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Whistle-Blowers and Online-Donors

  • Not at all shockingly, a whistle blower in the Dept. of Education tells the New York Times that political appointees in the Dept. shut down his investigations into exploitation of student loan programs by corporate lenders:

    When Jon Oberg, a Department of Education researcher, warned in 2003 that student lending companies were improperly collecting hundreds of millions in federal subsidies and suggested how to correct the problem, his supervisor told him to work on something else.

    Ya gotta love conservative government.

  • This is interesting. From an article about Obama's youth support:

    The Obama campaign said the students are also an increasingly important source of cash, particularly through the Internet. While they wouldn't give specific numbers, Obama officials said students make up one their largest donor groups.

    Students are ``getting into being donors,'' said Billy Wimsatt, executive director of the League of Young Voters, a political organization in New York. The new technology ``is what's putting it over the top.''

    More than a little fishy that they wouldn't give specific numbers. How do you know, and why wouldn't you say if the numbers are high? I think it would be really interesting to get some hard numbers on student donations. The number of donors is only likely to grow each quarter for Obama. The campaign has an opportunity to set some positive trend lines for youth campaign support - they should set that bar. It would make a great story to bolster the narrative about growing youth engagement.

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May 7th, 2007 5:05am
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youth contributions

Submitted by Thomas Senecal on Wed, 2007-05-09 12:41.

Interestingly, on Obama’s site you have to be 16 to contribute, but on Hillary’s you have to be 18. McCain-Feingold made a minimum contribution age of 18, but the Supreme Court overturned it, so I’m not sure why she would choose not to accept contributions from minors.

Action Item for Teens for Hillary?

Submitted by Michael Connery on Wed, 2007-05-09 12:56.

Thomas,

Are you and the folks at Teens for Hillary planning on organizing around that to get the campaign to change it?

Contributions

Submitted by Thomas Senecal on Thu, 2007-05-10 12:47.

We’re trying, but like I said before we can’t get them to acknowledge us. I can contribute through a PAC which gives the money to her, but most people don’t know how that works. I hope eventually they’ll change it because they’re missing out on potentially many thousands of dollars.

Students for Clinton

Submitted by Michael Connery on Thu, 2007-05-10 13:16.

Have you spoken to Students for Clinton? Do they have more contact with the campaign? Does the campaign even have a staffer whose job it is to organize young voters?

I’ve got calls and emails into the campaign and to Students for Clinton … still waiting to hear back.

Students for Clinton

Submitted by Thomas Senecal on Fri, 2007-05-11 14:27.

Received a brief email regarding working together, and saying to expect another email over the weekend. I’ll ask about their work with the campaign.

Students for Clinton

Submitted by Thomas Senecal on Thu, 2007-05-17 19:42.

Still waiting to hear back from the President. At this point not expecting a response. I have been working with the women’s outreach director at the campaign to help get youth turnout for an upcoming event in DC.

fwiw - Hillary Hire

Submitted by Michael Connery on Fri, 2007-05-18 02:56.

For what it’s worth, I heard through the Grapevine that Hillary just recently hired her youth outreach coordinator. You might expect a call in the next couple weeks.

Great. Was her name Emily

Submitted by Thomas Senecal on Fri, 2007-05-18 13:05.

Great. Was her name Emily Hawkins?

Yes

Submitted by Michael Connery on Fri, 2007-05-18 14:05.

That’s what I heard.

Heard 2 things

Submitted by Thomas Senecal on Fri, 2007-05-18 19:05.

I heard that too, but then I talked to someone fairly high up who said they hadn’t hired any youth outreach people yet. Not sure what to believe.