Gavin Newsom

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.

A good mix today -- some technology, service, and policy for you. Enjoy!

• Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco, uses technology to announce his campaign for California's governorship, with his campaign focusing on generational change as a message.
• Steve Schmidt and David Plouffe took the time to sit down and talk about the 2008 election at the University of Delaware Thursday night. Plouffe talked about the importance of young voters to the campaign and the point in time when the Obama campaign sensed the momentum changing.
• Youth Service America's Global Youth and Service Day events are being held this weekend. From a press release: "During GYSD, the largest service event in the world and an initiative of Youth Service America (YSA), young people will participate in and facilitate projects with families, schools, community and faith-based organizations, and businesses; they focus on serious issues such as climate change, education, poverty, health, hunger and homelessness." Over 1,800 projects were planned around the world for this event -- double the number of projects held last year.
• techPresident covers the signing of the Serve America Act, specifically the development of serve.gov, a Web 2.0 clearinghouse for service opportunities run by the government.
• Google and Personal Democracy Forum are launching a fellowship program for those interested in developing new ways of using technology to make change and influence government and policy:
  

  Google and Personal Democracy Forum are teaming up to offer registration fellowships that cover the full forum registration costs and a meal with Googlers for twenty well-qualified, creative political entrepreneurs to attend this year's conference on June 29-30 at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City.

  Fellows will be chosen based on evidence of how you've turned ideas into action and into new applications of technology in the political or civic arena.

  Go to the link and apply by May 8th if interested.

• The House Financial Services Committee passed the Credit Cardholders' Bill of Rights (H.R. 627) on Wednesday. The House passed similar legislation last year, but it stalled in the Senate.
• Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) is a bit upset that he won't be able to reap the benefits of serving as a hero to the private student loan industry. Obama and the House and Senate negotiators in the budget process have agreed to use budget reconciliation for student lending legislation, effectively diminishing Nelson's influence. Ezra Klein reports.
• Speaking of Ezra Klein, someone got a new gig at the Washington Post. Klein's post on this can be found here. Klein starts May 18.
• An alternative view of Ashton Kutcher's Twitter quest at AdAge.