THE OFFICIAL COLLEGE OUTREACH ARM OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
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Trio in College May Hold Key Votes for Democrats
Trio in College May Hold Key Votes for Democrats

The Wall Street Journal
April 16, 208; Page A5
By: Sara Murray

WASHINGTON - While most of the Democratic Party's superdelegates are members of Congress, governors or senior party officials, Awais Khaleel, Lauren Wolfe and Jason Rae are still in college. Yet the votes of the three student superdelegates might help decide the nominee.

As members of the Democratic National Committee, they are included among the 800 or so superdelegates to the party's national convention in Denver Aug. 25-28, and they have made it their mission to represent young voters.

The trio are unlikely members of this group of accidental powerbrokers who increasingly appear to hold the balance of power in the race for the nomination. DNC officials think they probable are the only college-student superdelegates.

Young people "aren't aware of the fact that we have superdelegates like myself who grew up with them in middle-class families and go to public universities and are financing their own education," says Mr. Khaleel, a 23-year-old political science student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

He and Ms. Wolfe, 25, a University of Detroit Mercy law student, are vice president and president, respectively, of the College Democrats of America, an organization that works with campaigns to reach out to young voters and since 1993 has held DNC seats.

With chances growing that the superdelegates might choose their nominee, Ms. Wolfe says she tries not to focus on the responsibility, putting her efforts instead into organizing young voters and hoping some compromise can be reached. Both she and Mr. Khaleel say they won't endorse a nominee until the primaries and caucuses have ended in June.

Only a few DNC slots are allocated to groups like the College Democrats of America. The majority of the 410 DNC superdelegates were elected by their state parties. Such was the case with Mr. Rae, a 21-year-old Marquette University student who has endorsed Sen. Barack Obama.

Mr. Rae is a Wisconsin delegate to the DNC who will be voting in his first presidential election. He earned his DNC slot at 17 years old after years of avid interest in local politic. His campaign for DNC membership involved homemade stickers, fliers and a lot of handshaking, he says. "I actually had to sneak out right after voting to get to summer camp," he says.

The three student superdelegates talk with young voters about issues like health care and the economy, they review the campaigns' outreach efforts - and then they study for their exams. Ms. Wolfe says her inbox is crammed with email from young people expressing their candidate preference.

Mr. Khaleel says some students tell him they are worried about finding a job when they graduate; others worry about whether they will be able to afford college. Many young voters know someone serving in Iraq or have served there themselves.

But none of the three was prepared for the increased attention superdelegates have received recently as their potentially critical role has emerged. "When I got involved with it, I thought I would be attending a couple meetings in D.C. every couple months," Mr. Rae says. Instead, they have had to juggle exams and classes with, for example, phone calls from Sens. Obama and Hillary Clinton or coffee with Chelsea Clinton.

Mr. Khaleel recalls the hubbub when he had coffee with Chelsea Clinton. "People are definitely looking around the coffee shop, like, 'Is it her? No it can't be,'" he says. "And somewhere in the middle I'm, like, I'm having coffee with Chelsea Clinton."

Remaining undecided hasn't been easy, Mr. Khaleel says. "There were moments when there were certain surrogates who would just ask me could, you know, 'Would you support our candidate?'" he says, adding that it's "hard to say 'No' in the face of someone you respect."

Ms. Wolfe can't even be sure she will be seated at the convention. Michigan delegates won't be seated unless the party comes up with a compromise for the state, which has been barred from the convention for having held its primary too early. While this means she has received no phone calls from the nominees, she did hear from former Sen. Tom Daschle of South Dakota who supports Sen. Obama. "I just go to school and go home and study -- and then you listen to your messages and the former majority leader is calling," she says.

The three also face constraints that many superdelegates don't. Mr. Rae, who works as a resident assistant in a campus dorm, says he has been saving for his plane ticket to Denver for four years. Mr. Khaleel says that when he enters the work force next month, he expects to have to let his employer know he will need a week off in August to cast his vote.

