by Lori Cruz
Staff Writer
For some University of La Verne students, politics, national elections and the voting process are not just something they read about in the news.
Seniors Beverly Sparrow, Marta Casper and George Rivera, who are all political science majors, are working or interning for political campaigns.
Sparrow, who recently started her internship with Congressman George Brown (D-42nd District), said her job is “exactly what Dr. Gelm has told us over and over again about what happens in a congressional office.”
Her job is to handle the case work files that come into the office. That is, she deals with the constituents in the district who are having troubles in some area.
“The Congressman has to take care of his constituents. If someone has a problem with some area in the government, we contact that department on behalf of the Congressman and do what we can to help that person,” she said.
Her plans are to work in the district office until June.
“In June, I want to work on his re-election campaign. Since there is no opposition in the primary, his reelection campaign office won’t open until next month. I’ll work on that until the November election.
“I’ve been told that once you are on a campaign, you get hooked,” she said.
Sparrow was recently accepted to the University of La Verne Law School where she will begin in August.
Coincidentally, Sparrow’s opposition is a fellow ULV student.
Rivera, a CAPA student, is working for Rex Gutierrez, the Republican opponent for the 42nd Congressional seat, which Brown has maintained for close to 30 years.
Rivera began volunteering last summer for Gutierrez. The internship turned into a paying job for him last October.
Rivera had “great admiration for Gutierrez” and when Gutierrez made his announcement to run for Congress, Rivera wrote a letter to say he would volunteer.
Gutierrez, who is mayor pro-tem of Rancho Cucamonga, took Rivera up on his offer. Rivera said his job involves everything from “walking the precincts to getting campaign signatures.”
As for students who are not politically motivated but would like to be, Rivera said, “if there is an issue that they believe in and feel strongly about, then they should get involved.”
Sparrow added that students do not necessarily have to be political science majors to take on an internship.
“I don’t think the publicity is here. I heard about this internship from a friend. This is a great opportunity but I don’t think enough students know how to do it,” she said.
When Gutierrez’s office was recruiting interns, Rivera wanted to “take care of our own” by recruiting people from La Verne. But, he said, “there was no volume, no interest from ULV students. I was disappointed.”
Working on a campaign or for a Congress member is not the only way to learn more about the political system.
Casper, who considers herself a “grass-roots petitioner,” has a job that involves collecting signatures to qualify initiatives for the November ballot.
Casper works for the grass-roots group Californians Against Political Corruption.
Their campaign is to get an initiative on the ballot “to limit special interest money in politics,” she said.
She got the job by responding to an ad in the newspaper.
“I was looking for work in the political field. I talked to them a little bit about it and decided it was an issue I could support and I went to work for them,” she said.
In April, she will know how much longer she will have a job because that is when the signatures will be tallied.
“If we get the issue on the ballot there will be a lot of positions opening up at that point and I hope to get a more activist position at that time.”
In addition to the main initiative she is carrying, Casper is also gathering signatures for two other petitions.
One is to raise the minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.75. The other is to stop medical insurance companies from making decisions doctors should make.
“The insurers actually pay benefits to doctors to withhold treatment or they have sort of a gag rule where they won’t let doctors tell their patients about certain treatments because they are too expensive. It should be the patients’ right to know what treatment is available and to know what their options are,” she said.
Lori Cruz
