Columbia Dems Take On Kentucky, Campaign Over Break

This story was written by Joshua Chambers, Columbia Daily Spectator

At 5 a.m. on Nov. 2, 55 Columbia College Democrats piled onto a fleet of minivans to campaign for former Lieutenant Governor Steve Beshear, the Democratic candidate for governor of Kentucky. With a poll lead of 15 percent and rising and an incumbent facing charges of ethical misconduct, the election result was largely a foregone conclusion. As well as ensuring that the polls translated into a tangible result, however, the College Democrats had broader ambitions for the trip.

When the results were in, even with a clear 18-point margin and 619,000 votes -- the most ever for a Kentucky gubernatorial candidate -- Beshear was thankful for the support the College Democrats gave him.

"They have been wonderful. They've worked their fingers to the bone and worked wonders for us," Beshear said at a rally dominated by rowdy Columbia Democrats at Bluegrass Airport in Lexington.

The College Democrats spent four days canvassing in Lexington, Frankfort, and Louisville. With long lists of names of targeted Democratic voters, informed by past voting history, age, gender, and voting information, it was the job of the students to "get out the vote." They pursued this goal both with telephone calls and the more labor-intensive door-to-door canvassing.

This clearly took its toll on some of the students.

"My feet hurt, my hands hurt, and I'm tired," said Mike Schwartz, GS/JTS '09, after a long day of canvassing.

Others could barely contain their excitement as they relayed their best stories.

"I saw naked people who'd been having sex but got up to answer the door. Wow, your sex must really suck if you get up halfway through it to answer the door," Mara Richard, BC '09, said.

The College Democrats hoped that this trip would serve a longer term purpose in helping to recruit and retain new members to keep the group going.

"From a purely cynical standpoint, it gets people involved. [We] get a lot of momentum," Nathan Morgante, CC '09, said.

Not all of the experiences on the trip were positive, though. Tensions arose in Frankfort and Lexington between staffers and a couple of lead activists.

"There were a series of perplexing decisions by [the campaign staff]," said Jonathan Backer, CC '10 and College Democrats media director. "They were sending us out to cover the same territory over and over again. The same houses would be visited one day after the other, and it got to a point where the same houses were being visited in the afternoon as well as the morning."

Demands made by the lead activists eventually ensured that the democrats were moved to the undermanned station in Louisville on Tuesday, which had only received 140 volunteers out of an expected 600. Even there, they found themselves visiting houses at 10 a.m. that had already been canvassed that morning.

The Columbia Democrats were part of a larger group of College Democrats, mostly from across Kentucky, volunteering for the Beshear campaign. The Republicans also had student volunteers from across the state helping their campaign.

"We're doing the same thing that the Columbia volunteers are doing. We have a massive volunteer effort," said Steve Robertson, chairman of the Kentucky State Republicans.

With the gubernatorial election practically won, a lot of talk by both college and state democrats was directed to the 2008 elections. At every speech and rally, speakers vowed to defeat Kentucky-based Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in next year's election. While the College Democrats haven't settled on definitive plans, they were considering a return to Kentuky.

"Ohio's not going to be a player next year. People are saying we should go back to Kentucky next year, so we'll build up some contacts," said Chris Daniels, CC '09 and vice president of the College Democrats.

Lt. Gov.-elect Daniel Mongiardo would certainly welcome them back.

"I'm not sure we've had a group together like Columbia University. They've been incredible," he said.
© 2007 Columbia Daily Spectator via U-WIRE