{"id":667,"date":"2008-10-17T12:11:28","date_gmt":"2008-10-17T19:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=667"},"modified":"2008-10-19T15:00:53","modified_gmt":"2008-10-19T22:00:53","slug":"alumni-and-the-presidential-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=667","title":{"rendered":"Alumni and the Presidential Election"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"democratTwo TCNJ alumni have played key roles in this fall\u2019s presidential election. Tricia Mueller \u201999 is serving as New Jersey state director for Barack Obama\u2019s campaign, and Mike DelBene \u201901 served as an alternate delegate at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis\u2013St. Paul, MN, in September. Get to know more about these two Lions.
\n

\nA Commitment to the Working Class Led Mueller to the Obama Campaign<\/strong><\/p>\n

by Katherine Federici Greenwood<\/p>\n

\"Mueller\"<\/p>\n
Tricia Mueller ’99<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Tricia Mueller<\/strong> was far from TCNJ\u2019s beautiful campus in the fall of 1994 as she stood on a picket line for three days with Mexican community organizers. A 20-year-old junior at the time, she was helping them stand guard outside an American paper factory to make sure the company didn\u2019t close its doors without paying its poor Mexican workers \u2014 a common practice among some foreign companies, she says.<\/p>\n

Mueller spent that semester in Mexico, Guatemala, and Nicaragua on a study-abroad program organized through the Center for Global Education that focused on experiential learning in women\u2019s and human rights and developmental issues. Living with a host family in a poor neighborhood in Mexico, she studied Spanish, took courses through the center, and worked with community organizers as they tried to improve the working and living conditions of the country\u2019s poor. In addition to manning the picket line with the community organizers\u2014who helped ensure that the factory workers eventually were paid\u2014Mueller also volunteered at a women\u2019s public health center in Managua, Nicaragua.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was able to see the effects of globalization, the effects of a lack of unionized work force, the lack of accessibility to health care or any sort of human rights at all in these countries,\u201d said the Class of 1999 member. And she began to understand why people organize and fight: \u201cIt is all based on need\u2014need for education, need for food,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

That experience abroad proved to be a catalyst for her landing in the labor movement and politics\u2014since 2000, she has been the chief political director for New Jersey\u2019s carpenters union. In July of this year, she took a leave of absence to head Barack Obama\u2019s campaign in New Jersey. Because of Obama\u2019s own roots in community organizing and his concern for the living conditions and wages of the working-class, \u201cIt\u2019s a no-brainer for me to be on this campaign,\u201d said Mueller, who has served on the political campaigns of governors Corzine and McGreevey and senators Lautenberg and Menendez.<\/p>\n

Even though the state has a history of voting for Democratic presidents, and Obama continues to lead in the polls, Mueller is taking nothing for granted. In fact, she says her biggest challenge is \u201cletting voters know this is not a done deal yet,\u201d and making sure they realize that every vote counts (read: the 2000 presidential election). As November 4 approaches, she\u2019s putting in easily 16 hours a day, seven days a week, with the goal of delivering New Jersey\u2019s 15 electoral votes to her candidate. As the chief strategist and manager of the New Jersey campaign, which is based in West Windsor, she meets with political and business leaders and trains activists across the state, all the while focusing on Obama\u2019s commitment to improving the economy and raising the quality of life for working people.<\/p>\n

Mueller\u2019s commitment to the working class and public service runs deep. Her grandfather was a sheet metal worker in Pennsylvania. Her father, who never completed college, started as a lineman at Bell Atlantic and moved up to management before retiring after 25 years to enter government \u2014 becoming mayor of Oaklyn, NJ. Today he heads the South Jersey Transportation Authority. Her mother, Paula Bezot Mueller \u201973, is a teacher. As a child, Mueller helped her father campaign for mayor\u2014stuffing envelopes, canvassing door-to-door, and studying electoral maps. \u201cI\u2019m an activist at heart,\u201d she noted.<\/p>\n

When Tricia entered TCNJ, she already knew that she wanted \u201ca job that mattered,\u201d but had only a \u201cvague notion\u201d of what that would be. Mueller chose TCNJ for its study-abroad program and for its English department. Her training in English literature courses, in which, she said, she learned to \u201cprocess information,\u201d prepared her for her career. Her creative writing and poetry professor, Peter Wood, helped guide her into community\/labor relations. During senior year, when she was still uncertain what to do after college, Wood suggested she apply for a position in a union-organizing program in New York City.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Professor Wood] always understood that my path wasn\u2019t going to be a traditional one,\u201d said Tricia, who played first doubles and second singles on the Lions women\u2019s tennis team. She didn\u2019t end up participating in the program Wood suggested, but his encouragement and the trip abroad sharpened her focus.<\/p>\n

