Picking Up From Where I Left Off

It seems funny now, but after documenting the last few weeks of what became a memorable and historic mid-term election I feared I wouldn’t have enough to write about for a post on the second half of my sophomore year…I was wrong.

First of all, I realized that apparently some people do in fact read this blog. My last post got picked up by a few local news outlets and I received some interesting emails from a diverse group of people about my last post.

The first week of my second semester I found myself with the Governor of New York for the third time that month. I had been asked if I would help the Governor’s office when he stops by the Hudson-Valley, and naturally his first stop was at Marist College…poetic really.

I found myself in a familiar place both literally and figuratively once again a camera draped around my neck at my college with a small group of volunteers. We were asked to go around and talk about the type of work we did. When we finished the representative from Cuomo’s office said, “We have over a hundred years of service and helping New Yorkers between us…I think we can get a few people in the doors to see the Governor.”

Working the doors was a lot more fun than I would ever have thought. I was ushering public officials I know and my college friends all in one big group. I often like the idea that I live two very different lives, one is rather political and the other is as a college student. Every now and then it appears I get some cross over. The Governor also sent me a signed letter thanking me for helping out.

I also got to see Assemblyman Marc Molinaro at the event. In my last post, I mentioned that Marc did not accept my Facebook friend request. Naturally within a few hours of that post going up he did accept my friend request. It is no secret that I am a Democrat and I lean to the left. However, I like Marc a lot and I think he has done a great job for his constituents and all of New York for that matter. I certainly don’t agree with Marc on a number of issues, but I think he is right for Dutchess County and will make a great County Executive.

I started work on Jon Sennett’s campaign for District Attorney in Ulster County. I launched his official Facebook page from my dorm room. Although this didn’t count as an official announcement, I have to wonder how many other college students can say they launched a county wide race from their dorm room. In 2007 when Jon first ran, I worked in his office. It was my first real summer job and my first introduction to anything political. I like to point out that I had been promised a job at a local bagel store that fell through and Jon offered me a job in his office. I wonder how different things would be if I worked in the bagel joint…I might have become a bagel prodigy! The world will never know I guess…

I got to attend a press conference held by Chuck Schumer also held on campus. What seemed like a calm and collected semester compared to my fall semester quickly changed in what literally was a matter of minutes…six to be exact.
It was Sunday, February 20^th and it seemed like a normal chilly day. I was appointed by the Student Body President to be elections commissioner for the school year. I guess he felt I knew a thing or two about elections.

This day in February was the deadline for petitions to be turned in to run in Marist’s elections. The deadline was at five and it was no secret that two candidates would be running for student body president and I happened to know both of them. As the deadline approached and the minutes ticked away I had only one candidate’s petitions in hand.

As the deadline drew near myself and other made frantic phone calls and sent text messages to the other candidate to remind him of the fast approaching deadline; then at 5:06 PM in he walked with his petitions and a large smile. The room had quickly filled with people to see if he would get there in time. I did what I was appointed to do. I saw to it that the candidates followed our Student Government Constitution and I didn’t accept his petitions. The deadline had clearly passed and it seemed like a no brainer to me.

The candidate didn’t think it was nearly as simple as I did though. Some felt that he was the more popular candidate. His running mate had been forced to return early from her semester abroad in Egypt due to the revolution (I can’t make this stuff up) and they had received some nice free press in the school paper for this. The candidate claimed his watch had been off, then he said he wasn’t sure what time they were due, and eventually it was because I liked the other candidate more. He felt that I ended the election over six minutes and a lot of his friends agreed. He appealed my decision to Marist’s judicial board which is made up of students. He felt that I had a biased and felt that I had not adequately informed the candidates of the due dates (despite the fact that everyone met the deadline but him). Never once, on that day or the days that followed did he take responsibility for being late.

For the first time in Marist College SGA history the elections were delayed by the administration so the judicial board could review the facts. I ended up meeting with Marist officials and doing interviews with the school paper and the chief justice at Marist College. In one meeting with administrators, I was told that the Marist by-laws made it possible for me to be removed as elections commissioner by the student body president and that he could then reinstate the candidate I had thrown out. I was told that changing my decisions would make the most parties happy. I ended up pointing out that I make tons of decisions that make some people unhappy. That I learned long ago that I need to make decisions because I know they are the right ones not because they will make some people happy. I found the question offensive, and I would be asked it from a multitude of people for days.

The discussions of the elections became a topic in class rooms and made the cover of the schools newspapers for two consecutive weeks. In the end the chief justice felt that there were no grounds for my decision to even go before the judicial board and the decision stood.

