Democrats vote Aggie as college caucus chairman
Utah State University College Democrats will find more local representation within the Young Democrats organization next year after a weekend election.
Matt Everett, a senior political science major, was elected the chairman of the Utah College Democrats Caucus Saturday at the third annual Young Democrats of Utah Convention in Salt Lake City.
In the position, Everett said he would be responsible for organizing the College Democrat’s meetings in conjunction with the state party.
“It’s also kind of a support role, kind of working with the organizations that are already in existence at the different colleges and universities,” Everett said.
Along with electing individuals to chair each caucus and choosing a man and woman to represent the Young Democrats at the national convention, convention attendees listened to speeches from state party chairman Donald Dunn and Utah gubernatorial candidate Scott Matheson, Jr.
Everett said he thought the best part of the convention was Matheson’s speech.
“It really kind of got all the people that were there excited about his campaign, excited about the opportunity that we have,” he said. “The opportunity that we have to elect a democrat as governor.”
Sophomore physics major Brittany Duke said Matheson’s speech encouraged everyone to get involved with campaigns and talked about the opportunities that are coming to those who are involved.
“He spoke to us about what his plans are and what we can do to try and help,” Duke said.
Duke said it is good to be involved with politics as “everything is run by people who show up.”
“If we show up and dedicate our time, then we can make things happen,” Duke said.
At the event, students had the opportunity to mingle with Democrats from other campuses around the state. Duke said she saw USU actually has a very good turnout for a Democratic Party, as does BYU.
“Even a school that is smaller than those big schools can still have just as much participation,” she said. “We’re still up there, we’re representing.”
With the majority of Utah leaning toward the republican persuasion, Duke looked at the situation optimistically.
“I believe there are actually a lot more Democrats in the school and in the state than people are aware of,” she said, noting that Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson is a Democrat. “A lot of people don’t know the issues and don’t know what’s going on, I think if they knew, they’d be Democrats.”
Duke said being involved and knowing what is going on in the political arena with the various issues and having a stand on those issues is the most important thing.
“If you only know that [political affiliation] because ‘my mom and dad are republican’ or ‘my mom and dad are democrat,’ then that’s not something you should rely on,” Duke said. “You just need to make up that decision for yourself and get some information and become educated about it.”
USU College Democrats President Medlir Mema said one of the issues emphasized at the convention was to increase fund raising among the Young Democrats.
“Without money, you can’t influence politics,” Mema said.
Mema said other goals were spelled out to those in attendance such as getting democrats in Utah to have a bigger voice in terms of the presidential candidate in 2004 and helping to elect a democratic governor next year.
Mema said he hopes to schedule a Young Democrats convention to be held at USU in the next year.
“Greater things are expected from us,” Mema said. “This helped to kind of mobilize us and strengthen our core.
“We just have to go out now and make sure we are effective.”
-str@cc.usu.edu