Viva Las Vegas. Viva Obama.

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Author: Dean DeChiaro

When I sat down to talk with Amy McDonough (sophomore) and Derek Mazzeo (sophomore), I wasn’t expecting them to give me their full attention. Between planning a campaign trip to Las Vegas last weekend, phone banking galore, sitting through bi-weekly phone conferences with California Students for Barack Obama and making sure that every voting-age student at Oxy is registered to vote, these are clearly two very busy people. They are the co-coordinators for Oxy for Obama.

Less Is More

Oxy for Obama is fast becoming one of the largest student groups on campus, and the group has made much progress since its formation last year. The group was founded in Spring 2007 by an Oxy alumnus, Noah Glusenkamp ’07, who is now working for the Obama campaign. McDonough and Mazzeo took over in the Fall 2007 semester, and the club started to gain momentum during the primary season of November through February.

“People really got interested in the weeks leading up to the California Democratic Primary, and that’s when the club really took off,” McDonough said.

Since then, the club has become the premier political club at Oxy, and has become one of the political heavyweights in the Los Angeles collegiate sphere of influence.

“We’re definitely one of the biggest groups in the region, especially for a school of our size. We’ve talked to the people from USC and UCLA, and our school of 1800 probably has as many as, if not more, volunteers than these schools,” Mazzeo said.

“We’ve been told we have many more than UCLA,” McDonough added.

The group, officially called The Occidental College Chapter of Students for Barack Obama, is a subgroup of the larger organization of California Students for Barack Obama, which, in turn, is part of the national organization of Students for Barack Obama. Students for Barack Obama isn’t just a private support group for Obama, either – it’s actually a wing of his campaign.

“One thing that’s really interesting is that usually in a presidential campaign, the student wing is usually not officially part of the campaign,” Mazzeo said. “The Obama campaign is the first [presidential] campaign that I know of that has actually taken the students and merged them as an official part of the campaign.”

The reason that both Oxy for Obama and Students for Barack Obama have generally been successful is because they imitate the grassroots strategies that Obama himself is so well known for. Most of the work that the club does is one-on-one, personalized meetings with people on and around campus.

“We go knocking on doors, letting people know about voter registration, making sure people are registered, and we’ve probably registered . . . about 65 voters so far,” Mazzeo said. “The school is so small, it’s kind of a benefit . . . even if there are less people, we can have closer contact with them.”

In addition, part of what Oxy for Obama does is get people excited about Obama – and they do quite a good job, based on the turnout for a “watch party” they held in Haines Hall (Obama’s residence hall during his years Oxy) to watch the Senator’s acceptance speech at the convention two weeks ago. The entire common room was packed and people were standing on chairs outside, attempting to catch a peek at the Illinois Senator’s speech.

Campaigning for Change

Despite how much the group has done on campus and in the area, Mazzeo and McDonough admit that there is only so much work to be done for a democrat in California.

“He’s pretty much got California sewn up right now, but that’s why we went to Vegas,” McDonough said.

The trip that she is referring to took place the weekend of Sept. 13, when about 25 students carpooled in five cars to Las Vegas, Nevada, a city in a key district in a battleground state. Obama’s campaign can use all of the help it can get in Nevada, so California Students for Barack Obama sent Oxy for Obama there for the weekend to work door to door throughout Sin City.

“The point of the Vegas trip was to have direct contact with voters. It’s the best way to swing people towards Obama,” McDonough said.

There was a chance that the group might also participate in some phone banking, but according to McDonough, this did not happen because of the age of the volunteers.

“We’re college kids, they wanted us going out in the streets. We went door to door, talking to voters, educating them on different issues, found out where they’re leaning,” McDonough said.

Saturday, Sept. 13 was the main day of campaigning for the group, when they went door to door, mainly at apartment building complexes, but also at some stores and supermarkets. The main objective throughout the trip was to register as many voters as possible, which is incredibly important for Obama’s campaign. In the 2004 Presidential Election, President Bush won Nevada by only 22,000 votes. By August of this year, the Obama campaign has already registered 16,000 new voters in the state.

