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Joe Galli
interviewed by Anthony Qaiyum on 25 September, 1995
"There are so many people that want to belong to the party of fresh ideas -- which is the Republican Party, right now."
Joe Galli is the National Chairman of the College Republican National Committee.
Tripod: What have you been working on lately?
JG: We have a number of projects going on with the College Republican National Committee. Obviously, our goal is to recruit as many college students as possible for the Republican party -- get them registered to vote, get them excited about the upcoming presidential election. But the tasks at hand involve the Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Louisiana and New Jersey elections, all of which look very good for Republican candidates. And the opportunities for picking up new seats for Republicans in all those states are overwhelming. So, we're making sure our people are plugged into those races right now.
Tripod: What exactly does that involve?
JG: Well, we're in touch with a lot of the campaigns, and we're just putting the basic field men out on the street to do the field work. We've got College Republicans involved in the Governor's campaign in Kentucky, and in the Attorney General's race there. We've got CR's all across the state of Virginia working for their State House delegates and their State Senators in their campaigns -- basically doing sign blitzes, if you want to talk specifics. Volunteering hours at the campaign office, licking envelopes, stuffing envelopes, what have you -- and just, basically, doing the overall footwork that needs to be done -- a lot of the logistical stuff. Putting up signs. Getting out there on a Saturday, going door to door handing out literature -- that sort of thing.
Tripod: In your position, have you been able to spend time with major Republican political figures?
JG: I have the opportunity to do that being in Washington, D.C. I don't always make the most of it, because a lot of the time, my focus is on the college students. Whenever I am meeting a lot of senior Party people, it always has to do with how they can relate to younger people, and how we can get them involved in College Republicans, and get their support for our organization. So, yes, I do that on a pretty regular basis, but not on a frequent basis, I would say.
Tripod: How did you get to your position?
JG: I ran for my position. I campaigned for seven months. I traveled to 25 different states.
Tripod: Wow. Were you involved in the organization before that?
JG: I was the State Chairman of the College Republicans for two years in New York. I graduated and went to work for a conservative educational organization called the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, which is based out of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. And I worked there for approximately two and a half years before taking on this campaign.
Tripod: Have you seen a major growth in the College Republicans -- especially in the wake of the '94 elections?
JG: It's been overwhelming. We are expanding by leaps and bounds every day of the week. We've signed up thousands of new members in the first couple weeks of school. The interest right now, at the youth level of the Republican Party, at the risk of sounding redundant, is just overwhelming. There are so many people that want to belong to the party of fresh ideas -- which is the Republican Party, right now.
Tripod: So, you think the image of the Republicans, especially among college students, as being the older, stuffier party is changing?
JG: Oh, I think so -- definitely. I mean, look at the youth in our party. There's an overwhelming number of freshmen that were elected in 1994. And a large majority of them are youthful faces. College students are looking around, and saying, "Look, here are people that are concerned about our future. Concerned about my generation and where I'm going to be twenty years from now." And if you listen to Newt Gingrich's message, that's what he talks about. He talks about renewing America -- looking down the road twenty or thirty years from now. "Where are we going to take this country?" And I think it's great to have him in there as a real visionary of where we're going to be in twenty or thirty years. We need to make some tough changes today, and I think that college students are associating themselves with the changes that the Republicans are promoting.
Tripod: Have you been able to spend any time with Newt?
JG: I haven't, personally, spent any time with him, no.
Tripod: But, would you say he's been gearing his message to the youth vote?
JG: No ... I think Newt is just out there getting his message out to the general public. I wouldn't say that he's got a direct focus on the youth, but he's addressing the issues that we very much need to be concerned about. And this was not done by the Democrats. The Democrats, for years and years -- for 40 years in control of the House -- continued to spend money they didn't have. They basically mortgaged our future as young people. And now the bills are coming due. In seven years Medicare is going to be bankrupt, and eighty percent of the country did not know that until Newt Gingrich got that word out. So I think it's not so much a particular audience that Newt is playing to. He's just trying to get out factual evidence about the changes that need to be made in this government. And I should correct myself, I did meet Newt back in the middle of the summer, in July, at the Republican National Committee summer meeting in Philadelphia.
