The College Democrat leadership is similar to Barack Obama in two ways: Both take an inordinate amount of credit for a lackluster set of accomplishments, and both compensate for these inadequacies by attacking the accomplishments of those who are more successful than themselves.
I was a little surprised to read B. Lee Drake's criticisms of the College Republican National Committee's fundraising ability. Given the crowing we've heard from Democrats about Obama's record-breaking fundraising, I was under the impression that the left perceived the ability to raise large sums of money as a strong indicator of success. Drake is able to reconcile these two apparently contradictory thought patterns by concocting an elaborate conspiracy theory, complete with nebulous references to leaked reports and slush funds. At the risk of destroying Drake's rather cynical worldview, I thought Daily Lobo readers might benefit from actual facts to combat this poorly contrived conspiracy theory.
In his article, Drake stated, "In College Democrats, we have almost no money, and we measure our wealth in volunteers." He holds this up as a point of pride, whereas I see it as a fundamental flaw. While volunteers are certainly the most valuable resource for any political organization, a large volunteer base without the infrastructure to support and mobilize those volunteers on a national scale is largely useless. Because College Democrats is merely a branch of the Democratic National Committee, they are unable to fundraise independently and must content themselves with whatever funding scraps Howard Dean deigns to throw their way. Any money they spend or outreach plans they implement must be approved in advance by the party elders in the DNC, who give lip service to the importance of the liberal youth movement while simultaneously hamstringing their efforts.
On the other hand, the College Republican National Committee is an independent 527 political organization. As such, our ability to reach out to young voters is limited only by the scope of our imagination and our ability to support those efforts through fundraising. Our money comes from a national network of 110,000 supporters, mostly small-dollar donors, who recognize the importance of reaching out to young voters.
So what do College Republicans spend our money on? Here are a few examples:
On Aug. 27 we deployed a team of 50 full-time field representatives who are on college campuses around the country every day recruiting new members for the College Republicans and channeling those recruits into volunteer efforts. In the few weeks the team has been in the field, they have already recruited 46,875 new members. The field representative for the state of New Mexico has recruited 969 new members this month, including 297 at UNM alone.
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Last Saturday, our field representatives channeled many of their new recruits into a nationwide College Republican volunteer effort. In a single day, our members made more than 100,000 phone calls and knocked on more than 20,000 doors.
We also provide our chapters with resources to recruit on their own. Each of our 1,800 chapters receives a chapter kit with a large College Republican sign, key chains, pens and other goodies. The materials we provide in our chapter kits help our chapters attract students to their recruitment tables, which in turn help them to encourage more students to join the College Republicans.
The College Republican National Committee also invested in the development of our own online network, STORM. It utilizes a new class of technology known as social mobilization, which focuses on channeling users into real world action that can be tracked through the system. Through STORM, College Republicans have the ability to recruit others online as well as organize and mobilize members into actions that directly benefit our chapters, state federations and, ultimately, the election of Republicans to office.
So have the College Democrats of America done anything like this to support their chapters across the country? They haven't, because they lack the independence and the resources to implement any meaningful youth outreach programs. While Drake brags about the number of volunteers his organization has, neither he nor any of the other national officers in the College Democrats of America have done anything substantive to help their chapters support or utilize those volunteers.
In his article, Drake concluded with a piece of advice for the youth conservative movement. While it wasn't particularly useful, it seems appropriate to return the favor. The College Democrats of America should break off from their subservient position in the Democratic National Committee and seek 527 status themselves. They will be amazed to find how much more they can accomplish if they walk away from the little kids' table and take their first independent steps into the world of grown-up politics.
Ashley Barbera is the communications director for the College Republican National Committee.