From Mexico, to the carpenter\u2019s union, to the Obama campaign, Tricia says, \u201cIt\u2019s been a really exciting road I\u2019ve been on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Decade-long Commitment to the GOP Earns DelBene a Ticket to the RNC<\/strong>
\nby Pete Croatto \u201900<\/p>\n

\"Delbene\"Attending the Republican National Convention takes three weeks\u2014at least it did for Mike DelBene \u201901<\/strong>, who attended the event as an alternate delegate from New Jersey\u2019s 12th congressional district.<\/p>\n

The longtime Republican spent a week before his trip to Minnesota anticipating the convention and being \u201ca part of history.\u201d The second week was spent at the convention doing everything from \u201cquasi-private and confidential\u201d tasks to reveling in the convention\u2019s crowded passion.<\/p>\n

The third week has lasted a little longer for Mike, who is still coming down from the emotional high of living\u2014and then retelling\u2014a political dream to friends and family. \u201cThat keeps the high going,\u201d said Mike, 30, who lives in Ewing and works in the financial services industry. \u201cI get excited and giddy all over again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike attended the convention at the invitation of State Senator Bill Baroni, Senator John McCain\u2019s campaign chairman for New Jersey. Mike has a decade-long involvement with the GOP, including serving as state chairman of the New Jersey College Republicans as a TCNJ senior. Even before graduating in 2001, the communications studies major assisted on several campaigns, and helped then-state assemblyman Baroni\u2019s campaign in 2005.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichael is part of a new generation of leaders in New Jersey that is helping build our Republican Party and electing John McCain,\u201d Baroni said. \u201cIt\u2019s clear that his time at TCNJ has prepared him exceptionally well to take on those leadership roles.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Minnesota, Mike spent his days and nights with similarly minded men and women, namely New Jersey\u2019s 52 delegates and numerous alternates. The first two days of the convention, Mike and delegates countrywide helped box supplies for victims of Hurricane Gustav at the Minneapolis Convention Center. The group also conducted other tasks that likely didn\u2019t make the 11 o\u2019clock news: adopting rules and protocol for the convention, listening to speeches, and officially nominating McCain and Alaska Governor Sarah Palin for the Republican ticket. Still, it was an experience Mike cherished.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first day, when you walk in, it\u2019s a lot of shaking hands and \u2018nice to meet yous\u2019, and the last day, there are a lot of hugs and \u2018let\u2019s keep it touches,\u2019\u201d Mike explained. \u201cAnytime you go through such an intense five days with the same group of people\u2014you live together, eat together, and then you make history together\u2014it\u2019s only natural that you feel this bond.\u201d He adds that many of the delegates even spent their free time visiting Minneapolis-St. Paul.<\/p>\n

Two memorable, but less publicized convention moments also resonated with Mike. One was hearing a speech from McCain\u2019s brother Joe, who recalled McCain, a prisoner of war during Vietnam, wearing a brown leather bomber jacket during his last military briefing. John McCain hung the coat on a hook, went on his bombing mission, and didn\u2019t return. \u201cThere wasn\u2019t a dry eye in the house; you could have heard a pin drop,\u201d Mike said. \u201cIt really was a clarifying moment about the man we want to become the president of the United States.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the convention\u2019s last day, Mike saw firsthand the influence of Palin, whose emergence from near obscurity as Alaska\u2019s governor to McCain\u2019s running mate became national news. In the middle of a speech on the convention\u2019s last day, Palin and her family made their way to their seats and stopped the proceedings cold.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was amazing to watch 25,000 heads turn and watch Governor Palin sit down,\u201d Mike remembered. \u201cThe speaker on stage literally took a back seat to Governor Palin and her family coming in. You almost went blind from all the camera flashes.\u201d
\nMany saw the celebratory chaos that was the Republican National Convention, but that was nothing compared to being there. \u201cI can tell you, walking down the long, dark tunnel\u2014and I know this is going to sound clich\u00e9d\u2014at the Xcel Center and stepping on the convention floor and looking up and doing a \u2018360\u2019 around and listening to tens of thousands of people chant and cheer and be unified in one common cause, was unlike anything I\u2019ve experienced in my life,\u201d Mike said. \u201cIt\u2019s sheer, positive energy in that room. It\u2019s electric.\u201d<\/p>\n

That energy has stayed with Mike, who will spend \u201cevery free hour and minute that I have\u201d over the next month to get McCain elected. He has no idea if he\u2019ll be at the RNC in 2012, but he\u2019d be happy to do so. He should make sure he\u2019s cleared at least three weeks on his calendar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two TCNJ alumni have played key roles in this fall\u2019s presidential election. Tricia Mueller \u201999 is serving as New Jersey state director for Barack Obama\u2019s campaign, and Mike DelBene \u201901 served as an alternate delegate at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis\u2013St. Paul, MN, in September. Get to know more about these two Lions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":669,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-october-2008"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}