Tripod: Did he have anything special to say to you?
JG: Well, at that time I was not elected, and I told him that I was running for National Chairman. He mentioned he wasn't going to support any one candidate for that office, but that he would continue to support College Republicans.
Tripod: I was told that in '92, Clinton drew twenty percent of his vote from the 18-24 age group. Do you think that a Republican presidential candidate will need a similar percentage in order to win the presidency?
JG: I think that any candidate is going to need a large percentage of the youth vote to be successful in this upcoming election in 1996. And I think that the Republican candidate, whomever he may be, will have the best shot at it. What Bill Clinton did, was to campaign on one side of an issue, and then we all found out that he was really on the other side. Of course, a lot of us were saying that before he got into office, but we found that, when he got into office, he didn't really care about the youth, as he had made his pitch early-on through his campaign. And so, I think a lot of people that even voted for Clinton felt betrayed by him, or feel betrayed by him, and he's going to lose a lot of the youth vote in 1996.
Tripod: Have many of the Republican candidates been in touch with you?
JG: I've spoken to a number of their campaigns, yes. And they've all asked me for information regarding certain leaders in certain states. And I've been gracious in giving out whatever information I have to any one of those campaigns that are looking to emphasize the youth vote.
Tripod: Do you, personally, have a pick in '96?
JG: I don't, no. I'm kind of just holding out here until ... I think things are going to get interesting. I have a couple theories of my own. I like a few candidates in the race. There are some that I, particularly, don't care for, but that's coming from my own personal political beliefs -- that's to be expected. But we're just going to have to wait and see who the nominee will be, before we get behind that person to take out Bill Clinton.
Tripod: And you think that the Republican candidate will definitely take him out?
JG: Well, I can't say definitely, obviously...
Tripod: Could you give me odds, maybe?
JG: No, I won't even do that. What I'll say is that I like the tidal wave that we're riding right now. We've been kind of coached to say that this is a rising tide we're on ... in drawing an analogy, that is. You look at something that started out slow, and it just kept coming and kept coming, and it's relentless, and it's something that's not going to let up. And it's something that eventually can't be stopped. What you have through 1994 is just an amazing sweep of victories for the Republican Party. Picking up both houses of Congress for the first time in forty-plus years. Now, in 1995, you've got an opportunity for one state in the South, Virginia, to pick up both Houses of their Legislature -- and they've already got the Governor's mansion. If this is to happen -- they only need three seats on each side of the aisle -- Virginia will be the first state in the South to have an entirely Republican legislature, and gubernatorial seat for the first time since Reconstruction -- since the Civil War. It's momentous change. It's also indicative of the continuing tidal wave of conservatism across this country.
Tripod: There's been a great deal of talk lately about the possible rise of a third party -- Newsweek, last week, published a large article about the radical middle -- do you think this is possible?
JG: The radical middle ... No. I don't think a third party would ever be successful in this country. Sure, it's possible that someone could come up, like Perot did in 1992. More than likely, somebody will run as an independent in 1996 - someone with a lot of money, that has an interest in pushing their one particular issue, or two particular issues. But the overall general appeal stems from the public -- that is, stems from our particular two party system, because both the Democrats and the Republicans cover a majority of the bases, as far as politics are concerned. And it really is a 2 party system. It's very difficult to break that mold.
Tripod: What are your thoughts on Colin Powell? Would you like him to run as a Republican?
JG: No. I wouldn't, personally. I haven't read his book, but for all the talk that I've heard about Colin Powell, his book seems to be the first inclination of where he stands. There was a lot of question, even before his book came out, about him running for President. Quite frankly, he's more than welcome to get into the race. He's more than welcome to promote himself as a Republican, but I'd like to hear him saying some Republican ideas before I would consider him as a Republican nominee -- for obvious reasons.
