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.
