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Show Students run convention and Mike Hansen. Hansen became be-came the permanent chairman of the caucus, more or less by default. de-fault. This meeting listened to the four candidates for the two-year two-year county commission seat; the lone candidate for the four-year commission seat; two of the three men running for the Second Congressional District nomination; and about a dozen people running for the state legislature. McGovern jh V..., III ''f llife- : lit j;i . ..... .si I 4 i somewhat. What this process boiled down to was everyone writing up his own pet peeve or special project into a platform amendment, and the students then voting on it. Some of them were important. Most of them were not. They ranged from better housing for migrants to ending the Vietnamese war to disarming off-duty police officers. Oftentimes it seemed the students were trying to write the Constitution or a law, not a platform. Much of the debate was over trivialities. And they lost sight of the fact that a platform is a noble statement of party purpose and, as such, is ignored by the candidates, the press and the electorate. The essential hollowness of the platform was revealed in 1968 when Arthur Schlesinger urged Robert F. Kennedy to fight for a Vietnam peace plank in the Democratic platform. Kennedy's reponse was to the point: "Arthur, when was the last time millions of people rallied behind a plank?" Probably the only practical use of the platform is as a club for the other party on extremely controversial positions (sex, abortion, drugs)-and drugs)-and these were the planks the students wanted to liberalize. If Participation 70 showed :hat students can wield a great deal of power in Utah politics, ".hen perhaps Participation '72 ihowed that, like their more eiperienced elders, students are ilso capable of pomposity, Jealism, manipulation and itelligence. We followed the student cau- of the county and state Democratic conventions for two eeks. If politics is a reflection "i a magnification of unkind, good and bad, then we s politics. University students elected as Agates to the party con-wions con-wions at the voting district s meetings May 15 were :cted and asked to attend Went caucuses" in the Union 4 Steve "Philo" Johnson, the Jaocratic co-chairman of ;Ws Legislative Relations m.ttee and of Participation 1 ''. estimated that some 170-200 ,;!! had been elected to the legate Sat Lake County j Jnuicratic Convention and :rs to the Davis County eon. Obviously, students e 8g to be quite in-,, in-,, 'Jal-if they organized. ' Open caucus i' first meeting of the tic students was on June u, , 50 legates attending , m to open membership to iJ'ates, to endorse can-and can-and positions by majority ' W for amendments to 2 tfonn d to select Diane I Th as temporary chairman. "7 Wne 8) and elected C to mobilize the gtui Curtis L , 'Ce Pres' ve to? Aa 'sence rep-dr rep-dr , , he ASUU Assem- But the real interest seemed to be in Sen. George McGovern, and the students broke up their own meetings so they could attend a caucus for McGovern delegates in OSH. From here on out, it was evident that the students were torn between forming a genuinely independent Student Caucus and integrating into the more-inclusive more-inclusive McGovern caucus; the tension continued through the state convention a week and a half later. Already, it was clear that Salt Lake County Democrats had gone heavily for McGovern in their mass meetings. In the wake of McGovern's success in the California primary, local politicians were beginning to scramble aboard the McGovern bandwagon. Dr. Charles Nabors, assistant professor of anatomy at the University and head of the McGovern campaign in Utah, admonished the delegates not to botch George's chances for Utah's 19 delegates to the Democratic National Convention. Afterwards he did the unheard-of for a Utah politician-he smoked a cigarette in public. The students reassembled at Carpenter's Hall on Saturday morning before the start of the county convention. They wanted to liberalize the platform soon it was easy to see who was running the county convention. The students. The convention scene resembled a combination of several political science classes and a reunion of old ASUU'ers. Classmates, friends, professors everywhere. The students, surprisingly, considering the caucuses, were better organized and better prepared than anybody else, and when Steve Holbrook's amendment condemning con-demning Kennecott's air pollution passed 417-174. everybody knew who was in the driver's seat. The Pill Everything the students wanted was passed. Until, that is, a proposal for free county-run birth control clinics came up. There were cries from the older delegates of "I don't want my daughters to have this information" in-formation" and a lot ofemotion built up on both sides. This passed 341-221, and was followed (continued on page 5) lT. No self-control The whips tried to control things, but the caucus was hopeless. Once they began they couldn't finish. But eventually they settled upon 15 draft amendments, although they could not