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Eight Students
Will Sample Electoral Politics This Summer
From the May 22, 1998,
Observer
By
Mark Graham
Eight students will use Cole scholarships to work in campaigns this summer from California to Connecticut. The scholarships are one component of the Oberlin College Initiative in Electoral Politics, which has placed between five and eight students in political internships over the past five years.
Richard and Dorothy Cole, both members of the Class of 1956, sponsor the initiative, which the politics department coordinates.
"[The Coles] were unhappy after the Clarence Thomas hearings with America's public servants," says Eve Sandberg, assistant professor of politics. "The program was designed to encourage the right sort of public servants, not just people with ambition, but people who care about solving social problems."
In the program, students interested in social issues gain campaign experience for possible future public-office quests. The scholarship program is open to politics majors and nonmajors alike.
Students in the program choose internships in states where they might hope to run in the future or with candidates who can serve as important role models for them. Faculty help them make the contact and arrange a contract for their internship. Past Cole scholars have worked with federal, state, and local campaigns and political-party offices;for professional campaign consultants; and in news departments.
The program requires students to combine their experience with scholarly research by taking two academic classes created to go with the internships. The spring-semester class, Studies in Electoral Politics, prepares students for their internships by exposing them to scholarly studies on campaigns, voters, and America's changing political party system and issues. It also gives students practical skills, such as how to write a press release or plan a political banquet. Students in the class also do a research study of past voting behavior, important issues, and political activists and leaders in the states where they will be undertaking their internships.
Students use the fall semester class, Projects in Electoral Politics, to write an independent research paper on an issue raised by the internship that tests some of the hypotheses derived from the literatures they read in the earlier course.
This year's interns are working across the state in campaigns and party offices.
- Sophomore Robyn Brazeal will perform community outreach for congressional candidate Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick in Michigan.
- Sophomore David Palter will work for the California state Democratic party in the San Francisco office.
- Senior Shiobhan Reilley will work in the Sacramento office of the state Democratic party.
- Junior Scott Remley will do media relations for Representative Barbara Kennelly's campaign for governor of Connecticut.
- Sophomore Rebecca Swartz will help Connecticut state senator Miles Rappaport's campaign for the U.S. House of Representatives. Rappaport is running for the seat Kennelly vacated to run for governor.
- Sophomore Samuel Taylor will work for Peter Vallone, a candidate running in the New York primary for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. Taylor will perform outreach to the African-American community around New York City.
- Junior Laura Wimberly will intern with Natalie Mosher's campaign for the Ohio State House of Representatives from the 63rd District.
- Junior Meagan Willits will help Representative Sherrod Brown's reelection campaign in Ohio.
