Penn Democrats President and College sophomore Emma Ellman-Golan believes some elections are not about the candidate, but about principle.
That’s why on Monday night, Penn Dems made the most of campaigning technology to support Democrat Martha Coakley in a special election to fill the late Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy’s seat.
With 89 percent of ballots counted, Brown receieved 52 percent of the vote to Coakley’s 47 percent, according to CNN.
Ellman-Golan pointed out Monday night that a Democratic loss would mean losing the 60-seat Democratic majority in the Senate and would be detrimental to healthcare reform — thus explaining Penn Dems’ support of Coakley.
An e-mail was sent to the Penn Dems listserv providing three ways to get involved.
A handful of students, mostly Penn Dems board members, met in an organized phone bank setting.
Meanwhile, other members were able to phone bank without even getting out of bed — either using barackobama.com or a phone number provided by College Democrats of America, Ellman-Golan said.
The web site had an automated system that guided students step-by-step through the phone canvassing process.
The phone number, once dialed, also gave a brief automated tutorial on how to use the system to phone bank. Following conversations with voters, students pressed a number corresponding to the result of the call: will vote for Coakley, not a supporter, hung up or other options.
Ellman-Golan said there are pros and cons of using such a system. Besides being cheaper, she said it was easier, especially on a holiday, than getting students to come to an organized event.
However, the trade-off was not knowing how many members participated and how many calls were actually made, she added.
College Republicans president and Wharton senior Peter Devine also attested to the importance of this election, calling it a “referendum on President Obama, Congressional Democrats and a terribly flawed, rushed and unpopular healthcare bill..”
He called the failure of Democrats to pass healthcare reform in spite of their 60-seat majority a result of “politics-as-usual,” adding that Democrats get into office by “saying no to Republican ideas,” but in the end do not have ideas of their own that resonate with Americans.
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