Editor’s Note: This is the first in a two-part political series. Tomorrow The Red & Black will feature a Q&A with Laura Stone of the Young Republicans.

This is a Q&A with Executive Director of the Young Democrats, Wyn Bellhouse, a senior from Alto.

Q: When do you meet?
A: At 6:00 p.m., every Wednesday in SLC room 350.

Q: What happens at the meetings?
A: We generally have speakers who’ll be anyone from local politicians to state representatives come to talk to the organization.

Q: What speakers do you have lined up for this semester?
A: This year we’ll have Jim Martin, who’s running for senate, and Bobby Saxon, who’s running for congress in this district. We put in the paper work to get Obama to come speak, but yeah…

Q: What is the organization doing to support Obama?
A: We do voter registration all the time. There’s also a lot of door to door campaigning we do. We do a lot with the Young Democrats of Georgia. There are multiple opportunities to help out.

Q: How does this group motivate students to become involved?
A: We have rallies and we really focus on voter registration. We are trying to push students to be more active.

Q: Any requirements to be a part of the Young Democrats?
A: No requirements, you just have to be under 40. We also have many members who aren’t students, they just live in Athens. You can still come to meetings if you’re over 40, you just can’t vote. We do have membership dues, $10 total and you get a shirt.

Q: What are 3 issues you think are most important in this upcoming election?
A: I think the economy is definitely a big one. The war in Iraq is going to also have a decent amount of impact as well as health care. Those are three that will have to be addressed.

Q: What about Obama makes him a good candidate for president?
A: Well, a symbolic gesture of what he’s about is the fact that he gets more than half of his campaign contributions from people who donate less than a hundred dollars. He’s moving politics and campaigning in a different direction already … one that makes me feel more connected with my government.

Q: What does being democratic mean to your organization?
A:I think democrats take a broad view when it comes to voting. Like Barack said last night, ‘I can’t progress, unless we all progress.’ So unless everyone moves forward, we can’t individually be better.

Q: Any comments on the Democratic Convention?
A: Hillary’s speech rocked. Barack was a little more critical than he has been in the past, but then again I think when he speaks about the post-partisan nature of his campaign it connects him more with people. That’s where I get chill bumps.

Q: Any upcoming events?
A: We’re trying to put together a debate, Bobby Saxon versus Paul Broun. Bobby really wants to do a debate, but we haven’t really gotten word from Paul Broun yet. We’re trying to co-coordinate that with the College Republicans.