Money was also a concern for Ms. Wolfe, who plans to travel to the convention with two friends, even if she won't be seated. "I might be the only superdelegate road-tripping it over three days," she says. "But we're going to have a lot of fun."

Write to Sara Murray at sara.murray@wsj.com

By Lauren Wolfe on April 16, 2008 3:11 PM

Democratic College Chief Reaches Out
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080318/NEWS06/803180422

By: Kathleen Gray
Free Press Staff Writer
March 18, 2008

It is not many 25-year-olds who get calls from former U.S. Senator Tom Daschle or get a few minutes of one-on-one time with the leading Democratic candidates for President.

Lauren Wolfe is no ordinary twentysomething law student. She's one of 28 superdelegates from Michigan hoping to be seated at the Democratic National Convention. Her status is the same as that of party power hitters like Gov. Jennifer Granholm and U.S. Sen. Carl Levin. Wolfe, who lives in Royal Oak, is president of the College Democrats of America.

Superdelegates are a select group of Democratic including elected officials such as members of Congress and governors; former presidents and vice presidents; members of the Democratic National Committee, including many union leaders, and former chairs of the DNC. Wolfe, as president of her group, is a member of the DNC. 

Ever since the names of superdelegates became public, Wolfe, a second-year law student at the University of Detroit Mercy, said her e-mail in-box and cell phone voice mail have stayed perpetually full from people trying to sway her decision for either Sens. Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.

"I keep getting calls from people who ask: 'Can I speak with Lauren Wolfe's assistant,'" she said last week during a break between classes. "But it's just me." 

Wolfe also is hearing from former teachers, professors and classmates who have run across her name on social networking sites.

She takes her job as a superdelegate seriously. While young voters have been turning out in record numbers in state primaries and caucus this winter - many supporting Obama - Wolfe is diplomatic. 

"I want to see what happens after all the primaries," she said. "But ultimately, it's my job to represent young people and stand up and vote for the person who young people feel is the best candidate."

She's been standing up for Democrats since she was in high school at Detroit Country Day, when she walked in parades and knocked on doors for Democratic candidates. Her parents both own small businesses and aren't politically active.

"But they were always encouraging discussions around the dinner table," Wolfe said.

Wolfe got involved with CDA as an undergraduate at Smith College in Massachusetts in 2001, rising to president of the college's chapter in her junior and senior year. After graduating, she lived in Germany for a year on a Fulbright scholarship, teaching English and American culture to elementary and high school students.

She said her foreign experience gave her insights into how Americans and U.S. policy were viewed abroad. 

Back in Michigan in 2006, she ran for president of the national organization and won with 55% of the vote. Today she splits time between classes and CDA business.

Morley Winograd, a political consultant, author and former Michigan Democratic Party chairwoman, said 2008 is a heady time for young people like Wolfe.

"I like to call this the civic generation. They're revolting against the culture of previous generations," he said.

They use cell phones and laptops, connecting them with other like-minded people.

"The Internet is like oxygen for them," Winograd said.

That's how Wolfe has been connecting with young voters. With text messages, YouTube videos and social networking sites, the CDA is signing up thousands of new members on college campuses.

"And the candidates are not only talking to young people about issues important to them," Wolfe said. "They're doing it in ways that are accessible to young people." 

Contact KATHLEEN GRAY at 313-223-4407 or kgray99@freepress.com. 




By Lauren Wolfe on March 18, 2008 5:31 PM

CDA Statement on Violence at NIU

For Immediate Release

February 15, 2008

 

Contact: Caroline Ciccone - 202-863-8148

College Democrats of America Statement on Violence at Northern Illinois University

Washington, DC--The College Democrats of America issued the following statement on the shooting yesterday at Northern Illinois University, the fifth school shooting in a week.

 

"We are deeply saddened by the recent shooting at Northern Illinois University and other schools around the country this week. Schools, colleges and universities should be places of learning, not violence. In this difficult time, our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of these terrible tragedies and their families."

