Trip of a Lifetime

UTK College Democrats hit DC for President Barack Obama's inauguration.  The energy of the city was unbelievable.  The ceremony was beautiful and truly inspirational.  It was an experience I know none of us will ever forget.  We even ran into Knoxville's Mayor Madeline Rogero!  Our trip was a great way to kick off the new year and semester.  There are only great things to come.  Four more years!

Voter Registration!

         (pictured above: our president Jennifer Baldwin counting voter registration forms)


The presidential election is creeping up on us, and like the Obama campaign, UTK College Democrats are showing no sign of slowing down.  This past week, we registered more than 400 college students to vote!  Several members of UTK College Democrats, camped out on pedestrian walkway (on campus) from 9:00 am - 5:00 pm last Friday, to get the word out about registration.  We are hard at work getting ready for a second term with President Obama and also hot on the local campaign trail as well.  Many members of UTK College Democrats have also been working on the campaign of Gloria Johnson (State House District 13).

Check out our Facebook page for more information on our events and ways to get involved!

College Debate

College Democrats participated in a debate last Wednesday, April 4th, with two representatives from College Republicans, and We the People (a Libertarian group on campus).  Andy Vickers, our president, and Hunter Threet, our treasurer, represented us in the debate.  The debaters tackled topics ranging from social issues, foreign policy, and more.  Congratulations to Andy and Hunter for an excellent performance!

Left to Right: Andy Vickers (second) and Hunter Threet (third)

A Special Guest

We Were honored to have Mayor Madeline Rogero attend our meeting last Monday, as she celebrated her 100th day in office.  Mayor Rogero gave us a brief overview of her experience working for Governor Bill Haslam (former mayor of Knoxville) and her big plans for Knoxville's future.  Mayor Rogero expressed she has seen many monumental changes take place since she began working in Knoxville around 20 years ago and is working to keep the momentum going.  Mayor Rogero said her biggest goal coming into office was to assemble the right team for the job (a team with balanced personalities and skills), and now that she has assembled her dream team, tackling issues like budgeting, land preservation and more.

Mayor Rogero shared with us one project in particular that she is excited about.  Working with the Legacy Parks Foundation, she is hoping to make Knoxville and surrounding areas in eastern Tennessee, a more beautiful place.  Sustainability and preservation are her goals.  Eastern Tennessee is a great place for recreational outdoor activities and she wants people to be more engaged.  There are plans to open an outdoor adventure center that will provide all the information one would need to explore the area and rentals of the equipment needed as well.  A website has been launched, OutdoorKnoxville.com, that also provides information about outdoor recreation.  The site provides everything you would need to know.  It provides information on where to go, different outdoor exploration events, interest groups for different activities, and a general overview of all outdoor recreation Knoxville has to offer. 

It sounds like Mayor Rogero is off to a great start.  We were thrilled to have her at our meeting and are excited to see what's in store for Knoxville's future. 

CDA Conference

The spring semester is in full swing and we have hit the ground running.  What's next for UTK's College Democrats?  We will be headed to the Windy City for the 2012 Winter CDA (College Democrats of America) Conference.  The conference takes place on March 9th though the 10th.  This is an awesome opportunity that will provide our members with training sessions hosted by CDA and for the first time, YDA (Young Democrats of America).  With the 2012 elections around the corner, this opportunity to join forces with other Democrats is very important.  We are ready to fight and keep Obama in office!

Congratulations Mayor Rogero!

Fellow Democrats,

Today is a truly historic day in the city of Knoxville. Madeline Rogero, a long-time friend of the UTK College Democrats, was elected mayor. She is the first woman ever elected to the office of the Mayor in Knoxville and the first female Mayor elected to one of the major cities in the state of Tennessee (She was also endorsed by the UTK College Democrats back in the spring semester).

Knoxville can be proud of itself today. The future is bright in Knoxville.

The UTK College Democrats would like to thank Mark Padgett as well. He was a strong democrat and represented himself and this city with class and dignity. He too has been a great friend to the College Democrats and we hope this is not the last time we see his name on a ballot.

One last shout out to Finbarr Saunders; congratulations on your well deserved victory and we can't wait to see all the great things you will do on the City Council.

On behalf of all the College Democrats, we would like to thank every candidate who ran on a Democratic platform for representing the party with class and making us proud to be Democrats. Turning a conservative area blue is a challenge and it doesn't happen overnight, but you helped advance our purpose more than you will ever know. Thank you: Bill Owen and Gloria Johnson.

Until Next Time,

Vote Democrat

Phonebanking, Fundraising, and Voter Registration

Fellow Democrats,

Sorry for the latest hiatus, but lets be honest it isn't like you all are following this blog religiously anyway. So, in case you've missed out on our latest endeavors, we have had a couple of meetings and have been busy trying to get the information out about the city election. We put on a full court press to register as many students as we could for the city elections before the deadline passed and we successfully registered nearly 100 voters along with the College Repubs.

In addition to that, the Knox County party declared First Friday "College Dems Day" and we were able to bring in quite a bit from fundraising that will allow us to order over 60 shirts to be ready before the election!

Along those line, the attendees were very kind to us and asked if we could help phonebank for Gloria Johnson's State Senate campaign (free food provided) and we accepted. We made over 1000 phone calls in a 3 hour time frame and we got a free meal out of it so it worked out well for us.

Stay tuned for an updated calendar of events as soon as we get around to it and keep watch on facebook as that is where we spend most of our time advertising events.

And lastly, just a reminder that we have t shirts and to qualify for a free shirt, you must have been present for at least 3 of our events (we have had a lot of them and we have a record of who was at what).

That's it! Until next time,

Vote Democrat!