2008 Woodie Awards
Spotlight on the Colby Republicans
Chelsea Eakin
Issue date: 4/13/07 Section: Features
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The Colby Republicans are a chapter of the Maine College Republicans, a group which itself has grown in the past few years. "There was a massive restructuring in '02-'03," said Kettell, who serves as the Communications Director for the Maine College Republicans. "This year one area we've improved in even further is that we hired five field representatives for elections...but the basic footing has been there for the past year."
Betz and Kettell have made an effort to reorganize the Colby Republicans since taking charge of the club in the spring of 2006. As first-year students, Betz and Kettell said it took them a considerable amount of searching to find that there was a conservative club on campus. "When we did find the club, we found just a few people discussing constitutional details, not pursuing any active membership or election-related participation, and with broken ties to the Maine College Republicans, our parent organization," Betz said.
The majority of active members this year are first-year students. "I joined Colby Republicans because I was looking to find other people with conservative views," Victoria Gonzalez '10 said. "And I was pleasantly surprised to find how active the club is." Upperclassmen have also become more active with the club. "This year I have become very involved with the Colby Republicans," Brad Cantor '08 said. "I would attribute my increased involvement this year to the club's outstanding management, organization and member enthusiasm which has been strong throughout the year."
"I think the campus was ready for something like this," said Betz, who approximates that around 30 percent of the student body have conservative leanings. "A lot of moderate students slightly left of center come up to us and eventually join because they feel the campus is and has been so far left in the past that they want to do something about that," Kettell said. "It's not just conservatives that have been embracing [the club], it's been moderates who want to bring balance back to the campus."
With last fall being election season, the club was more active than usual, holding organized club meetings every two weeks and helping candidates through phone banks and literature drops on a regular basis. The relationship between the College Democrats and the College Republicans saw some tension during election season, though for the most part the two clubs keep to themselves. "It's Colby College, none of us are running for office, we try and keep it as civil as possible," College Democrat and Communications Director for the Maine College Democrats Josh Handelman '07 said. The leaders of both clubs occasionally debate face-to-face on the weekly FOX television show "Youth in Politics," filmed in Portland. As of January, the Colby Democrats have taken on the main leadership roles within the Maine College Democrats, a group which according to Handelman has generally been run by Bowdoin College students in the past. Henry Beck '09 and Chris Appel '08 serve as President and Vice President of the Maine College Democrats, respectively, and Merle Eisenberg '07 serves as Political Affairs Director.
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