 

###

Paid for and authorized by the Democratic National Committee, www.democrats.org. This communication is not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

By Lauren Wolfe on February 15, 2008 6:08 PM

College Democrats in 2028

By Dan Zak 
Washington Post Staff Writer 
Sunday, January 6, 2008; Page N01

It's an election year, and we're trying to get ahead of ourselves. No poll or blog is current enough. Even a live feed seems passe. The media are scrambling to pluck today's scoop from tomorrow.

Let's take a s tep back by taking a bigger step forward. Behold the first snippet of coverage of Election 2028. It's a political cycle that could make or break us as a human race, so someoneshould start reporting on it.

Where will we be in 20 years? The Arctic may be ice-free during the summer. The world population will crack 8 billion. It'll be the 25th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and the 100th birthday of Mickey Mouse.

And we'll be reaching our "global crisis of maturity," the point at which our world system (or lack thereof) must be transformed to wrangle a more populous, industrialized and inte lligent world facing risks with cataclysmic consequences. So says William Halal, creator of the virtual think tank TechCast ( http://www.techcast.org) and professor emeritus of science, technology and innovation at George Washington University.

"These dilemmas of environment and globalization and conflict are going to reach crisis proportions by 2030," Halal says, "but the power to resolve these existential issues is going to appear at roughly that same time. The increase in knowledge, the awareness of the need for a shift in global consciousness, the high technology -- all that stuff will be in place."

In 20 years we will be on the brink of catastrophe and have the means to

prevent it. So as a service to ourselves, our children and our children's children, we scoured the region for six people under presidential age (35) who could conceivably navigate the path to a White House run in 20 years. We asked futurists and academics to forecast what issues they would have to lead us through and then asked the potential candidates to start pondering.

"A lot of issues important to me and my demographic, they just don't enter into the debates," says Patrick Tucker, 31, senior editor of the Futurist magazine for the World Future Society in Bethesda. Young people are "marketed to -- and to a certain extent exploited for our gullibility -- but because we are a small cohort compared to the baby boomers, we get less out of the discussion. Everyone wants to seize the mantle of youth, but no one wants to deal with issues the youth will be facing."

Those issues may include the economic fallout from climate change, the regulation of artificial intelligence and genomic manipulation, the influence of up-to-the-second political polling, a reverse migration of young people to other countries and even the dissolution of the United States.

"This is the great challenge to the system: How do we bring back the long-term thinking?" asks technology forecaster Paul Saffo, who lives in Silicon Valley. "How do you reward people in the present for thinking three generations ahead? How do we learn to become good ancestors?"

Here, we present this challenge to our candidates and get to know them in advance. Think of this experiment as one small step toward a more perfect union.

EUGENE RESNICK, 19, Charlottesville 

Sophomore at the University of Virginia, president of College Democrats of Virginia

It could be a first on many fronts. Eugene Resnick, the first Jewish president. Eugene Resnick, the first openly gay president. Eugene Resnick, the first immigrant president (his family moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., from Moscow when he was 4). These identities were soldered together in the crucible of the 2004 presidential election -- which he followed intently -- to create the man Resnick is today.

What question are you looking forward to Larry King asking you in 2028?

"So, how will you go about amending the Constitution so that you can actually be president of the United States?"

Yeah, about that: You're a politically active American who can't become president because you weren't born here .

By 2028, I'll have been living here for about 35 years. By that point our country will have progressed so much in terms of multiculturalism and integrating immigrants into society that I think it would probably be out of the Constitution.

What's your most notable characteristic?

A combination of ambition and energy.

Your favorite song to drive to?

Bob Sinclair's "World, Hold On."

If a film was made about your life, what would its title be and who would play you?

"Ocean Parkway Memoirs," named after the street I lived on for 14 years in Brooklyn. I'm told I resemble Joaquin Phoenix minus the lip.

Describe your political and social leanings.

