College Democrats

I thought I'd weigh-in on a public battle between B. Lee Drake of the College Democrats and the College Republican National Committee. Last week, Drake posted an op-ed accusing the CRNC of being nothing more than an ineffectual slush fund for the Republican Party:

I don't know about you, but there is a poverty hidden by the seven-figure sums of the CNR budget. Look around you on campus today, and you see students registering each other to vote in record numbers. Of all the groups doing this, the College Republicans of UNM have yet to participate. So long as the organization is treated as a slush fund, they rob themselves of the ability to gather younger recruits and participate in the growth of youth activism. Beyond what speakers or events that student groups host, our most important activity is undoubtedly registering students to vote in the rush to the Oct. 7 deadline. We've even established early voting in the SUB that will last from Oct. 18 to Nov. 1. But the College Republicans have long ago stepped out of that volunteerism and instead sold themselves out to campaign contribution leftovers.

The College Republicans rebutted with an op-ed by Ashley Barbera, in which she pointed out the paucity of funds available to College Democrats due to their status as an appendage of the DNC, and contrasted that to what the CRNC is able to accomplish with their larger budget.

I won't argue with the first part of Barbera's piece. I've written at length about how the College Democrats are financially disadvantaged by remaining within the DNC. And I don't think Drake is right in saying that the CRNC is a slush fund for the Republican Party. However, the College Republican's budget requires much closer scrutiny, as do Barbera's claims.

Barbera touts the CRNC's fundraising prowess, and notes that

Our money comes from a national network of 110,000 supporters, mostly small-dollar donors, who recognize the importance of reaching out to young voters.

According to Open Secrets, the College Republican National Committee has raised $4.7 million this cycle. Of that money, a full 73% - $3.2 million - went back into fundraising. What's going on here? Well looking into the expenditures it becomes clear:

2008 CRNC Budget by Expenditures

$3.2 million to Infocision Management, a Republican direct mail and telemarketing firm. The College Republicans aren't a slush fund, but they aren't a mega-funded super org either. They're an incredibly inefficient direct mail and telemarketing operation that spends 75 cents for every dollar it raises. And this money does not come, as Barbera suggests, from 110,000 small donors who "understand the need to reach out to young voters." As this article in the Seattle Times makes clear, the vast majority of donors who give to the CRNC have no idea they are giving money to the college Republicans. They are elderly men and women, tricked into giving by dishonest telemarketing and direct mail scams. In the last three electoral cycles, the number one employment category of individual donors to the CRNC is "retired."

Looking further into the CRNC's 2008 expenditures, almost 1/4 of a million dollars goes to consultants - almost as much as the $373k the organization paid to its employees. The College Republicans aren't a $4.8 million juggernaut of youth organizing. Once you take out the money spent on fundraising, they are a $1.2 million org that spends 1/5 of its budget padding the pockets of consultants.

I'm sure the rebuttal from the CRNC will be that this is still far better than the College Democrats, but comparing the College Democrats and College Republicans is like comparing apples and oranges. As Barberra herself states, CDA is an appendage of the DNC, while the CRNC is an independent 527, able to raise much greater sums of money on its own and operate independently of the Republican Party. As such, CRNC's closest analogue on the Democratic side of the aisle is the Young Democrats of America, also a 527 organization.

According to Open Secrets' analysis of YDA's expenditures for 2008, the group has raised far less money than CRNC, but the vast majority of YDA's expenditures go towards salaries and programs for young voter outreach. They spend only a fraction of their total budget on fundraising. In fact, even with a budget that is only a fraction of the CRNC's overall budget, YDA still manages to spend more money on their staff and programs than does the CRNC:

YDA 2008 Budget Expenditures:

Now, I'm not looking to do a full comparison between YDA and the CRNC in terms of program, though I suspect such a comparison will be equally favorable to YDA. Even College Republicans on the CRNC's own blog question their reports about the tens of thousands of new recruits and hundred thousand phone calls cited by Barbera.

