University of Virginia Library

YR's Stress Participation

By Rick Brownfield

'The politics of participation
was employed by the University
Young Republicans before Gene
McCarthy made national reference
to the phrase,' said Bill Thomson,
president of the University YR
club. This idea of active
involvement in the community
characterizes the program of the
club each year.

Last year the club participated
in numerous service projects in the
community and on the Grounds as
well as helping the senior
Republican party during regular
elections, voter registration, and
special elections.

The club, with other
organizations around the Grounds,
volunteered time and effort to the
Charlottesville-Albemarle Heart
Fund Drive in February of last
year. Bill Wright, past president of
the University club and present
state YR president, was one of
three county co-chairmen for the
drive. In addition, the club worked
with the Red Cross packing boxes
for soldiers in Vietnam.

However, as Anson Franklin,
executive secretary of the club,
stated, 'the major emphasis of
politics is winning elections,' With
this goal in mind, a rally and the
annual campaign workshop have
been planned and, in cooperation
with the senior party, time and
financial aid have been promised
for campaigning in the upcoming
elections.

The rally, scheduled for Sunday,
September 15, will be held in
Bonnycastle Dell. Refreshments
will be available. Designed to
acquaint first-year men with
activities and purposes of the club,
the rally will mark the beginning of
the fall campaign.

The campaign workshop on
October 12, which is being
sponsored by the University club
for the third year in a row, will
feature an address by Senator
Howard Baker of Tennessee who is
scheduled to speak at the banquet.
Julie Nixon and David Eisenhower
are tentatively scheduled to attend
the workshop. The seminars, which
will be lead by state and local
Republican officials, will cover all
phases of planning and conducting a
campaign. Delegate A. R. 'Pete'
Giesen, candidate for congress in
the 7th District, Mr. Sam
Carpenter, Republican state
chairman, and Charlottesville
Mayor G. A. Vogt are among those
slated to attend. Last year Maureen
Reagan was a guest at the
workshop.

In the past the club has
sponsored various Congressmen to
address the club and the public.
They also sponsored a debate
between an official representative
from the Rhodesian Information
office and a member of the law
school. Under the co-sponsorship of
the University club and the
Virginians for Conservative
government Paul Harvey presented
an address. The monthly
newsletter, the University
Republican, bridges the
information gap between members
and will provide a forum for
political debate during the year.

In a traditionally strong
democratic area, Republicans had
met with little success at the polls
in the past. However, the University
Young Republicans were part of a campaign in 1967 that led to the
first county Republican victory in
in recent history.

State and Regional YR
conventions are held each spring.
Mr. Franklin commented that
'party politics at these conventions
keeps student involvement in
political action at a high level and
gives each delegate a sound lesson
in practical politics.

The University club, with an
enrollment of more than 400 last
year and a projected membership of
600 during the 1968 election year,
is one of the largest YR
organizations in the state. At the
state convention in 1967, the first
vice-chairman, a national YR
committeeman, the 7th District
representative to the national
organization, and the college YR
state treasurer were elected from
the University delegation. In the
state convention of 1968 there
were no regular YR elections, but
the convention elected Mr. Wright
to state chairman.

In the forthcoming elections the
club will be campaigning for the
Nixon-Agnew ticket and will be
actively working with the senior
party in local races including that
of Delegate Giesen.

County in recent history. Mrs.
Shelby Marshall, elected to county
clerk, stated in a letter to the club
after the election that 'without the
help of this club it would not have
been possible to have the necessary
coverage at the precincts
throughout Albemarle County. . .'
University club members were
placed in charge of watching the
counting of ballots in seven
precincts comprising seventy per
cent of the votes cast.

In a special election held near
final exams last January to fill a
vacant seat in the Virginia House of
Delegates, Virginia YR's supplied
40 poll watchers and other
campaign workers. Kenneth Rogers,
who lost by a slim margin, wrote
that 'without your help (YR's) our
showing would not have been this
good.'

Later in the year during exams
in June, the University club again
was able to supply a significant
number of poll watchers and office
workers in a campaign that lead to
the election of Republican City
Councilmen Wright and Davis in
Charlottesville. Their election gave
the Republicans a 3 to 2 majority
in city council and consequently
lead to the election of Mayor Vogt.
Elected to city council in 1966,
Mayor Vogt became the first
Republican may or in Charlottesville