I am pro-choice, pro-marriage equality, strongly pro-stem cell research and support stricter gun laws. I am socially liberal and fiscally pragmatic.

What issues should people be paying more attention to?

Gun control and the culture of violence, [gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender] rights, persistence of racism when considering affirmative action.

What will your 2028 campaign slogan be?

"Bright Future Ahead for All of Us."

The abortion issue may pale in comparison to the looming genomic debate (using DNA to "improve" or manipulate embryos). How would you regulate this manipulation?

There need to be boundaries set so we don't go off on the road to eugenics. Instead of improving embryos for physical or superficial reasons, we should eradicate genes that cause cancer, diabetes or physical disabilities.

What idea seems good today but might be toxic in 20 years?

Abolishing the electoral college may seem like a great idea now . . . yet having national primaries and a national general election may result in most states being ignored at the expense of highly populated states.

In 2028 we'll probably face the same political gridlock as today, but with graver problems. How can we spark the global collaboration that is needed to solve these issues?

Politicians need to remember why they are in office. . . . When you forget the people you serve, you forget what the point of your title as a senator or congressperson is. Once we have this sort of universal idea of public service, then we can collaborate and work toward a better future for ourselves and generations to come.

If you had your entire generation as a captive audience, what would you say to them?

Don't sit back and let the future pass us by. Our time is now. . . . We are the future of a more egalitarian nation, and we must vote at the ballot box now to make it happen.

By Lauren Wolfe on February 6, 2008 6:29 PM

Impact of the Student Vote
Iowa Is Uncertain as Out Of State Students Return

The New York Times
By: Katharine Q. Seeyle
January 2, 2008

DES MOINES — One of the $64,000-questions about Thursday’s Iowa caucuses is how much students from out of state will influence the outcome.

A big argument has been raging here about rules that allow out-of-state students who attend schools in Iowa to vote as long as they are not registered elsewhere. Although presidential campaigns here have been notorious over the years for using out-of-staters to pack rallies and organize, at issue here is their actual participation in the caucuses: some see it as a hijacking of their process, while others see it as a voting rights issue and say that as many people as possible should be encouraged to participate.

The role of students is mainly an issue among Democrats because they tend to draw more young people. SenatorBarack Obama of Illinois, whose “change” theme is particularly appealing to young people, has been openly encouraging out-of-state students in Iowa to come back from winter break and caucus.

No one knows how many students will show up or what percent of the final turnout they will make up. But only 124,000 Democrats turned out in 2004, and even if, as predicted, many more turn out Thursday, thousands of out-of-state students here could still have a disproportionate say in the results.

We talked to several students who headed back to Iowa just to caucus on Thursday. And several of their colleges, which are still closed for the holidays, are opening up to accommodate them.

Grinnell College, in eastern Iowa, is out of session until the end of the month. But the school is turning on the lights and heat in its athletic center so that caucus-going students will have a place to stay.

Alex Schechter, who is 19 and is a sophomore at Grinnell, drove down from Minneapolis with two friends. Mr. Schechter, who supports Mr. Obama, lives in Jackson Hole, Wyo., and flew to Minneapolis to drive with his friends, one of whom also supports Mr. Obama; the other is still undecided.

“I wanted to come back and be a part of it,” Mr. Schechter said by cellphone from the car. “I understand the sentiment that some people think it’s East Coast liberal kids who are skewing the tides of Iowa politics, but it’s a place I’m going to be living for four years of my life. If I wasn’t a college student, they wouldn’t care.”

He said students are discriminated against because of “this concept that people in academia live in an ivory tower and are looking down on everybody.”

After the caucuses, he plans to drive back to Minneapolis on Friday, then fly back to Wyoming on Saturday.

Amanda Halfacre, 22, a senior at Iowa State University, in Ames, flew in from Texas on Wednesday. The university, which reopens mid-month, has opened up a dorm for students who are coming in to caucus. She plans to fly back to Texas on Friday.

