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The Dartmouth
March 28, 2024 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Campus political groups prepare for fall elections

Dartmouth College Democrats discuss plans for their fall strategy in Morrison Commons.
Dartmouth College Democrats discuss plans for their fall strategy in Morrison Commons.

The College Democrats will focus on both local and national races, College Democrats president David Imamura '10 said, adding that it takes little extra time to also mention local candidates while discussing the presidential ticket.

"We're trying to make sure New Hampshire stays blue, not just on the presidential level, but on the local level as well," Imamura said.

Imamura estimated that approximately 40 percent of students are registered to vote in Hanover, based on the College Democrats' examination of Hanover's voter registration records, which makes campaigning for local candidates worthwhile.

Two members of the College Democrats are running for local office. Vanessa Sievers '10, outreach coordinator for the College Democrats, is running for Grafton County treasurer.

Courtney Merrill '09 filed to get her name on the Democratic primary ballot for New Hampshire state representative of Cornish, New Hampshire, her hometown, but decided not to campaign actively for the seat because of financial and other considerations. She informed local Democratic leaders that she is not actively campaigning and believes one of the other two primary candidates will win the election.

No members of the College Republicans are currently running for office, although a few had considered the idea, according to College Republicans president Doug Zarbock '10.

Unlike the College Democrats, the College Republicans will focus largely on national races, supporting Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., in his bid for president and Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., in his run for re-election, Zarbock said. The College Republicans are not yet focusing on the Congressional campaigns, Zarbock said, because the primaries have not ended.

"As an organization, we're trying to really focus our efforts rather than spreading ourselves too thin," Zarbock said, adding that the senatorial and presidential races were the most important. "At this point, it's still a little bit early for us to begin helping the congressional campaigns as an organization."

The College Libertarians, a group founded in the fall for "fiscally conservative, socially liberal" students, is not officially affiliated with the Libertarian Party and will not specifically support any national candidates, the group's founding president Harsh Gupta '10 said.

Both the College Republicans and the College Democrats plan to conduct Get Out The Vote campaigns, run tabling events and coordinate phone-banking efforts. Both groups also hope to bring speakers to campus.

The College Republicans will conduct campaigning efforts throughout the state, Zarbock said. During the first few weeks of Fall term, Imamura said, the College Democrats will focus largely on helping campaigns outside of Dartmouth, but will then shift its attention to College students.

Imamura hopes the College Democrats and the College Republicans will have a debate during the Fall term.

"We're trying to promote a campus political dialogue this election season because that's what it all comes down to," he said.

Additionally, the group plans to knock on every dormitory door at least three times, Imamura said, adding that for the 2006 elections the group created a real-time voter database that tracked a student's political affiliation and whether he or she had voted.

The College Libertarians will host regular reading discussion groups and aims to bring at least one speaker to campus Fall term. The group and its advisors -- economics professors Douglas Irwin and Meir Kohn -- received a grant from the Charles G. Koch Foundation to support its discussion groups, Gupta said.