Such criticisms from within the organization are also directed at STORM, the social action network/CRM (constituent relationship manager) developed by CRNC. STORM was another accomplishment touted by Barberra, though it is hard to see why. The network is a barren wasteland, used by almost no one; so much so that I was able to infiltrate the network and become one of the "STORM Top 40" - a group of top recruiters given free housing and credentials at the Republican National Convention. This took almost no effort on my part, and to this day, my STORM profile confirms that I only recruited 17 people into the network. Reports on the CRNC blog say that STORM cost between $250 and $300k. Friends in the CMS/CRM business assure me that this price is outrageous for what is essentially a glorified database and email program.

Taking a longer view of the CRNC vs YDA budget also produces some rather unfavorable trends for CRNC. Whereas the YDA budget is growing each year, and YDA always operates within their budget, the CRNC's budget has shrunk dramatically in the last four years. And - ironically for the party of "fiscal responsibility" - CRNC can't seem to operate within their means, racking up massive debt in 2004 and 2006.

CRNC Budgets by Cycle

So while Drake may have missed the mark with his op-ed against the College Republicans, Barbera's response wasn't much better. A closer look at CRNC unmasks the organization as a paper tiger with more bark than bite.

• Early voting begins today in Virginia, Kentucky and Georgia. If that's where you live, stop reading this and go vote!
• Next week is Ohio's "Golden Week," when you can register to vote and cast your ballot on the same day. If you want to go help out in the state next week, volunteer here.
• The National Conference on Citizenship released its Third Civic Health Index today. They also held their annual conference today (which I was supposed to attend - apologies to all for not making it down). I'll have more later, but for now, you can read another blogger's take here.
• 29-year-old Nate Willems, also a blogger, is running for State Senate in Iowa. Best of luck, Nate, and we'd love to have you here anytime to blog about the experience.
• Turns out that email is not a dying medium among today's youth afterall. (Warning, this link will take you to the most obnoxious sign-up process in history. Go at your own risk).
• Trying to wrap your head around this economic mess we now find ourselves in? Go read this article in The Nation.
• FiveThirtyEight.com notes that some folks are getting their feathers ruffled as the Obama campaign directs funds away from swag like lawn signs towards other things like field work. Oh, the horror! Hey, sounds right to me.
• Michael Moore is encouraging everyone to download his new movie, "Slacker Uprising," about his tour of colleges and universities in 2004. Moore will by live blogging on Daily Kos tonight at 11pm Eastern.
• The Swing Semester Syllabus is now online.
• The Daily Pennsylvanian has an excellent interview with Howard Dean about the role of young people in this election and remaking the Democratic Party.
• P. Diddy may be off on the sidelines, uploading crazy-ass YouTube videos every week, but celebrity-driven politics is bigger than ever. Ad Week has the skinny.
• New York State College Dems are gearing up for the election. So are a lot of College Dem chapters, but NYS keeps popping up in my Google Alerts and on blogs. They've got a much larger online footprint than other College Dem chapters, which is a good thing. That's how you get noticed. More chapters should be as active within the blogosphere.
• This is funny. A Republican candidate is crying foul over her loss in a recent primary. The crime? Her opponent registered and GOTV'd too many College Republicans. I'm sure there's a joke about eating your young in there . . .

[CROSS-POSTED FROM MICHIGAN YOUTH POLITICAL ALLIANCE]

Obama's message of hope and change has reached out to millions of young voters, and I do not understand how some people can not understand why. Republicans think it might have to do with the age of the candidate, so they bring in Palin. Now, she may be "young," but she certainly does not bring nearly the same understanding to issues that concern youth voters the most as Obama does.

With a young population experiencing piled-up college debt and the pressure of finding new jobs, they refuse to believe that a continuation of the current administration could be the solution, especially since John McCain barely shares the compassion Obama does for education and job growth. Our youth have also become disillusioned by the failed policies of the Iraq War and have felt the stress of escalating costs of health care within their families. Who deals with these issues with an eye out for how we feel? I don't see McCain caring much about what we think. The latest Gallup polls from September 7 reveal our thoughts exactly--60% favor Obama while only 32% favor McCain.

But putting all political affiliation aside, will youth participation shock us this election season?

