Peter Rudinskas, a third-year chemical engineering student,
follows the presidential race like other undergraduates. But the
political button he wears every day in support of John Kerry stands
for more than just his support.
Rudinskas is the second male delegate in the 33rd congressional
district for Kerry, the senator from Massachusetts.
Kerry, along with Sen. John Edwards, (D-N.C.), is one of the
front-runners in the Democratic presidential primaries. Candidates
will compete in 10 state primaries and caucuses, including
California, on March 2, or “Super Tuesday.”
In California, votes for the Democratic primaries are counted in
terms of congressional districts. Each district is allotted between
three to seven delegates for each candidate. Based on the number of
votes each candidate receives within each district, a portion of
the district’s delegates go to the Democratic National
Convention in July to cast their votes for their candidate.
The 33rd congressional district extends to parts of West Los
Angeles, including Culver City.
If Kerry wins a sufficient number of votes within the 33rd
District, Rudinskas will head to Boston for the
convention.Â
Doug Ludlow, president of Bruin Democrats, said he doesn’t
know of other UCLA students who are delegates because a student
usually needs particular connections in local Democratic parties to
become a delegate.
Rudinskas currently serves as secretary of the 48th Assembly
District Committee and is running for election to the Los Angeles
County Democratic Central Committee.
County committee officials are volunteers who conduct
party-building activities and endorse candidates between
elections.
But Ludlow also said not all the delegates have been determined,
so there’s still a chance UCLA students will be involved in
the future.
Rudinskas ran for the delegate position after receiving
encouragement from other delegate candidates and based on his
previous involvement with the Democratic party.
“I was honored to be considered as somebody who would want
to go to the convention,” he said.
“As somebody who is not a professional political person, I
want to do more than just casting my vote,” he added.
Rudinskas said he wants to address the problems that affect the
greatest number of people.Â
As a delegate, a mass outreach to the people within his district
is a priority. If he goes to Boston, Rudinskas plans to apply
digital technology to interact with voters in his district from
Boston and help them voice their concerns at the convention.
“This will allow the district to be a small part of what
goes on “¦ (to) be indirect participants in the
process,” he said.
To communicate with voters, Rudinskas said he also plans to
conduct a cross-country road trip if he heads to the convention,
stopping in different regions to speak with community
members.Â
As a chemical engineer, Rudinskas said he has technical skills
which he applies to shaping public policy, and he plans to apply
the analytical skills he has acquired by studying engineering to
help solve social and economic problems.
“In Boelter Hall there are people solving problems with
much greater difficulty than ones in government and they succeed at
it, and I sometimes wonder what would happen if we were equally as
good in solving problems “¦ in the political system,” he
said.
Rudinskas is not the only student in UCLA history to be a
delegate.
Rick Tuttle, executive director of the Dashew International
Center, was a Democratic delegate in 1968 when he was a graduate
student in history.
He was a delegate for Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated on
June 5, 1968, prior to the August Democratic National Convention.
But Tuttle and other Kennedy delegates still attended the
convention because they needed to cast their votes for a
candidate.
“We were in a state of great shock right after the death
of Kennedy “¦ We had lost our candidate,” he said.
Tuttle ended up voting for Eugene McCarthy, a senator from
Minnesota who lost the party’s nomination to Vice President
Hubert Humphrey.
The days that followed involved intense but unsuccessful efforts
to have Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass, enter the race.
The anti-war movement against U.S. involvement in Vietnam was
taking place at the same time as well. Tuttle recalls stepping out
of the convention to speak with demonstrators along with other
delegates.
“It was quite a time,” he said.
Other delegates to the 1968 convention from UCLA included Eddy
Anderson, a cheerleader, and Steve Salm, a financier in the
Athletic Department.
“There was some UCLA presence in this process,”
Tuttle said.