members of our own party to take stands on issues that we find important. Finally, we must be visible to the community—both on campus and at large. Republicans have been doing a hell of a job organizing college students in recent years, and we must show at every opportunity that not all young people have turned in their direction. We must show that our generation will not lose hope, become too cynical, or just give up.
With these larger themes in mind, what course of action are we to take? The coming election in November 2004 provides a tremendous opportunity to organize students on campus. The Presidential race will draw the attention of incoming freshmen and seniors who already have too much on their plates, and we must be the first group to channel their energy. However, we cannot lose sight of all of the down-ballot races that will be desperate for volunteers in a year like this. We should be ready to go the moment students arrive on campus, working on voter registration, hosting speakers, holding forums and discussion sessions with professors and fellow students, and gathering as much support for John Kerry and other Dems as possible. We have a unique advantage here at Oberlin, in that George Bush is not our real competition. If Nader is on the ballot here, he might be a factor, but our real opponent is apathy. Strange as it may seem, we need to make absolutely certain that every student on this campus understand how critical they are—their vote and their time. Ohio is one of the most crucial states—no Republican has ever won the Presidency without it—and we need to get Obies off their asses and out into the streets. We should have as many opportunities as possible to get involved in races from the Kerry campaign to the local judgeships—in all of our traditional ways (visibility, canvassing, postering campus, etc.) and any new manners as well. It will be a frustrating battle, but it’s one we can win if we work TOGETHER—yes, we might all be politics dorks and it will become glaringly obvious in the fall, but everyone on this campus is a dork in some way or another, and our dorkiness can help change the country for the better. We must rely on each other for unending energy, and our ultimate goal is to transmit that energy and excitement as far through the student body as possible. We shoot for 100% student turnout on Election Day—nothing less. And as much involvement in volunteer opportunities and events as possible.
It’s difficult to see past Election Day from this point—very difficult. I think that after a rockin’ Election Night party, we should all take a week’s vacation from politics. I would even like to see the Dems sponsor something entirely non-political as a “thank you” to everyone who volunteered or worked with the organization—a concert or a comedy performance or something. With lots of food, of course. As for the rest of the year, I think our efforts should continue in the directions I described above—continuing voter registration efforts, educating students about local elections and doing GOTV for those, bringing in speakers, working on issue advocacy and lobbying—all of the work that must continue after the Presidential election is over and most people stop working so hard on electoral politics.
Beyond the next year, I have only one specific thing to ask of future generations of OC Dems—FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THINGS HOLY, PLEASE CONTINUE THE MOCK CONVENTIONS!!! I swear to you, if I ever come in to a decent sum of money (which I probably won’t, because I’m planning on a career in public service) I will provide LOTS of money to help with this. Do it right, and this is what I will donate money to the college for. They’re fun, I promise. Just for heaven’s sake (AND OURS!) hold the fucking conventions.
In conclusion, I have two cautions that I hope will be taken into account by the OC Dems in the future. My first caution is to keep the doors open wide. Keep meetings open, continue to encourage students to join, and take everyone under your wing, not just one person each year. The OC Dems is a fabulous opportunity for a student of any year to get to know a great group of people and take on responsibility and leadership roles very easily—this is one of the greatest services that the organization provides to the students at Oberlin, and it has to be shouted from the rooftops whenever possible. Because the members tend to get along very well and form close friendships, I worry that it could at times become clique-ish. The friendships are wonderful—the best I have ever found, quite frankly—but I only want the organization as a whole to remember to make new friends at every opportunity possible.
My second caution is very much related to the first: beware of institutional knowledge getting locked up in just a few people. The connections that are made through the OC Dems may prove to be priceless for individuals, but they are connections for the organization first and foremost. Efforts to help newer members make the same connections and to make sure that relationships with those outside the Dems get passed down from year to year should be ongoing and of high priority. The same goes for understanding of the tried-and-true methods for getting things done—pass on the mistakes that have been made, so that they aren’t made again. However, the organization cannot ever use this caution as an excuse to get bogged down in “tradition.” No member will last more than four years, and so no one should ever come back and be horrified to find that things are not done they same as they were during his or her tenure here. As long as the principles are followed and the organization remains vibrant, full interested members and for god’s sake FUN, then that’s what is most important.
– Renata Strause, Treasurer Fall 2003–Spring 2004, Co-Chair Fall 2004
The OC Dems, since its founding, has been an organization focused on change. It is an organization that has never been afraid to push students, of any party and political affiliation, to vote and to get involved in other ways. The right wing machine that is now controlling our country feeds off of apathy, especially at a liberal college like Oberlin. The OC Dems will do everything we can to reverse the tide of radical right wing extremism by getting Obies involved in electoral politics and therefore reshaping the political dialogue. Oberlin has a slogan that says that one person can change the world. This is disputable but the 2000 election proved that 537 people could choose the leader of the free world. The OC Dems, in the future, will focus on making sure that those people are open minded and progressive.
– Charlie Sohne, Co-Chair Fall 2004
OFFICERS:
Fall 2001–Spring 2002:
Co-Chairs: Matt Kaplan, Chris Holbein
Secretary/Treasurer: Becca Kenna-Schenk
Congressional Liaisons (spring): Abby Deats, Georgia Hollister-Isman
Fall 2002–Spring 2003:
Co-Chairs: Matt Kaplan, Chris Holbein
Secretary: Abby Deats (fall), Renata Strause (spring)
Treasurer: Tom Fazzini
Fall 2003–Spring 2004
Co-Chairs: Melissa Threadgill, Georgia Hollister-Isman (fall), Tom Fazzini (spring)
Secretary: Abby Deats
Treasurer: Renata Strause
Ohio Liaison: Matt Kaplan
Fall 2004–Spring 2005:
Co-Chairs: Renata Strause, Charlie Sohne
Secretary: Cecilia Hayford
Treasurer: Tom Fazzini
Voter Registration Coordinator: Val Baron
Author: Abigail Deats Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative Information
