Students Seek Political Opportunities as Primaries Approach
By: Brian Davis
Students representing different political persuasions have started to use the January primaries to pursue unique political opportunities – one-candidate organizations, work with presidential campaigns, and creating websites that organize every candidate’s positions.
“It’s kind of wild, you never thought you’d be able to just go up and shake hands with all them – like Brownback I’ve met, Romney. I’m just a farm boy,” said Glen Wieger, a graduate engineering student and an employee of Rudy Giuliani’s South Carolina campaign.
Wieger also helped begin the Gamecocks for Rudy – a one-candidate student organization – just over a week ago. He explained that the group is to support Giuliani’s issues, provide students with campaign opportunities, and to have fun.
Meanwhile, students at Harvard University started their own path – a website to help people decide which of these organizations to join.
“Our site is there to help people decide which candidate is best for them, and then we hope that people will get engaged in the election and support that candidate,” said Will Ruben, Founder and CEO of VoteGopher.com.
Ruben thought of the idea last school year, recruited some friends, and built the site over the summer. The site went public just over two weeks ago. Since then, Ruben’s already received a write-up from The New York Times. (https://web.mail.sc.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/10/19/vote-gopher-student-web-site/

Ruben said one-candidate organizations are the place to support a candidate, but not to decide on one.
“Even if it weren’t slanted, it would be narrowly focused,” said Smith, of one-candidate organizations’ commentaries on the elections.
One-candidate organizations may also benefit because the CD and CR are often prohibited from supporting a particular candidate. USC has a policy that prohibits the College Democrats and College Republicans from endorsing any one candidate, according to CR Vice Chairman Cody Garrison.
“Everybody has a candidate they like. The president likes somebody. I like somebody. [But] We can’t officially as a group,” Garrison said.
College Democrats President Annie Boiter-Jolley said the group will not support a particular candidate in the primaries, but will support the nominated candidate.
The campus chapters may also be advised to not support a candidate because the national organization is classified as a “527 organization,” according to Charlie Smith, College Republicans National Committee Chairman. These organizations are tax-exempt and can collect as much money as possible from individuals or corporations, but cannot coordinate events with a campaign, Smith said. Smith asks his 1800 campus chapters to remain neutral in election times as a result.
Some say because of this restriction, students join CR or CD to embrace party issues, but also join one-candidate organizations to promote their specific attributes.
“When they’re in our organization they’re expressing they’re a general supporter of republican, conservative principles,” said Smith, who finished, “It [a one-candidate organization] allows them to go specifically support a specific candidate because of the forward-looking ideas that they have, or because that they think that their personality or policy is attractive.”
Despite the freedoms of some groups and restrictions on others, students say that all the groups are useful and should get along.
“I don’t think it shouldn’t be separation [between groups],” said Wieger, of campaigning alongside Hillary Clinton campaigners at a recent collard greens festival. “I think it should be go out there, make your points, and then be able to have a beer with the other person at the end of the day.”

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