On Wednesday, Students for Bush held their first general meeting. Chaired by Jenny Gorski (COL ’01), the focus of the group is working to promote the campaign ideals of presidential candidate George W. Bush and his running mate, Dick Cheney. This group, separate from GU’s College Republicans, is working to get Georgetown students excited about this year’s presidential election.
Gorski stressed that Students for Bush is a “hands-on” group organized in a way so that members can work together toward a common goal. At the meeting, members signed up for several different committees having to do with publication distribution, election-day polling, phone calling, mass mailing and other methods of campaigning that will take place both on campus and off. Gorski also said that the first Students for Bush event would be a publication distribution that would occur during Homecoming, hitting the large crowd at the well-attended campus event.
During the meeting, Gorski stated that, “D.C. is obviously not going to vote Republican, but it is important to campaign on campus for those students who can vote at home.” Therefore, the main goal of Students for Bush is to make the Georgetown University community aware of the strengths of the Bush/Cheney ticket by election day.
Instead of having a central advisory board that plans events for its members to attend, the committees of Students for Bush will plan everything for fellow members and the Georgetown community, with the advisory board merely overseeing event preparation.
“This organization is very much what you make of it,” Gorski said. “The members are going to get involved, they’re not just going to attend things.”
Students for Bush is taking its campaigning talents beyond just the presidential election. They are also working for the campaign of George Allen, Republican Senate candidate in Virginia, as well as for incumbent Sen. William Roth (R-Del.) Working for so many different Republican affiliated organizations “really gives group members good experience in the political world, especially in learning about Republican ideals,” Gorski said.
In addition to Students for Bush, the College Republicans is another group on campus that works to promote Republican ideas. Though the groups are separate due to Federal Election Commission laws that say a student organization funded by a university cannot campaign for any political candidate, the two groups share similar ideals. College Republicans will continue to work after the presidential election while Students for Bush will disband.