college democrat

cross posted on the CDNY blog: http://collegedemsny.com/blog/

I'm on so many list serves that its hard to keep track. But this press release caught my attention:

This Wednesday @3pm there will be a Huge GOTV Rally in Rochester, NY featuring Senator Hillary Clinton and Democratic challengers Eric Massa (NY-29), Dan Maffei (NY-25), Alice Kryzan (NY-26). Address is below:

Monroe Community College

Stabins Physical Education Complex (Building 10)

1000 East Henrietta Road

Rochester, NY 14424

Parking will be available in Lots G, M, and M1

For those of you who live in the upstate New York area, this is a great rally to attend featuring our own Senator Clinton and 3 great Democratic challengers who can swing their district from red to blue in this Election.

Dan Levin is the President of the College Democrats of NY

Barack Obama will be addressing our nation's youth on a special conference call for college democrat members and Students For Barack Obama members. I'm so excited about this. The call will probably be listen-in only but could you imagine- our next president talking right to our nation's youth and up and coming generation? Nothing better to do than to fire up his ground troops about a week before election day.

The call is going to take place 7pm Eastern Time on Sunday. i'm so excited. i'll post more about the call when its over tomorrow.

In an interview that appeared on Thursday night on NBC's Nightly News with Brian Williams, and in an early transcript of the interview posted on the Washington Post, John McCain accused New Yorkers of being elitist:

WILLIAMS: Who is a member of the elite?

PALIN: So anyone who thinks that they are -- I guess -- better than anyone else, that's -- that's my definition of elitism.

WILLIAMS: Senator?

MCCAIN: I -- I know where a lot of 'em live.

MCCAIN: Well, in our nation's capital and New York City. I've seen it. I've lived there. I know the town. I know -- I know what a lot of these elitists are. The ones that she never went to a cocktail party with in Georgetown. I'll be very frank with you. Who think that they can dictate what they believe to America rather than let Americans decide for themselves.

This fits in right along with his running mate's view that New York is an "Anti-America" part of the country.

Well I've got news for you Senator McCain, I'm dam proud to be a born and bred New Yorker. I've lived in New York City, one of the greatest cities in the world and I go to college in upstate New York, earning one of the greatest affordable educations available for Americans. Here in New York we are hard working class Americans, just like the rest of the country.

Comments like these show just how out of touch with America John McCain really is. Let's get a real candidate of change in office who doesn't think that people are elitist or anti-American just because they live in certain liberal states.

As cross posted on www.collegedemsny.com

The College Democrats would like to announce their upcoming campaign invasions within NY. On Saturday, October 25, students from across the state will invade districts across the state to campaign for change in 08. Districts include, NY 29 to elect Eric Massa, SD 3 to elect Brian Foley, Kryzan for Congress, Joe Mesi for State Senate, Addabbo for Senate, and McElroy for Senate. With races across the state, the College Democrats know that they will get amazing support and will be able to bring real change to America in 08.

If you are interested in helping out please sign up at http://collegedemsny.com/...

if you can't volunteer please donate to help us keep our efforts going through election day. You can donate at: http://www.actblue.com/contribute/entity/20757/159148

cross posted on College Dems of NY blog: http://collegedemsny.com/blog/

Since the start of September, the College Democrats of NY have been busy with voter registration drives on college campuses across the state. The results of these efforts have been tremendous. In New York, the voter registration deadline was October 10 and so our chapter numbers for voter registration have been slowly trickling in to our state executive board. Last night with Cornell and Albany college democrat chapters reporting, we tallied over 10,000 new young voters who we signed up to vote.

With 22 chapters having reported, we have registered 10,206 young people to vote in NY. More chapters will be sending in their results who have not yet reported and that number will climb even higher.

Although NY is not in play for the presidential election, the higher voter registration numbers will enable more down ballot Democrats to get elected. For the first time in 40 years, the Democrats are in position to retake the NY State Senate. Additionally, there are 4 swing Congressional seats in NY that have a strong chance of flipping Democratic this election season.

CDNY's Act Blue page: http://www.actblue.com/contribute/entity/20757

In our previous posts, we detailed our huge trip to central Pennsylvania which was a huge success. We sent 151 members into the battleground state last weekend where we knocked on a total of 10,520 doors in places like Bloomsburg, Hazelton, Stroudsburg, and Wilkes-Barre, having over 3,000 coversations with undecided voters.

Now the College Democrats of NY are ready to roll once again as we are working on plans to send 40 students from the New York City area into Nashua, New Hamsphire next weekend. More details about our upcoming trip still to come...

Last night I attended a debate watch party on my Binghamton University campus in NY. Around 8pm we had hosted a one on one debate between the president of the Binghamton College Democrats vs. the President of the Binghamton College Republicans in a mixed audience made up of democrats, republicans and undecided voters.

The crowd of 50+ students stayed to watch the Obama-McCain debate and student reaction was very positive towards Obama. On mutliple occassions, Senator Obama talked about the importance of student loans and helping college graduates find jobs. His message resonated with the vast majority in the audience. Recently, Time Magazine showed alarming statistics that an increasing number of banks have stopped issuing student loans. For students who want to attend college or graduate school and don't have $50,000 lying around in a bank account somewhere, student loans are the only way to attend higher education.