In response to the decision a number of my peers threatened to demonstrate at SGA events I would be attending. They called it No Choice No Voice Rallies. These were protests that I believe were meant to emulate the events in Egypt. Personally I felt it was sad to compare protests for Democracy to someone who couldn’t hand in paper work on time but that was just me. Naturally not a single protester showed up to the two planned demonstrations. A handful of students did show up in support of me. They carried signs that read, “We Protest the Protest.” They may not have mobilized in the flesh but they did turn to the internet. I got to read some not so flattering things about me on a blog or two, got a few threats, and a number of people changed their profile pictures to this lovely graphic…(I liked the graphic idea…but we will come back to that)Traditionally I have kept this blog positive and this story may not sound very positive. In fact some reading this may not think six minutes was worth it. I realize for someone my age, I have been asked to make a lot of tough decisions. Some of my choices have been chastised, applauded, made a paper or two, and even the local news. Yet, this was one of the most meaningful. Never before had there been so much social and personal pressure on a decision I made. I have felt that people may not agree with the things I say behind a board table but they sure respect it. I didn’t feel that this time around and it felt different when the people who were upset were-for once-all my age.

You see in this instance I had to take everything I had learned after May 19, 2009. The things I have written about on this blog as well as the things I choose not to write about and everything in between. I realize that this choice didn’t make the papers or the local news as some of my other endeavors have but it was a true test of everything I had learned and I’m damn proud of the choice I made. The right thing isn’t always the easy thing. It’s about as cliché of a phrase as you can get, it was nice to see that I could live it and in the end become stronger for it.

During that debacle I set up a forum that to my understanding has never been undertaken by a school district. I based it off a forum I went to in Garrison. Myself and a fellow school board member got Assemblyman Kevin Cahill, SUNY New Paltz’s Gerald Benjamin and Frank Mauro from the Fiscal Policy Institute to talk about the pros and cons about a bill sponsored by Kevin Cahill that would move the funding of schools from property tax to an income tax. Then we opened the discussion to the nearly one-hundred fifty people who came. It ended up making the cover of the New Paltz Times. It was sort of funny that I made the cover of two papers that represented two very different parts of my life at nearly the same time for two very different things.

I also got to lend a hand in the Mayor’s race in the Village of New Paltz. My friend Jason West ran for the seat that he held from 2003-2007. I will never forget when I ran for school board as a senior in high school I got a lot of media attention and the question I would always get asked was, “Are you the next Jason West…” It honestly annoyed me and without even knowing Jason then, I almost resented him just because of it. I just answered that I was more interested in being the first Daniel Torres then the next Jason West. The first time I met Jason was my election day which seemed so poetic. He was covered in paint and pulled me aside to talk about what it means to be a young elected official. Interestingly enough I have found that I ended up using a lot of the advice that Jason gave me that day. I got to retell that story for the first time at Jason’s kickoff fundraiser too.

I spent a good part of Election Day working the phones. The day before someone sent out a cowardly attack mailing asking people to “Vote Against Jason West.” The mailer came with too little time for Jason to respond to what were lies and it had no return address. I often like to take the unique experiences I have and use what I learn in other parts of my life. I felt that the whole No Choice No Voice thing spread quickly and was an effective campaign in some ways. I really liked how they created a graphic and tagged their friends in it. This spread the news like wild fire. So I decided that we should do the same thing in this campaign…and we did with this logo!In the end the voters of New Paltz responded to Jason’s many door knocks, his social networking outreach, and even an attack ad by electing Jason West and asking him to complete many of the jobs he started during his first term.
I got a chance to see Congressman Hinchey without my camera for the first time. I got to be a part of a panel discussion on what Congress could do for public schools. The panel was made up of ten or so Superintendents from schools all around the Hudson-Valley. I filled in for my Superintendent who couldn’t make it. It was a bit funny seeing some of the faces as I sat down at a table with people who all had more years in education then I have been alive…I have started to get used to seeing those type of faces though. After a great meeting with the Congressman I got to head down to New York City’s Town Hall to see President Barack Obama announce he is running for re-election.

I sat in line for well over an hour. The band The Roots opened for the President and they set the stage for what was a very exciting night. The President came on stage only hours after releasing his birth certificate. It is amazing to think that this is the second time I have seem President Obama and the second US President I saw during my sophomore year. This event was far different then the other times. The President responded to hecklers, addressed frustrations, and even pointed to a sign that had the famous Sheppard Fairy picture of him and responded, “That picture was never me…” Four days later the country felt a real jolt of Patriotism as the President announced that we had finally gotten Osama Bin Laden.

In the end the last six months were exciting and stressful; what college should be I suppose. I had the chance to learn a lot and use some of the skills I have learned both in and out of the classroom. It has been just over a week since my sophomore year ended and in that time I started work, passed a school budget, attended two graduations, saw Chuck Schumer, knocked on some doors with Jon Sennett, traveled to the city for work, and attended a few fundraisers in between. In many ways the school year ended just where it started. My sophomore year began with a surprise appearance by Pete Seeger at Marist and a number of elected officials joining him in singing This Land is Your Land and it ended with a surprise visit by Chuck Schumer at Marist. I began my summer by seeing President Obama at West Point and I started it again this year by seeing him in New York City. I guess I am just picking up from where I left off; and if history continues to repeat itself then I think it is safe to say I will have an exciting summer and maybe a few more stories to write about along the way.