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Progressive Dane brings chapter to UW campus
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A progressive voice on campus hopes to be heard more this semester with a new student chapter for the Progressive Dane political party rolling out.
Progressive Dane, which started in fall 1992, is a local third party focusing on human and civil rights, affordable housing, transportation, labor and immigrants rights and environmental conservation.
“We really want to get young people motivated in local governmental issues,” said Andrew Kell, former outreach coordinator for Progressive Dane. “A lot of people, regardless of whether young or old, sometimes miss the opportunity to get involved in local government.”
The student chapter for Progressive Dane was previously called Students for Progressive Local Politics and was not officially affiliated with the local party.
“Students are generally progressive, more progressive than mainstream Democrats,” said Ashok Kumar, former District 5 Dane County Board supervisor, who is involved with Progressive Dane. “Having a student group helps students who want to work for policy get involved.”
Kell said the student chapter would hold regular meetings, work to recruit volunteers and help register voters on a local, state and national level.
With the upcoming election, Progressive Dane has not yet endorsed a candidate and has not endorsed a presidential candidate since 2000.
Members of Progressive Dane currently have the majority of seats on the Madison School Board and several seats on the Madison City Council and the Dane County Board.
One of those elected officials is Ald. Mike Verveer, whose District 4 includes the student neighborhoods in the Mifflin and Doty streets area.
Kell said some of the major issues Progressive Dane is supporting include pushing Dane County organizations to provide domestic partner benefits and supporting the city of Madison’s plastic bag ban.
In the spring 2008 elections for Madison School District and Dane County Board of Supervisors, all seven Progressive Dane candidates won.
Progressive Dane student chapter will hold its kickoff meeting Wednesday, Sept. 17, at 7 p.m. TITU.
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watch out - these hippies might infect you with lazy.
what the? Lazy? yes, because progressive activists like Verveer, Kumar, and King haven’t been the reason Madison has one of the most progressive open-minded policies. Thank god for the Democrats they have been so effective at nothing!