Can Mr. Smith Get to Washington Anymore?

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.

Cody Meador
Southern Methodist University Democracy Matters Campus Coordinator

Lies! Corruption! Special Interests! "The Best Government Corporate Money Can Buy"

An Evening with Gore Vidal & Sonali Kolhatkar

On April 2nd, Los Angeles Valley College Democracy Matters chapter
sponsored a one on one live interview with the legendary Gore Vidal.
Gore Vidal is a prolific American novelist, playwright, and essayist,
one of the great stylists of contemporary American prose, who has been
active in politics. As an essayist Vidal has dealt with a wide range of
subjects from literary to issues of national interest, and people he has
known. Vidal has been pointedly controversial in American politics.  The
event, co-sponsored by Campus Progress and CALPIRG, attracted an
audience of more than 100 people.  Vidal was interviewed by Sonali
Kolpaar from KPFK's (Pacifica radio) morning show, "Uprising".  Sonali
recorded the interview and played it on her radio show.

There was a question and answer session at the end of the interview, and
many campus and community organizations tabled at the event.  Following
the Gore Vidal interview was a powerpoint presentation on clean money.
The Democracy Matters student coordinator, Andrea Barrera, and a
representative of CALPIRG presented the power point together.  They made
a great connection between corruption and special interests, bringing
the awareness of clean money to their campus.  The students that
attended the event received extra credit from their professors, and many
of the other attendees heard about the event on Sonali's (the
interviewer) radio show.  Democracy Matters and CALPIRG teamed up to do
press releases.

The student coordinator, Andrea Barrera, started planning the event two
months in advance, and it took persistance to convince Gore Vidal that
the event was worth it, but she DID IT!  Andrea started meeting with
other student organizations about one month before the event to find out
who would be able to co-sponsor, as well as inform their membership.
The event was an incredible success! 

Father Simon Harek Event , "The Global War on Terror" at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

On Wednesday, April 2nd, Father Simon Harek from Marquette University's Center for Peace Studies spoke to about 55 people at UWM. Cosponsored by Democracy Matters and Progressive Students of Milwaukee, Simon Harek spoke about the relationship between corporations, special interest groups and private donors, the Bush Administration, and the Iraq War.

Harek theorized that war profiteers have always been businesses from the private sector who profit off the US going to war. For example, during WWII, dress shops that begin making uniforms to support the troops and also made a profit off of it as a byproduct. However, special interest groups now have such a large influence OVER, and a strong investment IN, the US' foreign policy, they are now attempting to MAKE WAR FOR A PROFIT INSTEAD. Harek further theorized that his is leading to essentially a corporate takeover of Iraq.

After the speech the audience wanted to know ways they could help change this. I spoke about the importance of having our US Representatives and Senators support the Fair Elections Now Act, and discussed how ridding elections of private donors and special interest groups will make our politicians more accountable to their constituents, and not those who fund their campaigns.

Jordan Burghardt
Democracy Matters Field Organizer