blueflame's blog

On October 30, Gavin Newsom ended his campaign for Governor of California and the left thousands of students across the Golden State wondering what's next? Will the large student base that he successfully mobilized fizzle out or take on a new cause?

From the very beginning, the Newsom campaign recognized the importance of turning out the youth vote in California. They worked closely with student organizers to create what arguably became the largest grassroots student movement ever marshalled by a Gubernatorial campaign. By the time the campaign ended, Students for Gavin Newsom (SFGN) had active chapters at 36 colleges and 35 high schools across the state. The SFGN leaders were in constant contact with the Newsom campaign and coordinated dozens of events for the mayor on college campuses. For many students, SFGN was their first involvement in the political process. Now this powerful student engine has ground to a halt.

Last fall, Students for Barack Obama faced a similar situation. After helping win the historic Presidential campaign in November, SFBO was left without a clearly defined mission. At the time, I served as State Field Coordinator for California Students for Barack Obama. In lieu of any direction from the national SFBO team we disbanded and left the decision of what to do with our chapters up to the chapters themselves. Many of them merged with existing College Dems clubs on their campuses, some eventually went on to form SFGN chapters, and many others disbanded completely. In retrospect, I wish we had had some way of integrating our SFBO chapters with OFA to continue advocacy for Obama's agenda. OFA eventually did reach out to us in the spring, but by that point all of our chapters had moved on.

The main difference between what SFBO faced last year and what SFGN faces now is the perception that the "job is done." After electing Obama, many students felt they had accomplished their goal. The same can't be said for Newsom's decision to drop out. Many students joined SFGN because of the Newsom campaign's message of reforming California, and that goal now seems further from being attained than ever. It's precisely for this reason that it is so important that SFGN continue is some form. The ideas that Newsom advocated for (investing in higher education, changing the state constitution, repealing the 2/3rds budget rule, creating green jobs, and expanding health care) are all still major challenges facing California. Any and all of these issues are worth fighting for. I hope the students who were engaged by this campaign realize the potential they have and continue the movement to change California.

Promoted by Kevin

(This is an article that I wrote for the Cal Berkeley Democrats magazine Smart Ass shortly before the Inauguration, and finally got around to posting online...)

Barack Obama’s historic victory on November 4, 2008, was a watershed moment for the youth progressive movement. Twenty-three million Americans under the age of 30 went to the polls this fall and voted for Obama by a 2-1 margin, the largest partisan margin in American history. In California, the results were even more impressive, as Obama carried 80% of the 18-24 year old vote in California compared to McCain’s 18%.

But even as we bask in the glory of our recent accomplishments, the question on everyone’s mind is: what’s next? Where do go from here? Will young people stay involved post-election? To answer these questions, we must begin by looking back on how we got here.

Many in the media have told a narrative that Barack Obama mobilized the youth vote, which had failed to turnout in 2004. That’s simply not true. As Michael Connery wrote in his seminal book Youth to Power, “After the 2000 election, civic participation among young people began to rise, and in 2004, young voter turnout at the polls jumped for the first time in over a decade. This rise in civic participation continued during the 2005 and 2006 elections, proving not to be a historical blip, but the start of a trend of increasing political involvement by American youth.”

It was during the lead up to the 2004 election that a whole host of new progressive youth organizations sprang up and harnessed the dissatisfaction young people were feeling about the direction of the country. The Roosevelt Institution became the nation’s first student run think tank. The League of Young voters was formed to reach beyond the low hanging fruit of college students and organize youth in low-income communities and communities of color. The Center for Progressive Leadership, Young People For, and many other groups began training the next generation of young progressive leaders.

The tremendous youth support that Obama received was as much a product of the youth movement as the movement was a product of him. This is important to understand because Obama was only one side of the coin, and as he leaves for Washington, the infrastructure that existed long before him will remain in place.

