Bryn Mawr College Democrats

Candidate Statements

2006-04-18T21:49:00.000-04:00

Alright--candidate statements are being posted here because there are too many problems with e-mail currently. Consider the following and submit your votes to rsteinbe@brynmawr.edu by this Thursday night (4/20/06). Remember, you are only eligible to vote if you have attended at least three meetings this semester, or, if you are abroad this semester, three meetings last semester. Seniors should vote as well. Last names have been omitted to protect privacy.

President

Caro, ‘08

I am running for the position of president—I think that in order to be successful in this position, one must have a strong work ethic, dedication to the organization, and a belief that the political process and democracy can work—I believe I possess these characteristics and can do an effective job as president. I have the theoretical background—I’m a political science/psychology double major. I have the practical background—I’ve been involved with the BMC Democrats since arriving on campus my freshman year, and I’ve been on the board all this year as publicity chair, having taken on the additional position of secretary this semester. I also was involved in the Kerry and Murphy campaigns in 2004, as well as Murphy’s current campaign. Though I was involved in more extracurriculars last year, this year my focus has shifted to a select few which I’ve become very involved with—the BMC Democrats is one of these organizations. Admittedly, I am busy—this semester I had a full courseload and have held down two jobs for the last year, along with my extracurriculars—despite these demands, I have not missed a Democrats meeting all semester (and have had near perfect attendance all year) and I have attended events when they have not conflicted with my other obligations (such as class or work). Though I may go abroad spring semester of next year, I do not believe this will interfere with my ability to carry out my duties as president. If I do go abroad, there would be an election to fill the position and I would work with my successor through the end of the semester and, if necessary, by e-mail through the second semester. Clearly, all the candidates for this position are capable—we are Bryn Mawr women after all. However, I truly believe that I’m the best person for the job—together, we can take this organization to the next level.

Treasurer

Laura, ‘07

I am running for Treasurer of BMC Democrats because it is a position Ienjoy and understand well. I think that organizational skills areimportant to this job and as such I will ensure that I thoroughly overseethe club's budget. I am also the treasurer for other clubs and thereforehave experience dealing with the SFC. I am familiar with the budgetingprocess, reimbursement procedures, and oddly enough actually enjoy keepingtrack of the nitty-gritty that keeps the club functioning financially.

President/Publicity Chair/Community Service Coordinator/HC/SC/Penn Democrats Liaison

Katie, ‘09

I, Katie ********* (class of 2009), would fully dedicate myself to the position of President, Publicity Chair, Community Service Coordinator, or HC/SC/Penn Democrats Liaison. Any one of these positions would be of significant importance to me, not only because of my passionate love for politics and the spread of Democracy, but also because of my desire to serve as a leader in the Bryn Mawr community. Although I have only been involved with the Student Democrats for a semester, I have learned and experienced enough to contribute to the club while serving a position next year.
I have been interested in politics since high school, where I participated in the Sidwell Friends School Student Democrats club. With the club, I volunteered for the 2004 elections by distributing voting-reminder flyers, and helping to arrange transportation for citizens to go to voting sites. I have always been an obsessive news-reader, constantly checking news websites for current political events. Currently, I am preparing myself to intern on the hill this summer for Congresswoman Allyson Schwartz (PA, 13th district). I know that this will be a valuable experience, and that I can use it in the future if I have a position within the club.
All of the experiences I have had with the club have helped me learn more about politics, especially local goings-on. From attending political speeches to volunteering for the Lois Murphy campaign, I already feel familiar with Pennsylvania politics. I consider myself a good and poised communicator (especially from my theatrical experiences), and know that I will be able to represent the club professionally when working with contacts and professionals. I know that I will be able to reach out to other students as well, and do the best that I can to add more members to the club and bring along more people to events.
I, like every other Bryn Mawr student, am a busy person- and have tons of work and extra-curricular activities to attend to. However, I am extremely organized, and am positive that I could handle a position in the club efficiently. I am a firm believer in list-making, scheduling, and maintaining an organized calendar/agenda. I do not let myself procrastinate, and am capable of staying on top of any situation. However, I also do not let myself get obsessive, and am always considerate of the needs and feelings of other people I am working with.
All of these qualities would benefit the club, and hopefully the spread of Democracy as well! I would be delighted to hold a position for the Student Democrats, and would put all of my energy into it! Thank you!

Publicity Chair/Campaign Coordinator

Caroline, ‘09

I am Caroline ******, and I am running for the positions of Publicity Chair, Campaign Coordinator, but am willing to accept any position offered.
I may have been at Bryn Mawr for only a year, but I have had a chance to see a lot about the Democrats and am excited to work with them in this upcoming election season. Aside from being an intended political science major, I love politics. Politics can be the whole ball game.
I have already created the Bryn Mawr Democrats website, and would be happy to maintain it. However, I do not want to have this as my only responsibility. I enjoy working with candidates, and attending functions. I was recently at the Sestak pot-luck dinner in Media and had a great time helping the staff and talking with volunteers and voters there.
Next year I will most likely only be taking three classes, allowing me to spend more time on the Democrats. I have many friends in other, related organizations (such as Voices for Choice, Student Union, One World, the Women’s Center), which would make coalition maintenance more simple.
One of the main reasons that I want to run for a board position is that I want to be more involved next year. I want to run a program called “What is a Democrat?” exploring why the parties can seem so similar but be so different, what stereotypes are about parties and how you can be a party actor even if you don’t feel like you fit into a traditional mould. In particular, it would be about the political diamond and how there can never be one type of Democrat.
I also want to have a publicity campaign around campus simply displaying quotes from Republican sources – Ann Coulter, Bill O’Reilly, Dick Cheney, etc. After a period of time, more quotes would be put up, but they would be by Democrats refuting what the Republicans say. This is to give people a vocabulary and issue agenda to think about when it comes to current issues. It is a way to make people want to identify themselves with Democrats because. These would not be aggressive or Bushisms, it would simply be showing the different aspects of debates.
There are organizational logistics that I want to improve as well. Taking from the UPenn Democrats, I want to create Democratic pins. I want there to be a strong base of volunteer Democrats in the community who do not need to attend meetings, but will provide support for events such as voter registration drives. I am going to start recruiting Democrats from the first day of the new semester.
Most of all, I want to continue the tradition of the Democrats set up here on campus: balanced, engaged and committed. We may not like the Republicans, but we retain respect in debates. We will always be overstretched as Bryn Mawr students, but we remain engaged in the political process. And we are committed to further Democratic ideals not only in our own community, but the larger constiency as well.