Iowans have been increasingly annoyed at the prospect of out-of-staters, including campaign aides, joining the caucuses, particularly since Mr. Obama has been urging them to come back to Iowa.

“Don’t let somebody tell you that you are not part of this process, because your future is at stake,” Mr. Obama said in a visit to Grinnell in December. He told students at theUniversity of Iowa, “if you’re going to be out of state, I want you to come back and caucus.”

Most of the other Democratic candidates have objected to one degree or another about allowing students from out of state to vote.

“This is a process for Iowans,” Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York said last month. “This needs to be all about Iowa, and people who live here, people who pay taxes here.”

While student voting has been an issue across the country since 18-year-olds gained the right to vote, David Yepsen, an influential political columnist for The Des Moines Register, has written that it is a particular worry this year.

“Maybe we should call these the Illinois caucuses,” he wrote, warning that “zealous” out-of-staters, including campaign aides, could skew the results.

The Obama campaign played the issue close to the vest on Wednesday, declining to allow a reporter to join up with Obama organizers around Grinnell. A spokesman said the organizers were too busy and could not be distracted from the task at hand to deal with the press.

Alec Schierenbeck, 20, who lives in Brooklyn, is a junior at the college. He flew into Des Moines on Wednesday and plans to join a caucus at Grinnell on Thursday night. He will spend the night with his friends in sleeping bags at the gym, then plans to catch a flight back to New York on Friday.

He is president of the College and Young Democrats of Iowa and so has to remain neutral publicly about his choice, but he is outspoken about the process.

“People who fear the consequences of student participation try to suppress the youth vote by claiming that it’s morally complex or that the legality is ambiguous,” he said. “They create double standards that apply only to students and don’t apply to other demographics, like retirees who don’t live year-round in Iowa.”

He said he expected more than 150 students back at Grinnell, which has a long history of social activism and where about 80 percent of the 1,150 student body is from out of state. The ward where he will caucus, he said, is especially important because delegates are apportioned according to previous turnout, and Grinnell, like other college towns, has a relatively high population density and high rate of turnout.

“We’ll have 37 delegates, which makes it the most important single caucus in the state,” he said.

He said Mr. Obama was especially well-organized in his area, but added: “The Clinton campaign has a core group of very committed student activists, and they have done not only a lot of work on campus but — and this is the untold story of the youth-voter impact — the Clinton campaign has been working tirelessly in the greater community to help mobilize all voters, not just their peers.”

As a result, he said, “young activists have disproportionate impact because of the energy and time they’re willing to invest in the political process.”

By Lauren Wolfe on February 6, 2008 6:25 PM

Youth Vote Soars in NH Primary
Youth Vote Soars in NH Primary
By: Allie Lowe

Youth voters came out for this year’s New Hampshire primary in dramatically higher numbers than in past contests, as 53,000 more voters under the age of 30 headed to the polls than in 2004 . On Tuesday, the youth vote revived Sen. John McCain’s, R-Ariz., ailing campaign and helped Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., secure a close second-place finish.

Forty-three percent of eligible New Hampshire voters under age 30 participated in Tuesday’s vote, a dramatic increase from the 18 and 28 percent participation rates in the 2004 and 2000 primaries, according to a report by The Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, a nonpartisan research center that studies youth civic engagement.

Obama received 60 percent of the 18 to 24-year old vote in the state, while Clinton received 22 percent of this demographic. Among voters aged 25 to 29, Clinton narrowly beat out Obama, gaining 27 percent of the vote to Obama’s 25 percent.

Clinton was dominant among older voters, gaining the highest share in every category of voters over age 40, including 48 percent among voters 65 and older. Obama received 32 percent of the votes from this group.

On the Republican side, McCain won the youth vote, earning 27 percent of the 18 to 24-year old vote and besting Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who gained the next highest share with 19 percent. McCain garnered the highest percentage of votes among every age division except those voters 65 and older, a group that tended to vote in favor of former Gov. Mitt Romney, R-Mass.