settle or come to any consensus on the two-year commission seat and refused to endorse anyone. The convention opened with speeches by Gov. Rampton and Pierre Salinger. The action began with the platform debate. And Students show idealism and manioutation" continued mm -T rather mysterious "McGov- rus" (called to avert a pro-Sana pro-Sana plank) which merely Sded in confusing people, hen the meeting reconvened inn was made and passed to ,BS the birth control 'fn After a lengthy hassle ' the rules, county chairman ?t Moore called for a voice vote S the plank; he ruled t lost and the birth control 1 would stay. Then student J Sorensen instinctively called f, division of the house even Lh the students had won He Sgto retract it, but couldn't. I vote to strike the amend-1 amend-1 t was 210-209, and the dents suffered their only Lfeatofthe day. By the way, the .j county health department operates three birth control clinics. Deceit and manipulation , . :.. ,. f voue on endorsements of candidates. can-didates. Wayne Owens was favored overwhelmingly the vote for auditor was split and indecis.ve. Mrs. Jean Westwood was endorsed for Democratic National Committeewoman (and so nation delegate); and McGovern was endorsed with 63 votes and only five in opposition Surprisingly, Rampton was denied the 51 percent vote needed for an endorsement; the students voted 28 for him, 20 for Mrs Darling and 18 abstained. Anyone over thirty Then the caucus turned to endorsing a slate from Salt Lake County to the Democratic National Convention. The whips suggested picking four under 30 and two 30 and over. Thirty-year-old Steve Holbrook corrected this to"Four people thirty and under and two over thirty." Nominations Nomina-tions were made, trying to balance bal-ance male and female rmoM,. was defeated on a decisive voice vote and students called for a show of hands, Price withdrew exacerr,116111 rather th exacerbate tensions Amnesty perhaps better than any shows the student attitude to the platform. The draft plank already called for amnesty" but tired to moderate it somewhat by adding certain conditions. The students, desiring to be ideologically pure, pushed for unconditional amnesty while older party leaders spoke in homed tones 0f what the Republicans would have to say about "legalizing desertion in wartime" in November. Wayne Owens thought if such a plank passed he would have to ignore it Ine McGovern people didn't want to present their man as a radical, and wanted the platform toned down. But the students wanted to be right even if it meant losing an election or two I during the Eisenhower Administration, Ad-ministration, while he was stilll a second-term congressman from South Dakota. Anticlimax At last, at 3 a.m., the caucus voted on delegates and decided to finish business at 8 Saturday morning. The morning caucus was utter chaos. The students' candidates (5 of 6) had been elected probably because the students were the only people awake during the voting at 2:45 a.m. but the labor people were mad because their man, Jack Anderson, An-derson, had lost. To settle their hurt feelings, the McGovern caucus asked for someone to resign so Anderson could be placed on the slate. Salt Lake County, students and non-students, non-students, balked. After all, it had been a fair election. A lot of emotion was remain after the convention. (1) Had the students lost McGovern five or six delegate votes? (2) What was the role of Steve Holbrook in the student caucus? and (3) Was the student caucus successful enough to be continued con-tinued in 1974? Longhair hippies Leonard McGee, chairman of Students for McGovern on campus, feels the students were a kiss of death. "They didn't think of the election they ignored the rest of the state. In one move (rejecting Anderson) they destroyed six months' work" of the McGovern campaign. "They don't realize we need the unions, we need Rampton, we need Moss, to win the election. The student caucus thinks it's more important im-portant than the rest of this country." Steve Johnson, however, disagrees. "The fact that the only After tms lmpieaoivc omyw length at the county conation, con-ation, the students reassembled on Tuesday the 13th ill prepare for the state conation. con-ation. County chairman Moore explained his decisions on the iirth control vote, trying to ippease some student anger, five additional whips Steve philo" Johnson, Diane Contos, Meg Fuller, Patrice Jensen and Dick Bowden were chosen to dp run the student caucus at he Salt Palace that weekend. Steve Holbrook, Salt Lake's in token "radical" and former :ity commission candidate, oraplained about a don't-rock-ie-boat letter from the McGov- tion. The "young" chosen were Dianne Orr, Bonnie Snedeker, Mike Hansen and Steve Holbrook Hol-brook (Snedeker and Hansen the students); the older folks were Bob Moore and McGovern staffer Frances Farley. For alternates the students chose two young and four old: Meg Fuller, Fred Dedrick (students), Justin Stewart, Jack Anderson (of the elctrical workers), Rep. Millie Oberhansley Bernard (majority whip of the state house and author of last winter's tuition