It is reassuring to know that not too long ago Senator Obama and his wife Michelle were up to their eye balls in debt from student loans to attend college and graduate school, much like the average college student faces today. Barack Obama's plan includes giving a tax credit to college students if they perform military service, peace corps or some form of community service. It is ideas like this that will be able to change the direction of our country.

Bumped. --Mike

The College Republicans of America have apparently become very angry about all the great work that we are doing here in NY and for Obama. After College Democrats of NY (CDNY) went to PA to help Obama, we wrote a blog asking what happened to the College Republicans and why they are so weak this election cycle. Well we got a response.

First they questioned our line of attack. They feel that not doing any work, not being able to be found, and not wanting to do anything public, is leading and fighting to get John McSame and fellow Republicans elected.

Well I don’t know about you but to me if we can’t see you, hear you, or know that you exist, you probably don’t. The College Republicans had a chance this year to defend four congressional seats in NY, take a few back and protect the State Senate, but with only three weeks left it appears that the Democrats will pick up at least three and probably four Congressional seats as well as take back the State Senate.

C'mon College Republicans- at least give us a little bit of a fight.
As the College Dems that were in Bloomsburg know, we didn’t see a single Republican in central PA. In fact the McCain office was not even open when we stopped by. If this is the great organizing that the McSame campaign, RNC and CR believe is good organizing, maybe they should take a cue from the College Democrats and the DNC. Maybe instead of raising all this alleged money to talk about Obama Palin’ around with terrorists, maybe they should actually talk to voters and see what they believe in, what worries them and what they want for the future.

To quote the California College Republicans Co-Chair

“As the saying goes, Money talks and shit walks. The College Republicans are screaming while the College Democrats are sprinting.”

Well while the College Democrats are walking, Obama and the Democrats are walking their way into the White House and into Congress.

One final thought- its interesting that the NY College Republicans have yet to say anything on this matter or the PA college republicans for that matter. It takes a chairman from the opposite coast of the country to be put on the defensive for their organization. Can't really blame them- their PA Chairman had to resign b/c he was too busy typing racist thoughts against Obama than actually working to get McCain elected.

This blog post is written by CDNY communications Director Brian Young.

This past weekend, the College Democrats of NY took 151 students to Central PA where we spoke to over 3,000 people and knocked on 10,520 doors. The conversations that we had with voters in Bloomsburg, Hazelton, Wilkes- Barre, and Stroudsburg gave us a pretty good profile of the average voter in this battleground state.

Misconceptions: Unfortunately there are still some people who believe that Obama is a Muslim. I have read many articles that detailed this fact but it is still shocking to hear it after knocking on someone's door. Even after talking with this particular woman for a solid 5 minutes, explaining that Obama was in fact a devout Christian, the woman refused to believe us and so we moved on to the next house. Some people just aren't worth your time and breath.

Some voters were big Obama supporters including one Seahawks football fan who wanted to attend the Biden-Clinton rally this past Sunday but alas, watching Sunday football was more important (Cant' really blame him).

The majority of voters were undecided but leaning towards Obama. These were my favorite people to talk to since you can actually have lively discussions about issues that they care about. For women, I personally like talking to them about universal healthcare since I am a big believer in it. I enjoy telling them how worried college students like myself are b/c once we graduate, we no longer are on our parents' health care plan.

The economy is also a great subject to talk about since it is the #1 issue for voters. One woman wasnt sure if either candidate could really help the country but we made the convincing argument that with the country going down the drain the last 8 years by the Republicans, why not give a Democrat 4 years in the White House to change the country?

Obama is counting on huge numbers from Philadelphia which is very liberal but if central PA votes over 50% for Obama, he will win this battleground state easily.

Bumped. Welcome College Democrats of NY! Thanks for posting, and come back often. We'd love to keep up to speed on all that you are doing. For everyone else, be sure to also check out CDNY's posts on their election activities this year. --Mike

cross posted on the CDNY blog: http://collegedemsny.com/blog/

As President of the NY College Democrats, I am proud to say that we have a booming organization in the Empire State. A quick google search of NY College Dems yields tons of blog entries and our amazing website which our New Media Director JF has brilliantly put together with tons of pics and links to our 50+ chapters across the state. Meanwhile the NY College Republicans are nowhere to be found. It is difficult to find their webiste and they dont blog at all. They don't even get any mention in the NY media.

This past weekend we sent over 150 students from NY into central PA to canvass for Obama. We were located in 4 different offices: Bloomsburg, Hazelton, Stroudsburg and Wilkes- Barre and not a single college republican was to be found either from NY, PA or any other state.

Much has been made of an op-ed post by College Democrats of America National Council Vice Chair Lee Drake who talked about the high budget of the national college republicans and their lack of ground troops helping McCain. I couldn't agree more with him. The College Republicans do indeed have a significant fundraising advantage over us but the College Democrats have a huge advantage when it comes to mobilizing our troops for Obama on the ground across the country.

In fact, College Democrats make up much of that fundraising gap by working with the Obama campaign and the DCCC, DSCC to help pay for transportation costs for campaign invasions into battleground states and regions to get Democrats elected.

Earlier this fall I challenged the NYS College Republican chairman to a debate and they rejected the challenge, claiming that they wanted to focus on campaigning. While that's perfectly reasonable, I have yet to see or hear college republicans in NY campaigning for any race in large numbers.

Perhaps nationally they are hiding because they think McCain is a horrible candidate who doesn't adequately represent young voters.