Have a great night everyone!

Interesting article.

2006-04-01T20:23:00.000-05:00

Happy April! I've been loving the weather.

Reminder: DINNER WITH A DEMOCRAT f/ Joe Sestak is Thursday, April 13th, at 5:30 PM (you should be seated by that time) in the Dorothy Vernon Room at Haffner. It should be really interesting--the BMC Dems are looking forward to it.

So I just read a very interesting article on AlterNet: http://www.alternet.org/story/34268/. It's a response to an earlier story posted on the site a couple weeks ago dealing with an atheist's decision to join a church (the link to that story is on AlterNet)--the response is written by his church's pastor. This isn't a specifically "Democrat" article, but it's a very good read from a different viewpoint--that of a religious liberal/progressive. It's very easy to forget that not all religious people are hardline conservatives, and that these "hardliners" only represent a small percentage of the whole--for that reason alone, it's definitely worth a look.

Have a good rest of the weekend!

Upcoming Events!

2006-03-22T00:17:00.000-05:00

Exciting things are afoot for the democrats of Bryn Mawr--tonight we had Myles Duffy, Joe Sestak's campaign manager to the meeting to talk about campaign strategy, etc.--very interesting!

The BMC Dems will be phone banking for Lois Murphy Tuesday, April 4th from 5-9 PM at her office in Narberth--I encourage anyone interested to e-mail us and come with--should be a lot of fun! Murphy's campaign is also looking for phone banking volunteers who can come in at other times (phone banking is done from 5-9 PM Mondays-Thursdays, usually in two hour shifts)--interested? Contact one of us or post any questions here.

Even more exciting? Joe Sestak, candidate for Congress in the 7th district, is coming to Bryn Mawr Thursday, April 14th from 5:30-6:30 PM as part of our Dinner With A Democrat series. It's all going down in the Dorothy Vernon Room at Haffner--interested? Just make sure you RSVP. Hope to see some Haverford kids there too. Should be a great time.

Alright--this was my last good excuse for not doing schoolwork, so comparative politics homework it is.

Just peachy...

2006-03-09T16:18:00.000-05:00

Coming shortly on the heels of South Dakota's almost total ban on abortion, we have this lovely piece of legislation: the Health Insurance Marketplace Modernization and Affordability Act (check out this press release off Common Dreams' newswire: http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0307-03.htm). This has the potential to be harmful to everyone, but approaching it from a women's issues point of view, it becomes particularly damaging--the act would cut contraception coverage and, just as importantly, coverage for annual cervical cancer screenings, and much else besides.

This is what I can't stomach about the Conservative right, more specifically, the fundamentalist/religious right. Though I'm pro-choice, I firmly believe that in an ideal society/state/whatever unit of measure you'd like to use, there would be a very low abortion rate because many of the factors that now determine whether women get abortions would simply cease to exist. I'm talking about money--though the right would love to believe that all women who have elective abortions are sluts who deserve to be forced into having a child, the truth is, much of the time they can't afford it--they already have two or three children or, for instance, they're working towards a (really expensive) degree and simply can't afford to go through a pregnancy, especially if there are additional risks, such as age or a medical condition. If you want to lower the demand for abortion, you have to make it affordable for these women to raise a (sometimes another) child, or at least to receive proper pre-natal care if they choose to put the child up for adoption.

And now the Senate wants to make it that much harder to pay for proper health insurance and receive proper health care? Right. Not to mention cutting coverage for cervical cancer screenings (cervical cancer being one of those dangerous cancers you need to catch very early on...and let's not even get started on the controversy over the HPV vaccine that could pretty much..oh...you know...prevent it). I initially heard about this from an online pro-choice community ( http://community.livejournal.com/ljforchoice/) I'm part of, and one of the comments in response to the bill was "Jesus Christ. Wow. I didn't realise how much the U.S. hates women." Neither did I, buddy, neither did I.

This is great...

2006-03-01T23:16:00.000-05:00

Procrastination + utter sweetness compells me to post again--check this out:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11617273/from/RS.3/

A 95 year old Democrat running for political office for the first time--fabulous. To give credit where it's due, I found this on the "LJ for Choice" community on LiveJournal.

Petition!

2006-03-01T22:27:00.000-05:00

Hey ladies (and any gents who may be tuning in). We're currently running a petition drive for Lois Murphy--thanks to an interesting little state law, she must gather 1000 signatures before she can officially be on the ballot. This is really important and the BMC Dems are helping her out. If you are a registered Democrat in the 6th district (you are if you're registered at your BMC address), please contact us to sign (ctroein, csauers)--the deadline is fast approaching (Friday for our purposes, Tuesday by state law)! Thanks for your help, hope to see you all soon at meetings.

-Caro

New Website

2006-02-28T23:17:00.000-05:00

Check out our website at http://www.brynmawr.edu/orgs/democrats for news on events, past projects, pictures and infromation about the group.