freeze) and Marie Darling. Three candidates for at-large delegates were also endorsed: Steve "Philo" Johnson. Susan Bridges student from the student caucus slate withdrew so that a labor representative could have his seat should, if anything, show that students and labor are capable of working together for a political victory." Johnson and McGee agree that the platform debates did little to stir up animosity against McGovern. A delegate from Utah County, M ax Shifrer, rejected the "antagonism" "an-tagonism" thesis. "I think the students are doing a good job" he said in mid-convention. "They're knowledgeable and they're willing to speak up." Other delegates from southern counties seemed to be happy with the way things went. Mike Hansen feels "the :leir "deceit and manipulation" d said Chuck Nabors was ad-picking a national delegate :ale without any students (they ally weren't, apparently), which Jie caucus should oppose. The aucus agreed and passed a reso-ition reso-ition affirming its independence I the McGovern people. Then we heard from Marie Ming, a welfare mother barred Si running for governor by the -ig fee. She soon became the dents' sentimental favorite. wanted to prove their alism, their opposition to li Establishment, and their cposition to some of Rampton's :tions (especially on the wonment)-so they latched Mrs. Darling. Governor Pton "dropped by" late in evening and answered ns quite professionally, II the students still felt fining for likable Mrs. ; So what if she didn't ;i,e a chance of beating P'on for the nomination? i (students) and Chuck Nabors. The caucus finally ended at 11 p.m., after 4-12 hours of talk, debate, windbaggery and general pomposity. The State Democratic Convention Con-vention did not begin until 6 on Friday afternoon, but- things started rolling at 3 with a caucus of McGovern delegates in the Salt Palace Little Theater. Chuck Nabors again asked people not to spoil it at the last minute. The air was full of apocalyptic statements such as "1972 is the last chance we have for meaningful change in this country." Political expediency The students met after this caucus and after a lot of debate on possible platform changes decided to submit six "important" "im-portant" amendments on the floor covering tenant rights, water resources, testing at Dugway, job safty, women's riehts and amnestv. The platform debate finally ended at 11:15. The night was not yet over, however; the McGovern people wanted to select nominees for national delegates. This caucus began inauspiciously Chuck Nabors spent an hour repeating what he had said at the 3 p.m. caucus and introducing people. Testimony meeting The debate began on whether to put Governor Rampton and Senator Moss on the slate, even though they had both endorsed Muskie. Nabors wanted to do it for party unity; the students thought Rampton and Moss should not be rewarded for getting on the wrong bandwagon. Steve "Philo" Johnson said he had nothing against Rampton, but he was running against Moss because Moss had endorsed Muskie while McGovern McGov-ern was visiting Utah last November; No-vember; when it looked like he would be running against Rampton, Susan Bridges and TrfMrT LIZ rr - 1 1 CJ M I developing for Steve Holbrook to resign. His radical image was antagonistic to more conservative con-servative delegates and was hurting the McGovern campaign state-wide, it was said. Holbrook refused. More pressure. Finally, Mike Hansen (the chairman of the Student Caucus) quit and became an alternate, while Anderson became a delegate. The closing sessions were anticlimatic. Senator Moss and Dr. Terry Sanford spoke; candidates can-didates were nominated; and the convention broke up for balloting. The results were given at the $25-per-plate Jefferson-Jackson Jefferson-Jackson Banquet that night. During an address by Iowa Sen. Harold Hughes denouncing secrecy in government, 16 uniformed Salt Lake City policemen entered and surrounded the auditorium; the kids present went through several minutes of acute paranoia until an explanation was given armed man seen in the parking lot. student caucus bent over backwards, back-wards, I thought, to avoid antagonizing an-tagonizing people at the convention. con-vention. We went as far as we could and still look at ourselves in the mirror in the morning." Both sides? That Holbrook created some resentment even among students is obvious. One student delegate remarked that "Holbrook seemed to talk out of both sides of his mouth, being critical of deceit and manipulation of the McGovern elements while doing his utmost to control the student caucus." Steve Johnson notes that "Steve Holbrook obviously played a significant role in the student caucus. He has the respect of a lot of students for his efforts in the anti-war movement and his last year's campaign for the city commission. Steve Holbrook insinuated that the slate being put together by the McGovern organization in Salt Lake County did not include students. It's interesting to note th'if T-T n 1 K rrtt If ' a Ititnr rnfnctil tn Gfaying sideburns 4M"er student caucus ;';(i on Thursday, The : ",clans outnumbered