Category: President

Meet U. S. Sen. Bernie Sanders | Oct. 28th GMU Student Town Hall

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders will be hosting a National Student Town Hall meeting with George Mason University students. The town hall meeting will be live streamed online to be viewed on college campuses across the country.

Sanders will focus on issues affecting young people, such as tuition-free higher education at public colleges, climate change, women’s rights, money in politics, racial justice, and criminal justice system reform.

The National Student Town Hall meeting will be held on Wednesday, October 28th at the Recreation Athletic Complex (RAC) on the George Mason University Fairfax Campus. Doors open at 6:00pm, and the meeting will begin at 7:00pm.

Tickets are required to attend, and will be distributed at the George Mason University Center for the Arts Concert Hall on two occasions:

Monday, October 26th | 4:00pm – 7:00pm
Tuesday, October 27th | 3:00pm – 6:00pm

The Bernie Sanders campaign team is seeking volunteers to help with ticket collection, crowd management, and answering questions. If you are interested in volunteering or have any questions, contact Tyler at [email protected].

U.Va.-GMU Poll Shows Tight Race for Virginia’s 13 Electoral Votes

A University of Virginia/George Mason University poll shows Mitt Romney with a slim 1 percentage point lead over President Barack Obama in Virginia.

The poll showed 46 percent of registered voters are supporting Mitt Romney with 45 percent supporting President Obama. The poll also found that 2 percent are still undecided and another 2 percent are backing another candidate. The poll surveyed 641 registered voters in Virginia and has a margin of error of plus or minus four.

In a statement, Thomas Guterbock provided more detailed information about the registered voters that were polled. Guterbock said, “Slightly less than three-quarters of the voters backing each candidate say their support is very strong, with a large majority of undecided voters unwilling to report leaning toward a particular candidate.”

Third party candidates such as Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson, Constitution Party candidate Virgil Goode, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein could have an affect on the final outcome.

Virginia has 13 Electoral College votes. President Obama won the state in the 2008. Mitt Romney hopes to turn the state red again. The state is very important to both men’s path to the all important 270 Electoral College number.

Obama Romney — Photo by | Dakota Cunningham C2M

Third Party Presidential Debate Oct. 23

3rd Party Debate on Ora TV

Third Party Presidential Candidates Debate

3rd Party Candidates debate tonight (10/23/2012 9pm) on OraTV. Find out what the other 4 major candidates think and see them square off with one another.

http://www.ora.tv/ora2012/thirdparty

Here is the excerpt from Ora TV’s website about tonight’s debate:

Larry King, the host of Larry King Now on Ora TV, will serve as moderator for a special 2012 Presidential debate. This debate will take place on October 23 at 9:00pm EDT at the Hilton Chicago and streamed live on Ora TV.

Larry King, “I have interviewed every US President since Nixon, and lest people forget, I helped usher Ross Perot into the national conversation during the 1992 presidential contest. I appreciate the importance of providing a platform to those with real alternative visions for our country’s future.”

Tuesday Night Schedule
8:00 – 9:00 PM EST
Correspondent Roundtable discussion
Who: Josh Tolley, Thom Hartmann (Russia Today), Ben Swann (FOX)
What: Will focus on important presidential topics and interview the 3rd party presidential candidates, authors, celebrities, etc

9-10:30 PM EST
3rd Party Presidential Debate – Moderated by Larry King streamed live on Ora TV
Gary Johnson – Libertarian Party
Jill Stein – Green Party
Rocky Anderson – Justice Party
Virgil Goode – Constitution Party

rep_third_party_3 — 3rd Party Debate on Ora TV

President Obama Returns to Mason and Talks Women’s Issues

For the second time in less than a month President Barack Obama held a grassroots rally at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. The President talked jobs and the economy, but spent a majority of his stump speech talking about women’s issues. He also debuted a new line of attack against Mitt Romney for his change in position on many issues especially women’s health issues.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/Fi73Nz9Ozk4[/youtube]

President Obama’s full remarks:

[youtube]http://youtu.be/48BmtinOSl4[/youtube]

Election Poll Monitor Opportunity

My name is Michael Lore and I am the Virginia Grassroots Poll Monitor Volunteer Coordinator for Common Cause. The 2012 election is upon us and VA is a battleground state with new districts and new identification standards at the polls. I applaud you for your interest to be an engaged citizen on Election Day 2012. We are a non-partisan coalition of groups that seeks fair and open elections with as much participation as possible. (www.866ourvote.org)

The roll of a grassroots poll monitor is fairly simple. Although you will learn the specifics when you are trained, the basic idea is that you would serve as a frequently asked question guide outside the polls. Most of the time will be spent helping citizens who are confused about their polling place or whether they can vote on a regular ballot or provisional, you would serve as a first line of defense and a go-between with our command centers around the state and national offices. Overall, we need boots on the ground to help voters and relay problems to our central offices so we can examine trends and alert the election officials of the problems. You will not be an election official, you will be the non-partisan citizen oversight of those officials from a distance.

