Tali Korrub's article ""UW Dems Bylaw Change Unfair to Woods, Some Say"" is insulting to the UW-Madison College Democrats. Eli Judge is an energetic and hard-working advocate of campus safety and tenants' rights and Ashok Kumar's outrageous insinuation that Judge and his supporters were motivated by issues of race is irresponsible and untrue.
For the record, the bylaw change was a response to a stunt pulled by Kumar during his campaign for Dane County Board last year. Kumar packed the College Democrats meeting with his own friends and supporters, few of which were members of the organization and thus managed to unfairly hijack the endorsement.
This time around, we decided to limit the endorsement vote to people who (1) are students (since we are a student organization) and (2) to those who have attended at least one College Democrats meeting or event earlier in the academic year.
The College Democrats have a committed group of volunteers who, during the 2006 election, got up at 6 a.m. for lit drops, went out late at night to go chalking across campus, and participated regularly in the nuts-and-bolts work vital to getting Democrats elected. These are the people who should be deciding on College Democrats endorsements and not a bunch of ringers with no prior involvement within the organization.
The decision of our members to endorse Judge is a reflection of the more active role he has had in College Democrats' activities this year. For Kumar to play the race card not only speaks volumes about his own judgment, but also calls Lauren Woods' integrity into question for welcoming his support.
Neil Goldsmith
UW-Madison senior
College Democrats member
