“Almost everyone I talk to is following [the election] intently; they’re excited,” said Daniel Freije ’11, the chair of the brand-new Political Engagement Committee (PEC).
Freije, along with members of the Amherst College Democrats, Amherst College Republicans and Massachusetts Public Interest Research Group (MassPIRG), are working to make sure this excitement translates into student votes. Both partisan clubs are seeing a surge in attendance at meetings, and the PEC has emerged out of the election fervor. The PEC is part of the Community Engagement Leadership program, and currently consists of five students who run voter registration, host screenings of debates and are putting together an information session about third-party candidates. Freije hopes to facilitate student awareness of the political process and encourage people to participate in relevant activities during and after election season. “The vote is going to be close, so I hope that every eligible voter takes advantage of his or her blessing,” Freije said.
The College Democrats have recently begun their annual nonpartisan voter registration drive. “We hope to empower and enfranchise every student on campus regardless of political affiliation,” said Dave Ullman ’10. “We’re trying to get the campus active, informed, interested and enfranchised.”
However, this doesn’t mean that the group won’t campaign strongly for its candidates of choice, which include Barack Obama, Jeanne Shaheen (running for U. S. Senator in New Hampshire) and Jim Himes (running for Congress in Connecticut’s fourth district). “It’s a critical election … we’re going to make a difference both locally and in Washington,” Ullman stated.
Ullman is expecting a large club member turnout for upcoming meetings, and with an e-mail list of 330 students, the College Democrats are faring well in terms of support. “Our approach is an inclusive one—if a member has an issue or activity [that is important to him or her], we’ll support it and use our resources to help achieve the vision in mind,” Ullman mentioned.
Likewise, the College Republicans share similar goals for voter registration, albeit on a less grand scale, given the smaller size of the club. Tim Rose ’09 heads the organization, which, aside from conducting all of the activities similar to the Democrats, also organizes events to promote conservative causes. “Last year, we got involved with Human Rights Week — we talked about the power of free markets to alleviate poverty throughout the world and discussed ways to improve the quality of education in American with school choice programs. Additionally, every spring we run a pro-life week in order to rally support on campus to end abortion in America,” said Rose.
While it may be more difficult to sell conservative ideas at a reputedly liberal-minded college like Amherst, Rose maintains that the goal of the College Republicans is to “challenge the political status quo on campus and help our fellow students think more broadly on a host of issues.”
MassPIRG brings a broader view of the elections to campus. MassPIRG is a statewide public interest organization that contains many student chapters, which work directly on issues that their respective colleges care about. Michael Chernicoff ’09 is the leader of Amherst’s MassPIRG and, along with global warming, water watch, and hunger and homelessness (important matters that MassPIRG focused on in the past), he is also concerned about achieving a high voter turnout for this year’s election. “We have begun the New Voter’s Project, which strives to register 90 percent of all students on campus and pushes each and every one to vote come election day (or absentee ballot),” said Chernicoff. MassPIRG is working with the College Democrats to reach its goal, but Chernicoff emphasized that MassPIRG is a strictly non-partisan organization—that it is friendly and accessible to all students regardless of political orientation.
The impact of the clubs on voters’ choices may be unknown until the final ballot count. In 2006, the College Democrats sent members to Connecticut’s Second District to campaign for Joe Courtney’s congressional candidacy. Courtney ended up winning the election by 83 votes, and Ullman believes that the College Democrats’ involvement may have made the difference. This year, he plans to travel to Connecticut, New Hampshire and other areas advocated by club members in order to promote Barack Obama.
Perhaps another indication of the widespread election-fever at Amherst is the absence of a single empty seat in Converse’s Red Room on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when Chair of Political Science Thomas Dumm’s The American Presidency (Political Science 23) class meets. The course, offered exclusively during election years, explores the role of the president in the U.S. political system and also evaluates American presidential elections.
“I don’t disguise my own political leanings. That would be like Fox News pretending it’s impartial.” Dumm told John D’Angelo ’10 in an interview for the “Who Knows” series of the College’s Web site (the full interview, which provides more information about the course, can be found at https://www.amherst.edu/aboutamherst/news/who_knows), “But because I have to make all students welcome, my way of doing it is to let all voices be heard. It’s sort of like getting into a ring, with me as referee. Last time I taught the class, it got heated at times. That’s fine with me—heated disagreement helps the learning process a lot. No one can assume that everyone agrees with each other, so lazy assumptions get knocked down quickly.”
Students are required to keep up to date on news concerning the 2008 election and time is allocated each class to discuss relevant headlines. “I’m a poli sci major so taking the course wasn’t a hard decision, but especially in an election year, it’s great to be able to read The New York Times for homework when I procrastinate by reading it anyways,” said Adam Kaye ’10.
At least three Amherst students have taken the semester off to get involved in the election, and work for the Obama campaign. Amanda Bass ’10 is working in Georgia to help register voters, Alex Coburn ’11 is a field organizer for the Indiana Campaign for Change, while Sid Salvi ’11 is working for Obama’s Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) vote team out of the national office in Chicago.
“When summer began, I never imagined that I would take off the semester to work on a political campaign,” said Salvi. “For the earlier part of the summer, I worked for the Democratic challenger for congress in my district (IL-13). Through that campaign, I came to know many people working in the Obama campaign. Although the path to working on the Obama campaign was not so straight, my reasons for taking the semester off were clear … I decided to take the semester off to make my little contribution in ensuring that we make the right decision.”
Salvi, who was able to attend the Democratic National Convention in Denver, said he’s worked to tailor Obama’s message—be it on healthcare, immigration or education—to the AAPI constituents and has also done a fair share of voter registration. “Even though I am not David Axelrod or David Plouffe, I hope my work will make some difference. I view my contribution as that if I convince one person why they should support Senator Obama or help someone in organizing their community, then I haven’t helped just one person. That person that I persuaded to vote for Senator Obama will go and convince his friends and family to vote for Senator Obama. The person who I helped organize their community will be able to register more voters and reach out to more people. Hopefully, this ripple effect will become a wave big enough to send Senator Obama to the White House.”
Whether or not this is the case, the ripples of both Obama’s and McCain’s campaigns are certainly being felt on the Amherst campus. Even in what Ullman called “a campus environment with apathy for electoral politics,” there is a buzz. With just 55 days to go, a slew of Amherst students are working to combat the widely acknowledged insular nature of what has been coined the “Amherst Bubble” to stir up concern about the election and foster a more politically fervent atmosphere on campus.