MU College Republicans focus on involvement

New Chairman Brett Dinkins pledged to work with MU College Democrats.

By Will Guldin

Published April 2, 2009

The main focus of most candidates running for officer positions this week in the MU College Republicans was maintaining election year levels of involvement and membership.

The group held its elections for 2009 offices Wednesday night in the A.P. Green Chapel and made preparations for the upcoming Missouri College Republicans Conference on Saturday.

The event, which will be held at MU, will feature prominent Republican politicians from Missouri, including Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo., and former state treasurer Sarah Steelman, who is a possible candidate for the Senate seat being vacated by U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., in 2010. The event begins at noon.

At the meeting Wednesday the organization elected Brett Dinkins, a freshman who ran unopposed, as the new chairman. He will succeed sophomore Jonathan Ratliff.

The election for vice chairman resulted in a tie between Eric Hobbs and Jorell Kuttenkuler. Hobbs, who is graduating December 2009, will serve as vice chairman for the first semester of the year, and Kuttenkuler, who will be working alongside Hobbs in an unofficial role, will take the seat once Hobbs graduates.

In other election results, Matt Sheppard was elected treasurer, and Megan Roberts was elected the new secretary, both of whom ran unopposed.

Janie Gibson beat Chelsea Maltagliati in a close race for the position of vice chairwoman of social affairs.

Two of the biggest goals for incoming officers were maintaining membership levels and increasing outreach projects in the community.

"My personal goals, are we want to maintain membership," Kuttenkuler said. "1,800 members is a huge amount of people, that's 1,700 more than we had last year. I want to maintain that. A lot of people say that is impossible since it isn't an election year. Maybe they're right, I don't believe so."

Hobbs said more recruitment activities would be necessary to increase participation in the College Republicans.

"I think all of us feel there are a lot of conservatives and Republicans on campus who either don't know we exist or an intimidated by the stigma of the liberal college campus and won't speak out or just kind of brag about their beliefs," Hobbs said. "So one of our biggest goals is to reach out to those people with tables at Speakers Circle."

Hobbs said activities aimed at increasing membership and involvement that are held now would pay dividends during election years because the organization would have a larger base of volunteers to draw from for campaign related activities.

Dinkins said one way to encourage membership and involvement would be to branch out to other groups.

"The College Republicans have, what I would argue, not exactly the greatest name on campus, because people see Republicans as hardcore conservatives who have no respect for anything besides white Christians and things like that," Dinkins said. "My goal for this year is going to be to branch out to other organizations such as Sustain Mizzou, Allies in Action, Legion of Black Collegians, organizations that the College Republicans wouldn't normally be seen working with and find some common ground."

Dinkins said the College Republicans worked with the MU College Democrats on a service project to help harvest beans for an area farmer. He said there are plans to try and do similar service projects with the MU College Democrats, and he said some more relaxed activities, such as casual athletic events between the two clubs might take place.

Dinkins said working with the College Democrats was important, because after such a competitive campaign season, it is easy for hard feelings to persist. He said these activities would help foster a good relationship that would remain constant, even through election cycles.