Across the country for the Fair Elections Now Act week of action, DM chapters have been showing Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?, a documentary about Jeff Smith, a political science professor at George Washington University in St. Louis, who ran for Richard Gephart's vacated House of Representatives seat in 2004. Facing strong opposition from a well-funded Democrat rival, Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore? shows how a political unknown used affective grassroots organizing to go up against a political dynasty. Below is an account of a Jeff Smith event from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, TX.
-Jordan Burghardt
“Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?” with Senator Jeff Smith
Thursday, April 10, 2007 at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas
On Thursday, April 10, 2008 Senator Jeff Smith filibustered a bill in the Missouri state senate for five hours and left the legislature just in time to make his plane to Dallas, Texas. Due to a delayed flight he arrived at Southern Methodist University in Dallas about 30 minutes into the documentary “Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?” which tells the story of his unsuccessful race in the Democratic primary to be a candidate for the US House of Representatives.
After the movie ended we raffled off some Campus Progress t-shirts and Jeff Smith took the floor. He first asked that everyone move closer to the front so he could talk without a microphone. He spoke very briefly about the role that money plays in politics and particularly about how it factored into his campaign and then took questions. There were twenty-three people in attendance, so we were able to have a fairly personal conversation with him. He is a great speaker- funny, receptive, very intelligent. We learned more details about his run for Congress as well as about his subsequent election to the Missouri State Senate.
A diverse group of students were in the audience. Our main cosponsor on campus was the Student Filmmakers Association. This was great because there were a lot of people in attendance who weren’t there to be political. The SMU Democrats, the University Honors Program, Spectrum (LGBT), the Association of Black Students, and the Political Science Symposium also cosponsored the event. Thursday is a tough night for an event as it is, but a lot of these organizations did not come out to support us. At the national summit in February we talked a lot about reaching out to other organizations and not just asking them to cosponsor. If you want another student group to really push for people to come to an event, then you need to attend their meetings and their events in turn. This is something our chapter of DM needs to keep in mind for next time. Nonetheless, we had a diverse group of students and were able to have a really interesting discussion with Jeff Smith. He was very open and told some extremely funny anecdotes about St. Louis politics.
DM and SFA members treated Jeff Smith to dinner and coffee at a local favorite, Café Brazil. The event did not end until 9:45 so we actually kept the Senator out until midnight! He was exhausted from a long day but so open and amiable. We were able to share our interests and learn about his. By the time we parted he knew all of our names and we all had his card. In fact, he gave his card to everyone who attended the event.
Ultimately, this event was smaller than I would have liked, but it was also one of our most successful. Last semester we had 70 people attend an event, but I feel like we did not make strong connections to Democracy Matters and what we do. This event had a much stronger message about the role that young people can play in politics and how much greater that role could be if it weren’t for certain aspects of institution politics like the focus on money. Plus I got to take home extra Jimmy John’s
sandwiches.
Southern Methodist University Democracy Matters Campus Coordinator
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