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.

Some reading for your Sunday:

• David Sirota's latest column is spot-on, criticizing the obsessive focus we all have with the presidency, and examining how that hurts the quality of our nation.
• A post from the Utah Amicus blog discusses the College Democrats of America's role in the surge in youth political activism.
• More College Democrats -- An Obama blog post on the meshing of the Obama campaign with the College Democrats' efforts this fall at the College Democrats convention.
• More evangelicals: The Rothenberg Political Report has yet more polling information with regard to evangelicals voting in the presidential election.
• "You Don't Have to Burn Bras to Be Politically Active," an op-ed by Jessica Sidman in the Dallas Morning News, discusses a topic we're all well-aware of around here -- Boomer youth political activism versus Millennial youth political activism.
• A story in the Providence Journal on Obama's appeal to youth and how the campaign uses technology to connect.
• A California newspaper discusses the Democrats' advantages given the current national political climate bringing the political views and demography of young people into the analysis.

So this is my first of hopefully many Sunday posts, I suppose an introduction would be appropriate. My name is Awais Khaleel and I currently serve as the Vice President of the College Dems of America. Since I walked across the stage seven days ago, I am also a recent college grad. And although I (like a lot of people in my situation) face a lot of uncertainty in the next couple of years, I recognize how fortunate I am to be in a place to even have this uncertainty. My college experience has been beneficial on so many levels, both personally and professionally, and that blessing has never been clearer than now.

As Americans, we spend Memorial Day weekend remembering and honoring those that have served this country. Therefore as a rule, we want to afford those who have sacrificed for this nation every opportunity to succeed after their service. Unfortunately, however, not everyone appears to feel this way.

Alex Cornell du Houx, who is the Chair of the National Council for our organization and a Marine who served in Iraq, blogged on the Huffington Post earlier this week about this unfortunate phenomenon. More specifically, he wrote about how regrettable it was that John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, refused to support the new GI Bill that found broad bi-partisan support in the Senate this week. And while I could write about this until I’m blue in the face, I cannot imagine a better description of the issue from a more credible source than what you’ll find there.

See the article [[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alex-cornell-du-houx/tell-john-mccain-to-standb103163.html|here]]

Don't know how much I'll be posting this weekend. Playing it by ear, taking a break. Maybe do a little reading. I'm guessing y'all are doing the same. If you can't shake the political junk, this just might tide you over for the day:

• The campaign for the presidency of the College Democrats is underway. Hopefully I'll have some College Dems blogging about the race in the coming weeks and months. - Facebook
• Danah Boyd - self described Third Wave feminist - on why all this Hillary Sexism stuff is bull. - Apophenia
• Democrats Work is teaming up with General Wesley Clark for a community service project in the district of a Democrat running a tight race. Go vote on where the General will "serve." More on this later in the coming days. - Democrats Work
• Obama and "None of the Above" wins the "beer vote" this time around, according to a Rock the Vote poll. - USA Today
• McCain's courting of youth has limits. - International Herald Tribune
• Social Networks, Political Weapons - Washington Post
• DNC blunts GOP microtargeting lead. - The Politico
• I've noted this before, but these are really cool so I'll do it again. The Obama campaign has found a lot of grassroots support from graphic designers who are pumping out some awesome campaign swag. - My Barack Obama
• The RNC is running a voter-generated video contest. Winners will air during the convention. Oh yeah, and they're still using that weirdo zombie-elephant logo. - GOP Convention 2008
• Meanwhile, the FBI is attempting to infiltrate dangerous "vegan pot-luck" networks who could potentially disrupt the proceedings in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Seriously. - Boing Boing
• This is awesome. Reminds me of the old-school Nintendo days. Hat tip to Josh Levy at Tech President:

If you haven't already checked them out in the breaking video feed, take a look at these two videos from the Oregon and Kentucky College Democrats. I ding the College Dems a lot for their field work and strategy, but they're starting to produce some really quality media. And it's been complementing and getting nods in the blogosphere conversation as well.