The stark contrast between statewide outcomes and the results according to exit polls in Hanover and Durham County, which is home to the University of New Hampshire, have revealed the importance of the youth vote to Obama’s campaign. In comparison to his 36.4 percent tally in the state as a whole, which left him just short of Clinton’s 39 percent, Obama garnered 48 percent of the vote in Durham, besting Clinton’s 30 percent.

In Hanover, where Dartmouth students comprise approximately half the population, this difference was even more striking, as Obama gained 58 percent of the vote to Clinton’s 26 percent.

An exit poll conducted by The Dartmouth that surveyed 351 voters leaving the Hanover polls indicates that the war in Iraq and health care were among the issues most important to Hanover voters. The exit polls measured votes to within three percent of official results,

Obama’s support among students was critical in eliminating Clinton’s previous commanding lead in the state, Dartmouth government professor Dean Lacy said.

“Student voters played an incredibly strong role for Senator Obama,” Lacy said. “He made up a 15 point deficit in the polls as of just a few weeks ago.”

Dartmouth government professor Linda Fowler, while noting that she had not yet examined exit poll data, said the early date for this year’s primary may have deterred a number of potential student voters. Most students have not yet returned to UNH, which will commence its spring semester classes on Jan. 22.

Fowler also pointed out that the lack of time allowed for registration efforts may have affected turnout among students. In past years a later primary date allowed registration efforts to take place several days before the vote, but this year, many students were forced to register on the day of the primaries, which caused long lines at the Hanover polls.

“Maybe it wasn’t the difference between a win and a loss, but it would have probably put [Obama] closer,” Fowler said.

McCain’s support among younger voters, Lacy said, likely came as a surprise to Paul’s campaign, which had been banking on securing a large percentage of the student vote.

“On the Republican side, I think more younger Republicans look to [McCain] as a long-time party leader who is also a bit of an independent,” Lacy said. “Ron Paul’s message just hasn’t caught on with younger Republicans as much as the Paul campaign had hoped.”

Jennifer Bandy ‘09, vice president of the Dartmouth College Republicans, said McCain’s popularity among Dartmouth voters may have been correlated to McCain’s multiple visits to Dartmouth’s campus, which she called “emblematic” of his efforts to court New Hampshire’s overall youth vote.

“I’m not surprised. He made the effort to come by twice,” Bandy said, pointing to McCain’s most recent visit on Monday. “We haven’t had visits from other candidates as recently.”

McCain’s support among young voters represents a departure from a Republican party that has struggled to court young voters in the wake of the current administration, Fowler said.

“McCain’s support among young people was kind of an anomaly — but then again he’s not a typical Republican candidate.” Fowler said, adding that McCain is a more conservative candidate than some voters may realize.

Tuesday’s high youth voter turnout mirrors youth voter increases in Iowa, where participation in the caucuses rose from 4 percent in 2004 to 18 percent in this year’s contest. In 2000, Iowa saw only two percent of youth participation in its caucuses, CIRCLE reported.

“The broader story here is the huge increase in the youth vote in general,” Mike Heslin ‘08, president of the New Hampshire College Democrats, said.

There has been controversy over the role of student voters in both Iowa and New Hampshire in recent years. In 2006, New Hampshire legislation that would have made it far more difficult for students to establish domicile in the state, was vetoed by Gov. John Lynch, D-N.H., after lobbying by Dartmouth students. In April 2007, the New Hampshire Senate passed two bills that solidified students’ right to vote in the state after establishing domicile.

At Dartmouth, Heslin pointed to the efforts of both campaigns and student groups as major contributors to Tuesday’s high youth turnout.

“And the students themselves can’t go overlooked,” Heslin said. “When it comes down to it they were the ones who had to go to the polls and cast those votes."

By Lauren Wolfe on February 6, 2008 12:08 PM

CDA hosts successful leadership summit in DC
Another test post

By Michael Link on November 14, 2007 10:09 AM