What will change however is the focus of the movement. For the last eight years, young progressives have been united by a desire to unseat conservatives from power. Now that we finally have our turn behind the wheel, our activism will shift from campaigning to policy and advocacy. The movement may splinter to some degree as different organizations focus on different issues, but the engagement will continue because we are far from solving the many challenges that face us as a nation.

In California, we have no shortage of big projects to work on. Regardless of the outcome of the California Supreme Court’s upcoming decision on Prop 8, the losing side will put this issue back on the ballot, and young people will need to ready for another fight for marriage equality. We will also have hotly contested races for Governor, Senate, Attorney General, and other statewide offices in 2010. Not to mention, the 2/3rds rule in the legislature that has caused gridlock on passing state budgets for decades.

While many in the mainstream media spent the weeks following the election pontificating about whether or not youth engagement would sustain, those of us doing youth organizing had no doubt that our peers would stay involved. Would a budding new composer suddenly end her musical career after her first successful masterpiece? Of course not. Success is an incredible motivator, and although the purpose of our activism may become less clearly defined for a time, the enthusiasm that was sparked in this election will continue.

Totally bumped by Sarah Burris (Ian is such a rockstar!)

The first three days at the College Democrats of America convention in Denver this weekend were enjoyable and informative, but also a clear reminder of CDA's shortcomings. Many of the trainings they offered were excellent, but the question then becomes to what degree will students actually use these skills as they head back to campus this fall? Is CDA ready to become an organization focused on effecting real change or is it still dominated by students who would rather pad their resumes than roll up their sleeves and engage in serious campaigning?

After talking with convention delegates who have been long time CDA members at the chapter and state level, I heard various frustrations that many students have with the organization - frustrations which rarely rise to the surface to be discussed by CDA leadership.

The overriding grievance was that CDA remains a mostly marginalized and underfunded part of the Democratic party, due to the fact that it is still part of the DNC. Leaders of state federations also complained that the national CDA leadership provides no money and very few resources to the states. States would like financial support, speakers for events, support for field programs, increased coordination with boarding states, and other resources that the national leadership has not provided. Another disappointment was the fact that most national CDA leadership positions were uncontested during the elections. Even elections that were contested were largely determined ahead of time by candidates who had already lined up the right key endorsements.

On Saturday, the elections for CDA President and Vice President took place. Katie Naranjo and Alec Schierenbeck ran unopposed to succeed Lauren Wolf and Awais Khaleel for the top two national posts. Alec's speech was well received, but focused entirely on national issues important to all Democrats and made no mention of any plans of his for CDA. Katie's speech was more substantive and promised a series of encouraging improvements. She told delegates "we're here to make a change," and that vowed to make students "a valued constituency." We'll have to wait and see whether or not these pledges for action materialize in the coming years.

Sunday ended on a high note with an incredible speech by Newark Mayor Cory Booker, who told the story of how he became Mayor and tied it into a broader vision. Booker spoke against excessive individualism and described unity and community as core American values. Afterwards he received a standing ovation from the entire CDA convention. Sam Hodge, CDA Political Affairs Director, came on stage and called it the best political speech he had heard.

Bumped. -Craig

I've been in Denver at the College Democrats of America convention for the last two days. I will comment on state of CDA in a future post, but first I'd like to share what was my highlight of the convention so far.

During the four hours of the "Be Kick Ass! '08: Training" sessions today, I attend a presentation given by Parag Mehta, the DNC's Director of Training. I was fortunate enough to have caught a training that Parag led at Netroots Nation a few weeks ago, but this was even more engaging and informative. The presentation was geared for College Dems, but many of the tips are applicable to student organizations in general. Here are some things Parag suggested to help campus leaders as they head back to school this fall:

How do you get off to a good start with your group's first two meetings?

First meeting: This is when you should greet new and continuing members and motivate them to get involved. Welcome members, introduce the organization and its goals, have a good time, and get students pumped up for the coming semester.

Second meeting: This meeting should be a work meeting. Show new students that your organization actually cares about doing things. Ideas include leading a phone banking training, voter registration training, or community service project.

