Penn Democrats in the New York Times!

In Philadelphia, a Democratic Student Group at Penn Bucks the Powers That Be

By ASHLEY PARKER
Published: April 18, 2008
PHILADELPHIA — For a bunch of college students, they hang around with a pretty powerful crowd.

There is Gov. Edward G. Rendell, who likes to show up on campus and work with the University of Pennsylvania Democrats on political events.

And there is Mayor Michael Nutter, who has credited the campus political group with helping to lift him out of a crowded field of candidates in 2007.

And Representative Patrick J. Murphy, who was elected in 2006 as part of the new Democratic Congressional majority after members of the group traipsed to the suburbs to knock on doors for him.

But for this election the student group, known as the Penn Dems, finds itself out of synch with some of the biggest names in Pennsylvania Democratic politics. On March 5, the group, which has a list of 3,258 students, out of a student body of nearly 20,000, endorsed Senator Barack Obama in the state’s primary. Mr. Rendell and Mr. Nutter support Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Among the ruptured relationships that will have to be healed after a Democratic presidential nominee emerges — Mrs. Clinton’s army of fervent women, Mr. Obama’s increasingly anti-Hillary supporters — there may also be the sibling rivalry in the formerly cordial alliance of students and politicians here in the City of Brotherly Love.

The Penn Dems said their endorsement of Mr. Obama reflected the wishes of the greater Penn community (although The Daily Pennsylvanian, the student newspaper, endorsed Mrs. Clinton on Thursday, which her campaign noted in an e-mail message).

They said they understood that their support for Mr. Obama would “put them at odds” with Mr. Rendell and Mr. Nutter, both alumni of the university.

“But the truth is that all of us — Rendell, Nutter, Penn Dems — will align behind the nominee, whoever it is,” said Lauren Burdette, 20, the president of the Penn Dems. “I think everybody understands that when we endorse a candidate, we endorse someone who we think is in line with our beliefs as a progressive group of young college students.”

There appear to be no hard feelings. Mr. Rendell’s office did not return calls for a comment, but a spokesman for Mr. Nutter said “he has a tremendous amount of respect for the Penn Dems and the work they did, and he doesn’t feel a difference in opinion is the end of a meaningful relationship by any means.”

The Penn Dems gave Mr. Nutter his first endorsement when he started running for mayor. When he runs into Penn students, he often asks them two questions: Do you know who was the first group to endorse me for mayor? Do you know which newspaper was the first to endorse me? (The Daily Pennsylvanian.)

The Penn Dems also supported Mr. Murphy, who was an underdog in his Congressional race, and knocked on 15,000 doors on his behalf. He won the election by fewer than 1,600 votes.

Mr. Murphy, who said the Penn Dems helped with all aspects of his campaign, said he had talked to them about why he thought “Barack Obama should be our next commander in chief.”

So was he happy with the Obama endorsement?

“I think it was a courageous move,” he said. “They’re going against the Clinton machine by endorsing Barack Obama, and against the governor and the mayor of the city where they go to school.”

Ms. Burdette called the Obama campaign the night of the endorsement to let it know of their decision, and Mr. Obama’s Web site bragged about it the next day in a blog entry.

The Penn Dems, working with UPenn for Obama, another campus group, are now throwing all their support behind their candidate, canvassing, operating phonebanks, registering voters and organizing events.

The Penn campus is typically a center of political activity, but it has been buzzing during this primary campaign, with a CNN bus parked nearby and “The Colbert Report” being broadcast from there this week.

The candidates and their surrogates have all paid visits, as have the stars who support them. An Obama event on campus Monday featured Kal Penn (the actor who played Kumar in “Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle” and who now teaches in the Asian American studies program at Penn) and the singer John Legend (a Penn alumnus).

Amelia Bailey, a sophomore who is the communications director for the Penn Dems, said the group did not hear from Mr. Rendell after its endorsement but said “so as far as we know our relationship is still strong.”

Ms. Bailey said the group was concerned about how Mr. Nutter would feel but had not heard anything from his office either.

She giggled, adding hopefully, “So that’s good.”