These ads are way better than the stuff we're seeing from the campaigns, and it's really good to see both a youth organization and the blogosphere on the same page and acknowledging each other's work. If these aren't already on TV, someone should figure out a way to get the College Democrats enough cash to do some cheap cable-buys in their states.

Update: Frank Chi, Communications Director of the College Democrats, contacted me about this post to let me know that this video was shot not for public dissemination, but rather as an introduction to Rep. Allen's address to the Maine College Democrats Convention this week, making both my critique somewhat off the mark. Chi also notes that the students in the video are in fact Bowdoin students doing phone banking. He did not clarify whether or not they were targeting students or helping with more general state party outreach.
-------------------------------------------

This video by the Maine College Democrats has been making the rounds this week, getting some well-deserved linkage on MyDD, Senate2008 Guru, and America Blog. I just wanted to give my 2 cents on it:

The production values are great. This is about 10 steps up from any video I've seen the College Democrats produce thus far. I don't know who produced it (someone in the org, friend of a friend, etc.), but this is sort of what I'm talking about when I say that College Dems and YDA should find ways to tap into creative class students/young professionals; people who might never work a canvass but are capable of producing something like this for a campaign. My hat is off to the Maine College Dems for putting together such a professional ad.

Now for the critique. The ad is slightly confusing, and requires that the viewer already be well-versed in the campaign. It's right on in its critique of Right Wing government, but it's tough to know more immediate details like who is being critiqued and or the identity of the mysterious white guy that's supposed to make everything better. Outsiders or political newbies might not know that Senator Susan Collins is the woman next to Bush and Santorum in a number of photographs. Representative Tom Allen (aka the white dude at the end), as a congressman and not a Senator, is likely even more obscure.

The ad also is an extremely soft ask. It's promoting the Maine College Democrats new website (which is pretty decent, btw, though I can't speak for it's back-end capabilities), and not necessarily plugging people into a useful action. The Maine College Democrats have a presser up on their site stating their intention to do peer to peer organizing in the lead up to '08, but images of such an operation aren't anywhere to be found in the ad. Instead, what we see is students working in a campaign office - likely working to GOTV the Gen X and Baby Boomer vote using state party lists that are out of date and highly innaccurate when it comes to young voters (ostensibly the target of the ad).

This sort of gets to a third, and more meta point about coverage of this video in the blogosphere. It is great that MyDD, America Blog, and Senate Guru all linked to some progressive (and partisan Democratic) youth activism, but this is hardly the best representation of youth activism in the country (indeed, it's not even the most exciting thing happening in the last four days). As I've noted before, there are structural problems with CDA at the national level - and frequently at the state level, though I can't speak directly to the situation on the ground in Maine - that make CDA a less than ideal vehicle for youth GOTV. College Democrats may well be the weakest link in progressive youth infrastructure. So my feelings are mixed. I'm elated to see the blogosphere taking note of things that young people are doing for the Party and the movement, but still think that there's a lot of education and critical evaluation of just what is working and what isn't in youth organizing on the part of everyone.

I just finished watching a speech that Howard Dean delivered recently at Johns Hopkins University. In this speech, Dean said all the right things about the youth vote. He noted that Millennials are the largest generation in America - bigger even than the Baby Boom - and the most diverse. That we are turning out in disproportionately high numbers compared to Gen X when they were the youngest generation. The chairman noted that people choose their party affiliation early in life, and talked about the importance of bringing young voters into the Democratic Party.

For a youth vote advocate, the speech was everything I wanted to hear. For a former Deaniac, it reminded me exactly why I supported the Governor in the first place. Yet at the same time, it's disappointing because the DNC is failing to live up to Dean's words. As Ben Adler (formerly of Campus Progress) notes in an excellent article in the Politico:

Still, even if Democrats do reap big youth gains in 2008, it may be unclear how much of this would be due to his DNC efforts, and how much Dean is merely a sympathetic witness to much deeper trends.

DNC spokespeople, citing their need to keep internal strategy private, declined to describe the specifics of the party’s youth outreach efforts in any detail, or disclose specific metrics on how well it is working. Surveys make clear that, no matter the impact of political strategies, deep currents are shaping the views of younger voters in ways that seem likely to scramble old electoral coalitions and familiar issue divides.