Where should you hold your meetings?

There are many lot of options: student unions, student lounges, etc. Don't use a lecture hall or classroom. Students are in classrooms all day and lecture halls don't work as well for a collaborative meeting where everyone feels like they are a part of the organization.

How do you get food for your meetings?

We all know that college students gravitate towards free food, but how do you get food if your organization has little to no spare money? Try going to businesses that you know tend to lean Democratic (Costco, Whole Foods, etc) and ask them if they would be willing to donate some food for your first meeting. You'll be surprised by what they're willing to give friendly student groups.

What do you do about people who don't show up?

When you have your first meeting or event you'll get people who RVSP on Facebook or MyBO say that they'll attend, but then never show up. Instead of simply shrugging it off and letting these people go, keep a list of everyone who RSVPed for your meeting/event. Then after your meeting/event, pull a few students aside who enjoyed it and ask them call through everyone on the RSVP list who didn't show up. A simple message like "hey, I went to this event and had a great time, here's what we did, and I hope you can come next time" can be very effective at pulling these people back in.

Also, make sure to send a follow up message to everyone who showed up to the meeting. Remember to thank them, ask them to bring their friends next time, and let them know what's next for the organization.

Before I begin, I wanted to thank Mike for inviting me to post here and share my my experiences at the NOI program. I'm a 17-year old from Santa Cruz, California, who will be cross posting these entries on my small progressive blog Got Democracy.

The New Organizing Institute was founded in the summer of 2005 by a group of campaign staffers that had experience doing grassroots mobilization in the '04 cycle, and realized that progressives need to seriously invest in training future young staffers in the technology aspect of campaigning. Their first "boot camp" was organized by Zach Exley and Judith Freeman in the winter of 2006. Earlier this year, my friend Barak Wouk and I were both accepted into the NOI's 8-day Summer Campaign Boot Camp from July 1st-8th in Washington DC.

Barak and I arrived in DC a few days early to explore the city and melt in the crippling heat and humidity we were forced into. But, yesterday things cooled down considerably as we made our way to George Washington University for the first day of the NOI Boot Camp. At 3:00 we arrived, and checked in to our dorm rooms along with the 60 other young trainees (mostly recent college grads). In the evening Zach Exley introduced the NOI program to us, gave his story of how he got involved in politics, and told us what he hopes we will bring into the political arena when we leave at the end of the week. It was an inspiring speech that got everyone fired up about the program and our ability to create change.

The main point of Zach's talk was that the internet has brought about a fundamental shift in the people, on a scale similar to the changes that occurred when writing, telephones, and televisions were each invented. He told us that he began his work in the organizing field shortly after college as a union organizer. After years of frustrating experiences and many defeats he quit that job and became a programmer. When George W. Bush first ran for president, Zach gained instant fame for a small parody site (GWBush.com) that went viral after the Bush campaign got nervous and blamed his site for Bush's cocaine rumors. The storm of attention that swirled around his site was only possible because of the internet. Zach then went on to tell the story of how the Dean campaign discovered the potential of this new medium, and compliantly revolutionized the way modern political campaigns use the internet. Apparently the decision to set high fund raising goals (as Joe Trippi advocated) was a dangerous risk that faced a lot of resistance. Zach stressed that tension within campaigns always happens and is a very important process. He asked us all to fight those battles to take greater risks, because progressives can only win when we are willing to take chances and raise expectations.

Then Zach explained how the mock campaign, a major part of the training, will function. The 60 trainees were split into groups based on colors. Then each group was randomly given a Simpsons character (or the one Family Guy character that was tossed in) which they now have to run a presidential campaign for. Each group will create unique websites that will be completely open to the public. The goal of the completion is to get as many sign-ups on our email lists as possible, and get as many people as we can to attend a Live Earth MoveOn party here in DC. I'm on the pink group, and our character for president is Stewie from Family Guy. It should get interesting.

More from the NOI training later this week...