Gephardt coalition aims to grow
By Ryan Hagen
Washington Square News (New York U.)
11/20/2003

(U-WIRE) NEW YORK — Dontre Conerly is convinced that New York University's chapter of Students for Gephardt will swell beyond its current two members in the next few weeks.

"NYU students like to be riled up," said Conerly, a Steinhardt School of Education junior. "They like the protest; they like the fervor of it all."

Conerly, a conservative, Southern Democrat, is the founder, president and half the membership of the campus chapter supporting Rep. Richard Gephardt's, D-Mo., run for the White House. The other official member of the group is Todd Cohen, a Stern School of Business senior.

"For Gephardt, it's slow and steady wins the race," said Cohen, who works for the national Gephardt campaign as a fund-raising operative. "One vote is one vote, no matter if you yell or shout, or if you just go and cast it on Election Day."

Conerly and Cohen plan to position their candidate as a moderate alternative to liberal presidential candidate Howard Dean, D-Vt., the state's former governor.

"Everybody's 'Dean, Dean, Dean, Dean,'" Cohen said. "It doesn't seem to me that he's going anywhere, and people who share that opinion are left saying, 'Well, I don't want to vote Republican,' and that's where I jump in and say, 'Dick Gephardt's the man for you.'"

Gephardt has greater popularity among labor unions and older working Americans, Cohen said.

Students for Gephardt contend that the Dean campaign peaked in early fall and then declined dramatically, leaving Dean supporters on campus largely unorganized. Members of the campus chapter of Generation Dean say they do not feel threatened.

"[Lack of discipline] is definitely one of our weaknesses on campus, but our numbers here on campus are bigger than Gephardt's," said Carlos Zapata, a leading member of Generation Dean and a sophomore in the College of Arts and Science.

Conerly hopes to capitalize on that disorganization, he said, and seize upon Gephardt's recent jump to the top of the polls in Iowa, where the presidential primary is seen as a must-win.

He presented arguments in favor of Gephardt at a meeting of the College Democrats Thursday night, during which members chatted about the virtues and drawbacks of each of the party's potential nominees.

The event unfolded as a political pillow fight among Democrats, most of whom have already settled firmly on a candidate.

"I think almost everyone has fallen in love with a candidate," said College Democrats President Michael Phillips, a senior in the College of Arts and Science. "We didn't change any minds. A couple of people told me they changed their minds, but I don't believe them."

Although no new Students for Gephardt members were recruited at the meeting, Cohen said, he remained confident that "in the next week and a half, we'll have a good 50 to 60 members."

Students for Gephardt will send students down to New Hampshire later in the semester to canvass for the candidate, and they hope to bring the congressman to campus, Conerly said.

"Even if I'm the lone one out on that corner in front of the Silver Center [for Arts and Science], I will be," Conerly said. "I will set up my table, I will set up my shop, and I'll do what I need to do for the candidate I feel is to be the next president of the United States."

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