The Badger Herald: News: Group tries to mobilize support for Obama’s fiscal policies

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Group tries to mobilize support for Obama’s fiscal policies

UW student group plans to shift focus to activist approach

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Also by Rachel Vesco:

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Doyle, governors meet to talk region's wind power (May 6, 2009)
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Committee OKs county RTA, film incentive change (May 1, 2009)

By Rachel Vesco
Thursday, April 16, 2009 1:46 a.m.

3 Vote 0 Votes

A day after a group of President Barack Obama supporters met in Sun Prairie for the first meeting of Organizing for America in Wisconsin, the group sat down with representatives from University of Wisconsin College Democrats.

OFA is focused on involving former campaign volunteers in grassroots movements in local communities and educating citizens to garner support for Obama’s policy priorities.

Wisconsin leader of OFA, Dan Grandonod, met with College Democrat leadership Wednesday to discuss ways to get OFA involved on campus and with the College Democrats organization.

According to College Democrats Chair Molly Rivera, the group spoke with Grandonod about ways to further the grassroots movement started by Obama’s campaign as well as how to spread the message about the president’s policies.

College Democrats was already planning on becoming more active on campus, Rivera added. She said the group is planning to increase focus on issues to become more of an activist organization rather than simply focusing on legislation and policies. As an example, Rivera spoke of a planned panel featuring women politicians focusing on issues facing women throughout the state.

“We are going to have an aggressive plan to outreach to many different organizations, not just political or activist organizations, but as many organizations as we can,” Rivera said.

Grandonod also expressed his desire to open the organization up to all students on the UW campus.

“[We will] continue to build relationships with not only the College Democrats but anyone interested in getting active on campus,” Grandonod said.

Although both Grandonod and Rivera stressed the importance of reaching out to students from all walks of life on campus, UW College Republicans Chair Sara Mikolajczak said her group is hesitant to get involved in any plans with OFA.

According to Mikolajczak, their involvement with OFA and College Democrats would be taken on a “case by case basis.”

Mikolajczak added that College Republicans is currently focused on getting its ideas out to the entire UW community, citing examples such as various upcoming panel discussions and the “Tea Party” rally held Wednesday afternoon to protest higher taxes and spending by both Gov. Jim Doyle and Obama.

3 Comments | Leave a comment

Anonymous | April 16, 2009 7:33 PM | Reply
IP hash: 3d4f22d8

why would mikolajczak not support something like this? o yeah. prolly cuz her rich parents will have to pay there fair share now and she won’t get everything she wants. prolly cuz it will actually start to make people equal after 8 years of bad policy and she doesn’t want competition. sarah get a life and take a lesson from the bible if you claim to be so christian - every one is equal! better yet you should stop hating obama cuz he’s black and take that silver spoon that was in your mouth when you were born and shove it up your ass!

Anonymous | April 19, 2009 11:34 AM | Reply
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I’m glad to see that the first comment is so thoughtful, on-topic and respectful and that you’re deleting comments that are personal attacks and use offensive language.

Anonymous | April 19, 2009 6:28 PM | Reply
IP hash: e97298bd

“every one is equal”

Then why should some pay more? Why should someone be punished for making more money because of their hard work?

“better yet you should stop hating obama cuz he’s black and take that silver spoon that was in your mouth when you were born and shove it up your ass!”

Nice argument, because someone doesn’t support your viewpoint they are racist, right? It makes PERFECT sense to me: I share no viewpoints with a candidate, so therefore I hate his entire race! Now I understand! Its amazing how people always play the race card when something doesn’t go exactly their way. Enjoy your handouts as America crumbles, and take pride in knowing your ignorance helped bring it down. Also I hope you enjoy feeding off that silver spoon once it has been in her ass, since we know you are just jealous of it and wish you could have worked hard enough to get to it first. Too bad your laziness got in the way. GIMME GIMME GIMME is all I hear when you open your mouth, so try thinking next time before you talk. Fuck you for being a racist, too.