Republican Club Heads Promise Outreach

It wasn’t Bush v. Gore, but the Republican candidate still won.

In an unopposed contest, Joshua M. Mendelsohn ’05 was elected president of the Harvard Republican Club (HRC) last night, and vowed to guide the group’s young leaders toward the 2004 general elections.

Although the candidates discussed a wide range of ideas, most newly elected officials agreed that HRC’s primary goal should be raising its profile on campus.

“We want to mobilize current members, as well as reach out to new people,” Vice-President-Elect Michael Alperovich ’04 said. “We want to get the word out about internship opportunities, living in our D.C. summer house. Above all, we’re a service organization.”

As a sophomore, Mendelsohn said he looks forward to building an “institutional memory” and campaigning for the Republican candidate in the 2004 presidential elections.

“We were extremely excited and proud with midterm results and are looking forward to going into New Hampshire and working for Bush in ’04,” Mendelsohn said.

Along with Mendelsohn and Alperovich, Mark T. Silvestri ’05, Jeffrey P. Clemmens ’05, Svetlana Y. Meyerzon ’05 and Duncan M. Currie ’04 were elected to the positions of secretary, treasurer, membership director and member-at-large, respectively.

Many of the newly-elected officials spent significant time campaigning for Republican W. Mitt Romney in his successful bid for Massachusetts’ governorship this past fall.

“The [Romney] campaign ate up a significant portion of my fall, but it was a great experience,” Silvestri said.

In recent years, the HRC has won awards for being among the most active college republican club in the country and has an e-mail list that reaches hundreds of students, according to outgoing President Brian C. Grech ’03.