Tripod: How do the Republican cutbacks in student financial assistance affect the College Republicans?
JG: Well, that's been a tough thing to overcome, because the Democrats are out there using fear tactics to scare students and parents into thinking that Republicans are cutting student aid. They're not. They're increasing it. What they're doing, is they're making some tough choices concerning the budget so that we're not paying out 60% of our income in federal income taxes, including Social Security and Medicare when we're 40 or 50 years old, 20 or 30 years from now. What I'm doing, right now, is working with the Education Committee, over in the House, to get the facts out about student aid, and about Bill Clinton's proposal for student aid.
Tripod: What are the facts?
JG: Well, the facts are that the Republicans will actually be increasing the amount of money that will be available for student loans. Bill Clinton's direct lending program, that he wants to institute, versus the Republican program, will cost the tax payer $1.5 billion over the next couple of years. And that's not a Republican estimate. That figure was put out by the Congressional Budget Office, which Bill Clinton happens to think walks on water. Those are just a few of the facts about student aid. The Republicans have been labeled as cutting back student aid, and trying to make it harder for students to attend college, and that's the farthest thing from the truth. They don't want to prevent people from having the opportunity to go to school, obviously. There are several ways you have to look at it. And one, quite simply, is the Federal government doesn't have the money to begin with -- up front. So they're not giving you money that they've got. They've got to go borrow it from somebody before they can give it to you. So if they suggest that you pay the interest back -- which would amount to an extra nine dollars a month, or something -- six months after your grace period is up, after you graduate college, well that's a hardship, a reality, that you've got to face. Because somebody's paying the interest on it. You're either paying the interest on it yourself, or when you start working, you're going to be paying the interest on it through your tax dollars.
Tripod: Obviously the Democrats are going to stress this issue as soon as the elections approach. Do you think this will hurt the College Democrats?
JG: No, I don't think so. Because, again, once the facts are put out there ... I think most of the college students out there today are very well reasoned individuals. Some of them are a little narrow minded. A majority of them are apathetic. But when it comes to an issue like this -- a popular issue which hits home with these people, with college students -- then you're going to see a direct reflection of where our country needs to go through the College Republicans. We'll be out there voicing the truth about the GOP plan versus the Democrats' plan. Look, the bottom line is the GOP, the Republican Party, wants to balance the budget. Bill Clinton and his Democrats don't care about the budget. They want to continue spending money we don't have. If you want some statistics, the Republicans are going to increase student loans from $6.6 million to $7.1 million over the course of the next year -- from '95 to '96. The actual amount of funding will increase over 50% over the next seven years -- from $24 billion to $36 billion. Loan fees are not increased. The in-school interest subsidies remain. The GOP will fund the biggest Pell grant award ever. The six month grace period remains. The Perkins Loans will total $6 billion. Student aid is not cut. Basically, that's the bottom line. The college work study program is fully funded at its current level. The supplemental educational opportunity grants are fully funded at the current level. And the Trio program, which benefits minority and disadvantaged students, is fully funded at its current level -- $463 million. Those are the facts. I'll give you some facts about Bill Clinton's plan. He wants to stage a takeover of the loan program by putting it under the department of education. The loans that we now know as guaranteed student loans will be called his direct student loan program. It would make the department of education the biggest lending bank in America. Think about it -- Where does that money come from if Bill Clinton's lending that money out of the Federal Government? He's got to go get it from my wallet, from your wallet, and from everybody else that's out there trying to make a buck. Right now it's privatized. Private financial institutions run these student loans programs. So we're talking about collateral that we've got to come up with. And then, like I said earlier, the Congressional Budget Office estimated it's going to cost tax payers an additional $1.5 billion. So who needs that headache over the next seven years? That's what his plan's going to cost to implement. Those are the facts.
You can contact Joe Galli by e-mail at [email protected], or view the Web page of the College Republicans at http://www.dash.com/netro/gov/crnc.