Adler is more right than he realizes (or is wiling to publish). There are numerous flaws in the DNC's youth outreach strategy, and any gains that Democrats see in the youth vote is more likely due to the work of outside organizations than it is the DNC or its youth arm, the College Democrats.

Operating out of the Political Program at the DNC, the College Democrats are the only vehicle for youth outreach financially and legally bound to the national party. CIRCLE estimates that 75% of 18-24 year olds will never earn a college degree, and a full 55% have no college experience at all. This is to say nothing of the fact that, according to the Current Population Survey only 21% of 18-29 year olds are currently enrolled in college or graduate school. There is very little that the college democrats can do to reach these people, and by extension, that means that the DNC is putting almost no effort into reaching more than half, and possibly as many as 79%, of all young voters.

A quick examination of the organization's accomplishments and resources reveals an organization underfunded and unable to fulfill its mandate.CDA has only two full-time staffers and an operational budget supposedly in the low-hundreds of thousands (the budget fluctuates each year and both the DNC and CDA , but are loathe to talk about actual numbers). The group has approximately $125,000 in the bank that it has raised outside of the unknown amount provided by the DNC. According to Open Secrets the organization spent approximately $210,000 between 2000 and 2004; a number wholly inadequate to the task of reaching young voters.

The hallmark of Dean's tenure as DNC chairman has been the 50 state strategy - the idea that Democrats must have a vibrant party engaging voters in all 50 states if we are to properly challenge the Republicans and build a Democratic majority. Yet were the College Democrats to follow this logic and divide up their assets accordingly, each state would only get between $5 and $10k per year. Not even enough to pay for a local staff person's salary (meaning that most state parties also lack a dedicated youth outreach coordinator.

This problem is compounded by the fact that the CDA budget is dispersed to states who agree to work in cooperation with CDA on youth outreach. Problem is, those resources (money or staff, usually available only at the height of an election cycle) often get shifted away from youth programs and into more general party operations. Some states like Michigan and Arizona have a reputation for working well with CDA and putting real effort into the youth vote, but many others make promises and then take the money for other purposes. There is little accountability in this process, and at the end of the day, no one will say (and it's almost impossible to know) how much of the DNC's youth budget actually gets spent on youth outreach.

At the programmatic level, there is little testing behind what programs CDA does execute, and many of these programs are predetermined by the DNC, not by the membership or even the leadership of the organization.

These are not new problems. In 2002, the Young Democrats left the Democratic Party for precisely these reasons. It was a gamble at the time, and for a time YDA was left without office space or even salary for its officers. Yet it was a gamble that has since paid off in spades, as YDA was able to tap into the venture philanthropy money that overtook Democratic politics in 2003 and 2004, and parlay that injection of resources into building an organization that didn't just work as ground troops for Democratic campaigns, but actually conducted serious outreach to their peers, and continually tests and refines that work. In the last 3 years, YDA has taken huge strides in building healthy, sustainable chapters across the country.

YDA used to be in much the same position CDA is now - perpetually broke and utterly reliant on the DNC and state parties. Now they have total control over their own programs and an average annual budget of $1 million (that tops $1.5 million during Presidential and Midterm election cycles). Despite a number of offers to join with YDA, CDA has repeatedly decided to stay within the DNC - unwilling to give up the guaranteed resources the DNC provides, or part with the insider connections that come from being housed within the DNC.

To be sure, Dean has not just been all talk. There have been modest improvements since he took on the chairmanship. And his words do in fact mean something - they can alter the culture of the organization and create a new conventional wisdom within the party about the importance of young voters. But Adler is right that the DNC can claim little credit for the surge in youth interest and turnout. Part of that is due to the character and beliefs of Millennials themselves, but the dirty job of GOTV and turnout has been the work of organizations outside the party structure who have filled in the gaps where for years the DNC dropped the ball. Should those groups disappear, or the prevailing political winds shift away from the Democrats, Dean and the DNC would find themselves in a very different position with regard to young voters.