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Oles take part in political conventions

By Kari VanDerVeen
August 25, 2008

With the Democratic National Convention under way and the Republican National Convention set to start next week, several St. Olaf students and recent graduates are spending the last few weeks of summer in the thick of political activity.

Alex Cutler '09 is a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, where he will cast his support for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama along with fellow delegate Allison Jones '08. The two are in Denver, where the convention will be held Aug. 25-28.

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Foxwell
Closer to campus, several Oles will be working at the Republican National Convention, which will be held in St. Paul and Minneapolis Sept. 1-4. Jonathan Barrett '11 is already busy helping NBC and MSNBC news set up for their coverage of the convention, and he will provide assistance for the networks throughout the convention. Andrew Foxwell '08 is also busy organizing young people for presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain, and he's even posted an ad on Craigslist offering to show convention visitors around the Twin Cities.

Barrett says he first heard about the opportunity to work at the political convention in St. Paul through St. Olaf's Political Science Department. He landed the job of a "runner," which means he will run errands for the news networks and help set up their equipment. Most people don't realize the amount of work that goes into setting up for a political convention, Barrett notes. Yet the job has its rewards -- the St. Olaf sophomore is looking forward to meeting NBC anchors like Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams.

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Barrett
"I am very excited to see the behind-the-scenes activity of both the media and the political system. I have thought about going into broadcasting or politics -- either way, I am getting a first-hand look at what it takes to be good in either of those occupations," says Barrett, a history and political science major from Darien, Ill.

Nearly a thousand miles away, Cutler is looking forward to meeting other delegates from around the country at the Democratic National Convention. The St. Olaf senior was elected from several hundred Obama delegates at the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party convention to serve as a delegate-at-large at the national convention. He's excited to hear Obama deliver his acceptance speech on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. "I will be able to say that I was there when history was made," Cutler says.

Although he's volunteered at the state convention several times, Cutler has never been a delegate. Yet the American studies and political science major from Minneapolis notes that he's among a growing number of young voters who are becoming more politically involved. Cutler organized young voters in New Hampshire and South Carolina during a January Interim course led by St. Olaf Professor of Political Science Dan Hofrenning, and he says he's never seen young voters so engaged.

"As someone who has struggled to pull my peers into the political process since high school, I can say that it has never been so easy as it is this year. There seems to be a presumption that you should be involved in the process, which makes my job a lot easier," he says. "Voting is finally 'cool' again."

Contact Kari VanDerVeen at 507-786-3970 or vanderve@stolaf.edu.