Dems in schism over candidates

Time is ticking for the Pitt Students for Sen. Barack Obama and Pitt Students for Sen. Hillary… Time is ticking for the Pitt Students for Sen. Barack Obama and Pitt Students for Sen. Hillary Clinton groups. They’re charging the campus with efforts to register students to vote in Pennsylvania’s April 22 Democratic primary before the March 24 deadline.

The founders of both groups are leaders in the Pitt College Democrats, an organization that’s been split by the two party contenders.

Sarah Posner, College Dems’ political steering chair, started the Pitt Students for Obama group on Facebook back in August.

Lissa Geiger, College Dems president, started the Pitt Students for Hillary Clinton group last November.

Geiger said she is the primary contact between the Clinton campaign and Pitt’s campus.

The two groups are not, however, affiliated with the Pitt College Democrats, and the organization maintains a courteous relationship among its members.

“The College Democrats support and advertise events for both groups and do not endorse in the primaries,” Geiger said.

Posner explained that the Obama campaign has a Youth Outreach staff dedicated solely to reaching out to college and high school students. The Obama group works with Youth Outreach in its volunteer work on Pitt’s campus.

The group meets once a week with an average of 50 attendees, Posner said.

Currently, the Obama group is focusing on voter registration – this week is its “power week,” and it has events planned every day to try to encourage students to register to vote and to spread information about Obama.

The group’s kick-off meeting was Monday night in the William Pitt Union.

The rest of the week it will be offering incentives like free pizza or Primanti Brothers sandwiches for students who register.

“I think it’s pretty clear that this campus overwhelmingly supports Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton,” Posner said. She named his speech against the Iraq war in 2002 as one of the reasons she admired the senator.

The Clinton group at Pitt is more decentralized, Geiger said.

Geiger included Pitt in Clinton’s online youth movement, the Hillblazers, via Facebook.

While it doesn’t have weekly meetings, the Clinton group canvasses door-to-door or makes mass phone calls during phone-banking sessions. Geiger named Clinton’s universal health care plans and high level of experience as two of the many reasons why she supports Clinton.

“It’s more than an age thing,” Geiger said. “Hillary has spent a lifetime in policy and politics