Fordham College Republicans Speak on Panel at CPAC

Referred to colloquially as the "Conservative Woodstock," the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) took place at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington, D.C. on Feb. 18-20. As was the case last year, a rather large delegation of students from the Fordham University College Republicans was in attendance.

Katie Poedtke, current College Republicans president, and Chadwick Ciocci, former College Republicans president, both FCRH '10, spoke at a panel called "CPAC Stars of the Future" on Feb. 19. On the panel, young conservative leaders from around the country spoke briefly about some issue that they found important. This event was broadcast on C-SPAN and held in front of a full ballroom holding some 5,000 attendees.

Ciocci discussed activism at the college level, something that he described as "one of the most difficult forms of activism for the conservative movement." In particular, he emphasized the necessity of sufficient funding and dealing with university administrators to obtain the requisite financial backing. Additionally, he recommended working with like-minded student organizations and stressed that students should not assume that administrative impediments exist because of liberal biases.

Speaking several minutes later on the same panel, Poedtke talked about that group's commemoration of the fall of the Berlin Wall. She discussed in some depth the positive response and participation from the student body as a whole.

"We are proud to say that now [many students] are aware, concerned and passionate, too," she said.

In arguably the most infamous moment of the conference, Ryan Sorba of California Young Americans for Freedom lambasted CPAC for inviting Go Pride, a group of homosexual Republicans, to the event.

"Everyone on the panel, we were just shocked… He was very much an outcast," Poedtke said of Sorba, calling his comments "disrespectful" and "hateful," adding, "The majority of CPAC disagreed with him."

This disapproval, evident in any recording of the panel, was widely circulated around TV news stations and the Internet following the Conference, even becoming the basis for a crude joke by "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart that made reference to Fordham University.

More positively, the event featured many high-profile conservative (though not necessarily Republican) speakers, including Governors Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty of Massachusetts and Minnesota respectively, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich and pundits Ann Coulter and Andrew Breitbart amongst others. The keynote speaker was television and radio personality and author Glenn Beck.

The biggest news item to come out of the conference was that in its annual straw poll for presidential candidates, Congressman Ron Paul (R-Texas) unseated three-time winner and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, winning by a margin of nine percentage points. Katie attributed this unexpected outcome to a low turnout on the part of CPAC attendees, calling it "an inaccurate representation."

Out of the 10,000 people at the conference, only about 2,400 actually voted, as voting occurred at a single polling place. Compounding these less than ideal circumstances was a strong push by the small but vocal contingent of conferees supporting Paul to convince others to vote for him.

Additionally, the straw poll gauged attendee concern with a variety of political issues, ranging from illegal immigration and abortion to economic stimulus and Social Security reform. In this section of the poll, some 52 percent of respondents said that reducing the size of government was their first or second priority, far and away trumping any other issues, especially social matters.

Poedtke emphasized that much of the importance of CPAC lies in its relationship with student groups. Of the 10,000 attendees, 48 percent were students, the most heavily represented demographic by a wide margin. More specifically referring to Fordham, Poedtke noted that the conference was an effective way to raise the national profile of the University and improve its standing in the minds of people form a broad cross-section of American society.