News

Politics and Pizza!

February 1, 2010 – 9:55 pm — Comments (0)

Come join the Penn Democrats for this semester’s first Pizza and Politics! Meet the new board, learn about upcoming events, get involved, and eat FREE ALLEGROS PIZZA!!!

Where: JMHH G55

When: Wednesday, February 3rd 7:30 - 8:30 pm

Allegro Pizza

Congressman Joe Sestak at Penn!

January 24, 2010 – 2:28 pm — Comments (0)

Come listen to Congressman Joe Sestak, Democratic candidate for the US Senate in 2010, speak in the Hall of Flags at Houston Hall from 7-8pm on Monday, January 25th! Don’t miss this opportunity to hear what this candidate has to say.

Joe Sestak at Penn

Note: this event does not imply any endorsement by the Penn Democrats

Phone Bank for Martha Coakley!

January 17, 2010 – 2:57 am — Comments (0)

Martha Coakley is running for Senate in a special election to fill the late Ted Kennedy’s seat in MA. The election will be held on Tuesday, and current polls show the race is close. The outcome of this race will determine the fate of health care reform and other Democratic policy agendas, as it puts our 60-seat super-majority in jeopardy.

Please help us out by participating in a phone bank on MONDAY to encourage Massachusetts voters to elect Coakley. You have 3 options and two don’t even involve getting out of bed!

1. Phone bank with Penn Dems at 4:30 - script, numbers, etc provided by Organizing for America; snacks provided by Penn Dems

2. Go to www.barackobama.com and sign up to make calls at home. Follow the instructions and do your part without getting out of bed!

3. See the instructions below, sent by the College Democrats of America, on how to phone bank. Make calls from your bed but read the instructions carefully first! And remember to transfer people to the help desk (option 6) if they do not know their polling locations!

To get started, you will call 1-877-490-5608. You will hear a short explanation of the system. After the tutorial, you will be asked to “Authenticate Yourself.”

Your Agent ID is: 1016635
Your PIN is: 2010

As soon as you have entered your PIN, you will be placed in queue while the system dials and searches for live voters on the other end.

When a voter is located, you will hear a beep. HAVE YOUR SCRIPT READY–THE BEEP MEANS A VOTER IS ON THE LINE AND HAS ALREADY SAID “HELLO.”

When you have finished the call, stay on the line and enter the number that best corresponds to the result of the call. The options are:

1 - Will vote for Martha and bring others
2 - Will vote for Martha
3 - May vote
4 - Not a supporter
5 - Refused/Hung up
6 - Transfer to the Help Desk.

The help desk option is for people who do not know where their polling place is, or who have specific questions for the campaign. You can also direct them to pollingplaces.democrats.org to find their voting location.

Once you have finished the call and entered the appropriate number, you will be placed back in the queue until another voter is found, and that’s it!

Occasionally, the predictive dialer will accidentally connect you with an answering machine or bad number. The instruction sheet has information on how to code those calls as well.

Our 2010 Executive Board

December 1, 2009 – 9:45 pm — Comments (0)

Congratulations to our 2010 Executive Board:

President — Emma Ellman-Golan
Vice President — Elizabeth Celata
Events Director — Benjamin Lopez
Political Director — David Aron
Community Outreach Director — Kalina Francis
Communications Director — Michael Morse
Membership Director — Beryl Sanders
Treasurer — Jake Shuster
Legislative Director — Isabel Friedman

PennDems 2010 Board Elections

November 28, 2009 – 7:31 pm — Comments (0)

Board Elections will take place on Tuesday, December 1st at 8:00PM in JMHH G65.

Read More »

US PIRG Recruiting

November 8, 2009 – 11:24 pm — Comments (0)

To Whom it May Concern,

I hope your semester is off to a great start.  I’m writing on behalf of U.S. PIRG, the federation of State Public Interest Research Groups. You may be familiar with PennPIRG.  As a recent graduate from Penn, I am writing to ask for your help in identifying graduating seniors who might be interested in career opportunities with our organization.

U.S. PIRG is a nation-wide network of state-based public interest advocacy groups.  This year we are hiring over 100 graduating college students to determine where this country is going; to reform our broken health care system; to make college more affordable; to work for more and better public transportation options; and make an impact on many other public interest issues.  America faces daunting challenges, but at U.S. PIRG we believe that solutions are within reach. We’ve never been more confident that by working together we can tackle these challenges head on.  After graduating from Penn, I got my start with U.S. PIRG in the fellows program at the end of this Summer.  I am now working as U.S. PIRG’s transportation associate out of our Boston office and work on our national campaign strategy and program work on transportation policy, budget transparency, and privatization.

I am making a visit to campus on Tuesday, November 10 and the day of November 11 to conduct interviews and promote our job opportunities.  I would appreciate your help in any way.  We’ve received help from other faculty and student leaders by forwarding our job announcement on listservs, posting our job posting on department bulletin boards, and making suggestions of qualified candidates. Please let me know if you would be willing to help in any of these ways.

Thanks in advance for your support!

Write for the Penn Political Review

November 2, 2009 – 12:32 pm — Comments (0)

Become a blogger for the Penn Political Review.

Read More »

Race and Grassroots Organizing in the Age of Obama

November 1, 2009 – 8:29 pm — Comments (0)

Unity Week 2009 Keynote: “Race and Grassroots Organizing in the Age of Obama” by Princeton Professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell

Wednesday 11/4, 6:30-8 in Cohen Hall G17
*Follow-up discussion on Thursday 11/12, 8-9pm in Huntsman 265!

Read More »

Wharton Energy Conference: Generation Energy

October 29, 2009 – 12:41 am — Comments (0)

This may be relevant to our members with interests in environmental and energy policy issues:

Wharton Energy Club invites you to the 3rd Annual Wharton Energy Conference: Generation Energy, on October 30, 2009 at The Union League of Philadelphia.

Read More »

Rally Against the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

October 29, 2009 – 12:32 am — Comments (0)

Our friends at the Penn Environmental Group pass along the following message about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Tom Donohue’s upcoming appearance in Philadelphia and on campus on Friday.


1) Rally against U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Friday at 12pm-1pm, 1200 Market Street.
2) CEO of the Chamber, Tom Donohue is coming to Huntsman Hall, Friday at 1:30. We will prepare pointed questions ahead of time, blend in as regular attendees, and if called upon will confront him on the Chamber’s anti-climate policy (known as bird-dogging).  The more of us there are the better chances we’ll be called upon!

If you are at all interested in either event, and want more details (how we are getting there, what are questions will be), PLEASE email me at zacharyabell@gmail.com.
Read More »