the ,nts this time, all of them ;. ' 8 to win student favor and f to look young. The . g sideburns were We listened to the Sessional candidates -Owens, Bill Henderson presenting Joseph t. (e i a man named Jim ... and the four candiates LT? Editor-Guy Ivins, ;iSeph Elders and i Questions W, were raised- ! made, and con-generated. con-generated. Marie J ke''00: "I would like nff"raft candidate." hestudents decided to The platform debate was a little more heated than at the county convention, and many more amendments were submitted. sub-mitted. But, again, it appeared that students (including those from other universities across the state) were the balance of power. The first four University amendments passed fairly easily. The women's rights plank was interpreted as favoring either abortion or prostitution (opponents (op-ponents weren't quite sure which) and went down to defeat. Amnesty created a heated debate; student Mark Price complained that "to vote political expediency over personal conscience con-science is an insult to the people of Utah." Price's manner had antagonized delegates at both conventions he constantly called points of order-but when Nabors, he stepped down, ine caucus finally decided to endorse Moss, Rampton and Nabors for delegates-at-large. After this the group broke up into county caucuses to choose the remaining 14 delegates. The time was now 2 p.m. The day had been long. Many delegates were leaving. So the Salt Lake County caucus decided to hear speeches from each person running. These speeches all took the form of testimonies. "I'm 100 percent behind George McGovern." "I'm HO percent behind George McGovern" and so on Everyone wanted to outdo the other. "I've been for McGovern since February of this year " "I've backed McGovern since January of this year" until people were claiming to see McGovern as presidential timber Surprise! Then came the surprises. The McGoven camp had been expecting ex-pecting (unofficially) to take all of Utah's 19 delegates (except Rampton's and Moss's seats). When the final results came in they had 11 of the 17 being contested and 16 of 19 alternates. Utah, Davis and the southern counties had voted for "uncommitted" "un-committed" delegates, not McGovern delegates. What had happened? Some McGovern staffers blamed the students and Holbrook-"you got the people from the south scared of the radical students." The students said the problem was that Chuck Nabors couldn't count his delegates. Three questions seemed to withdraw from the Salt Lake County slate at the McGovern caucus so that a labor repreesentative could be on the slate resulted in the withdrawal of the only student on the Salt Lake County slate." However, Mike Hansen says of Holbrook that "he enjoys a strong amount of support on ihe University campus. ..when you have a man the stature of Steve Holbrook in any group, it necessarily looks to him for guidance. But saying he ran the student caucus is absurd." Finally, how successful was the whole thing? Although perhaps less organized and less united than in 1970, the student caucus was quite powerful. But one student, Kay Israel, says "if it (continued on page 8) Students flex muscles at Demo convention (continued from page 5) had not been for the moderation of some of the members, the student caucus may have had the signal honor of winning the convention and losing the election." Leonard McGee feels "they had the power but they used it irresponsibly. I think it will take the party and the students a long time to reconcile their differences." Johnson comments: "I think the student caucus did have an effect on the convention perhaps not as news-worthy as two years ago, but especially in Salt Lake County the student caucus was aware enough of its influence that it always tried to consider the political implications of its actions." He continues, "student caucuses originated to give young people a stronger voice at the convention. This year such a large percentage of the convention were young people that the power of the caucus was not as necessary as in '70. Youth sentiment to some extent was -I adequately expressed in the votes of the whole convention. In '74 the situation will be much the same students will have integrated in-tegrated themselves into the party to some extent. If the student caucus does organize in '74, I believe it will be to push a specific issue like the end of the war (ha ha)." Whether or not the student caucuses do organize for 1974, it seems apparent that students will be important at the conventions. con-ventions. Whether they will moderate their "radical" idealism to meet the realities of politics in a fairly conservative state is another matter, though. The students were, often self-righteously self-righteously pompous, with incredible in-credible endurance for tolerating windy speeches and pointless debates over insignificant issues. But they did infuse a whole new feeling of purpose and determination deter-mination into the Democratic Party, and they did begin to learn rapidly once they got into politics. They were manipulators and manipulated, they used and abused power. |