“We’re making a lot of progress,” McDonough said. Las Vegas is in Clark County, which according to Mazzeo, was “basically the county that decided which way Nevada leaned [in 2004].”

The Oxy team campaigned in an area of northern Las Vegas that is slightly more conservative than downtown Las Vegas. The county has a Republican congressman and is overall more conservative than other counties throughout the state.

As it turns out, however, the main foe that the Oxy campaigners encountered was not Senator John McCain, but instead, a general apathy toward voting and the election.

“We heard a lot of ‘I’m not going to vote, I don’t care about voting, I don’t care about the election, I don’t like politics, I don’t want to get involved,'” McDonough said.

Most of the group was upset about this, being as most were politically motivated students. “Everyone that went cared so much about the issues and politics that to hear someone say they don’t care was almost eye-opening,” McDonough said. However, Mazzeo contested that “the reason people are apathetic about politics is that no one has ever talked to them about it. That’s why we were there.”

Mazzeo and McDonough are planning two more trips to Vegas, one before the Oct. 4 voting registration deadline and one in between that date and the Nov. 4 election. However, during our interview, the two expressed concern that there may not be enough people to have an effective trip.

“I’ve emailed the entire group, and only two people have responded,” McDonough said to Mazzeo, at which point both co-coordinators agreed to discuss this later. “If anyone wants to come back to Vegas with us, they should definitely contact the group because we’re looking for as many people as possible,” McDonough said.

Duties of Patriotism, The Dangers of Apathy

Even though California is historically a blue state, Occidental does have an extremely prominent out of state population, and this opens many more opportunities for Oxy for Obama to make a difference on campus.

“Voter registration on campus is really important. Oxy is one of the California schools that has the most out of state voters, so we’re trying to make sure that everyone who is from a swing state registers with that swing state and can vote on an absentee ballot, and to make sure that California voters are registered,” Mazzeo said.

Both Mazzeo and McDonough talked at length about the importance of making sure that every person who could vote needs to do so.

This leads to the beliefs that are at the core of Oxy for Obama, and most of the Obama-led movement for change. Both Mazzeo and McDonough don’t believe that what they do with Oxy for Obama is about personal satisfaction, but more so for the greater good.

“Every person we register, every person we convince to vote for Obama is special,” Mazzeo said. “I think that the goal for everyone who is involved in politics is that they want to do what’s best for the country. I think that’s our main focus, to try and change the way government work
s, and how responsive it is to the people.” He went on to say that, regardless of who you vote for, it’s important that everyone is educated on the issues that are affecting America right now. “On a patriotic level as well as a political level, it’s very important to participate in the democratic process,” Mazzeo said.

McDonough has a similar attitude, though perhaps a less-universal one. She believes that the importance of Oxy for Obama lies within educating the generation of voters that will be the next group of leaders for our country.

“Coming into college, I heard so much about voter apathy and how especially young people were so interested, but then they never actually did anything about it,” McDonough said. “It’s really inspiring to see students get involved and challenge the expectations of young people.”

The work never stops for the members of Oxy for Obama. To them, there is too much at stake in this election to sit idly by and watch what could be the most important political showdown in history take place on CNN. They are even too busy to give exclusive interviews; all the while I was talking to them, we were sitting in the Tiger Cooler as they sold Obama “Yes We Can” t-shirts.

There is no time to please reporters when Arizona Senator John McCain is leading most polls by anywhere from 2% to 10%. There is work to be done, and Oxy for Obama, the group representing the Senator’s beloved alma mater in the coming election, is set on doing everything they can to ensure that Barack Obama, or “Barry” as he was known during his years at Oxy, wins the seat in the Oval Office come Nov. 4.

To get involved with Oxy for Obama, join the Facebook group, or email Amy McDonough or Derek Mazzeo.

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