The Manhattan Young Democrats, a political club filled with fresh faces and politically cut teeth held their annual “Young Gets it Done” fundraiser last week at The Griffin, an event space located in the meatpacking district. New York’s political up-and-comers mingled, sipped, and exchanged business cards beneath a bejeweled ceiling. The setting was so swanky, in fact, that one of the attendants quipped, “I feel like we’ve crossed over to the other side,” referring to the Republican side, of course.
The centerpiece of the evening was the presentation of the “Top 5 under 35 Awards” which recognized the efforts of young Democrats active in the New York political scene. The honorees were Councilwoman Jessica Lappin, Assemblyman Micah Kellner, State Senator Daniel Squadron, Lt. Dan Choi, and Living Liberally.
Councilwoman Lappin seemed humbled and honored by the award and sweetly asked for assistance with her own upcoming reelection bid on November 3rd. She was honored for her efforts to make New York City safer after two separate crane collapses in her district killed nine people. Her work in attempting to green New York City was also highlighted.
Assemblyman Kellner, upon the receipt of his award, took the opportunity to commend Lt. Dan Choi for openly acknowledging his sexuality, noting that he was especially moved by the gesture as a member of the LGBT community himself. Local campaigns, he continued, are where the decisions that most affect one’s day-to-day life are made. “Stay excited and stay involved,” he chimed.
State Senator Squadron, the youngest member of the State Senate, was honored for championing such important causes as affordable housing and educational reform. He was unable to attend, but his chief of staff, John Raskin, who appeared to be quite the political force himself, accepted the award in his honor. The National Director of Living Liberally, during his speech, noted that Raskin was the brains behind Democracy in the Park, an organization that coordinated phonebanking in public parks during the last presidential election. The innovative organization asked that volunteers bring their cellphones to public parks and use their free weekend minutes to call voters in swing states.
Lt. Choi was honored for his gallantry in railing against sexuality-based discrimination in the army. Choi, an Arabic linguist with the Army National Guard was dismissed from service after coming out of the closet under the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy. He has since become an activist and organized an LGBT support group at West Point called Knights Out. In his acceptance speech, Choi enjoined his fellow Democrats to remain politically engaged by saying, “Think about all those Manhattan Young Democrats that aren’t born yet…they judge us [on our action or inaction] and they are right to judge us.”
The National Director of Living Liberally, Justin Krebs, was on hand to accept the award on behalf of the entire organization. Living Liberally, which grew out of its previous incarnation, Drinking Liberally, is an organization whose focus is making progressive politics an accessible part of everyday life, rather than a “one day every four years” phenomenon, as the organization's website states. It seeks to do this through various avenues, such as Drinking Liberally (progressive-focused social clubs), Reading Liberally (book tours that feature progressive authors), and Screening Liberally (a politically-conscious film series).
Also in attendance was Jonathan Tasini, who hopes to go head-to-head with Senator Gillibrand in the upcoming Senate race. He gave a speech on his platform, portraying himself as representative of the “Paul Wellstone wing of the party.” Paul Wellstone, a progressive Democrat and two-term Senator from Minnesota, is best remembered for his idealism and activism on labor and health care issues. He died in a plane crash in 2002.
Seeking to galvanize a young and presumably more progressive audience that is apprehensive about Gillibrand’s rise to power, convenient flip-flopping, and relative conservatism for a typical Manhattan Democrat’s taste, Tasini chose to present himself as a more liberal alternative. Tasini, a labor activist and President of the Economic Future Group, ran for Senate against Hillary Clinton in 2006. His speech was clearly aimed at ingratiating himself to the younger audience in attendance by slamming US involvement in Iraq and expressing strong support for health care reform. However, if he really seeks to capture the youth vote, especially the non-politically active youth vote, he might want to update his metaphors and do away with his vaguely absent-minded professor-esque image. Indeed, the repeated Wellstone metaphor does not work if people in attendance don’t know who he is.
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