In 2008 I was an election protection volunteer in Virginia and the experience gave me the reward of a patriotic pride of participation in our democratic process. As a grassroots election protection volunteer you will be a true participant in the process, without a partisan hat. However, if you so desire, you can put your partisan hat on, once you have taken off the Election Protection shirt, you must also however go to a different polling place than where you were volunteering.

Just a reminder, Election Day is November 6th and your participation in the grassroots poll monitoring program will require a commitment to work several hours on Election Day and to be trained to handle your role outside the polls before Election Day where you will be assigned to a polling place near you, or if you are available to one of the more contentious areas in the state. Spanish speaking individuals are especially desired.

Please sign up at this link TODAY.
http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/50015/p/salsa/web/questionnaire/public/?questionnaire_KEY=1297

The trainings will begin next week (NOVA: Saturday Oct 20th 10am-12pm or Friday Oct 26th 6-8pm) and we are trying to determine if we will require additional trainings, so please sign up as soon as possible. Do not hesitate to call or email if you have any questions prior to the trainings, but training info will be found on the electronic sign-up sheet at the link above and we will be in touch when you have signed up. I know you are busy with day-to-day responsibilities, so we will ensure that your time is truly appreciated and not wasted.

Regards,
Michael

Common Cause Student Fellow Opening

POSITION AVAILABLE: Student Fellow
LOCATIONS: VA
REPORTS TO: Youth Outreach Coordinator

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: Common Cause is seeking campus fellows with excellent organizing, outreach, communication and programming skills to assist in the implementation of our “Greater Cause” fellowship program in several states. Fellows will support Common Cause by working on campus to organize youth educational events and engage students in nonpartisan election activities. Fellows will also have the opportunity to assist with current Common Cause issue campaigns including but not limited to the issue areas of corporate accountability, money and politics, government accountability and election reform.

RESPONSIBILITIES: Assist in developing a campus outreach plan for your specific campus, help design and implement recruitment tactics to build a volunteer base on campus, serve as a liaison from your specific campus to Common Cause, execute a set number of “frappe n’ raps” in your community (informal coffee shop style discussion series), find creative ways to share policy information with peers, open and maintain communication between campus administration, organizations, faculty and Common Cause, and recruit volunteers for the national polling place participation program.

QUALIFICATIONS: Experience with organizing especially among Millennials; Basic writing skills; Any student in good standing is eligible and all majors are welcome. Fellows will receive a stipend. Course credit may be available depending on administrative rules and restrictions. Working knowledge of social media tools including Facebook and Twitter.

TO APPLY: Please submit resume, cover letter to Director of Human Resources at [email protected] & [email protected], and include VA STUDENT FELLOW in the subject line; or fax to 202.355.7546. No phone calls please. Applicants are encouraged to respond as soon as possible. For more information, please visit: www.commoncause.org.

Election Officers Needed for Fairfax County – Pays $100

Be an Election Day Officer in Fairfax County

Long lines at the polls. Confused voters with no one to help answer their questions. People leaving the polls without casting a ballot.

These scenes could be common in Virginia if an urgent need for election officers (also known as poll workers) is not met. Fairfax County is 500 election officers short, and the last training opportunity for election officers is Tuesday.

General Registrar Quinn has reached out to Common Cause and our coalition partners with strong warnings that the election officer shortfall is at a crisis stage. Let’s make it easy for all Virginians to vote on November 6.

To be an election officer, you must be a registered Virginia voter who does not work directly for an elected office holder.

Election officers can work a half or full day, and are paid about $100 for the day. You don’t need to be a resident of Fairfax County to sign up. If you can work, you can apply by calling: (703) 324-4735. More info at: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/elections/working.htm

Application: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/elections/training/eoapprev2012.pdf

If you have any questions, please contact Common Cause’s VA Election Protection Volunteer Coordinator, Michael Lore at [email protected].

Professors Alan Schroeder and Warren Decker examined the debating styles of President Obama and former Governor Mitt Romney, who were to meet the following evening for the first of three debates. White House correspondent Laura Meckler discussed the candidates’ preparation for the debates. Professor John Sides talked about the relevance of presidential debates. C-SPAN archival video from past presidential debates was shown.

Professor Schroeder participated by video link from Boston and Ms. Meckler and Professor Sides from the C-SPAN newsroom.