The California Democratic Party held a get out the vote rally with former President Bill Clinton, Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown, and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. The event was in the San Jose State University Event center on Oct. 17.

As Newsom started the rally, he was greeted by cheers and whistles from a crowd of around 3,000 people. Newsom told a story about Clinton advising him during his 2003 run for mayor: “Don’t focus on who is to blame. Focus on what to do.”

Newsom – who would become a regent of the University of California and a trustee of the California State Colleges if elected Lieutenant governor – talked about the value of education, and brought up several programs in San Francisco including universal preschool, comprehensive arts programs and starting college savings accounts for kindergarteners. “We can’t out-compete unless we out-educate and that means we need to create a college-going culture,” Newsom said.

Newsom introduced Brown and referenced Meg Whitman at the same time. “You all know the song ‘Money can’t buy you love?’ Well, money can’t buy you the governorship either in California. Ladies and gentleman, the next governor of California, Jerry Brown.”

Brown continued that line by saying, “Well, we’re finding out that $1 billion is not enough, if that’s all you’ve got.” Brown talked about wealth inequality and about creating jobs and powering California “not on Texas natural gas or on Nigerian oil, but on California sun and California wind.” He returned to talking about wealth as he introduced Clinton, saying, “During his presidency, the people making seven bucks an hour or $10 or $20, they were going up too. So it wasn’t just the people at the top, it was the people at the bottom who had a chance at the American dream and that’s what counts.”

Clinton said, “It’s funny, I was thinking about Jerry Brown up here talking about how we all have a obligation to give. If I thought like the Republicans, I’d be for them, because if you get them in Congress, I’d make out like a bandit because I make a lot of money now. But the problem is … we were raised to believe, if you were fortunate, you were supposed to give back to your community … I have watched for 30 years the assault on the American dream and I am sick of it.”

Clinton appealed to the students and youth, saying, “There’s a reason people think that the democrats are going to lose all these House seats … and the reason is you. In 2008 we had a huge outpouring in America and the people that voted looked like America and America’s future. Young people voted in unprecedented numbers for the president, and for governors and for senators and for house members. Many of those young people had never voted before, many don’t know why they should vote in a midterm election. All these polls are premised on an assumption that tomorrow’s America voted in 2008 but yesterday’s America will vote in 2010.”

Hours before Newsom began speaking at the SJSU Event Center, organizers and volunteers had been phone banking to encourage people to go out and vote. More than 150 people at a time called to remind potential voters of the upcoming election and encourage them to vote for Newsom and Brown. Other volunteers asked passersby and rally attendees to pledge to vote and to pledge time to helping with the get out the vote effort. Many of the volunteers were students from U.C. Santa Cruz, U.C. Berkeley and SJSU.

The reasons for volunteering varied. Jennifer Freeman, a volunteer for Organizing For America, was there to help support policies such as healthcare, because of her own struggles with the cost of health care. Germain Any campaigned for Newsom on the basis of Newsom’s support for equal rights as well as programs such as Care Not Cash, a program that provides necessities, rather than money to the homeless, and Healthy San Francisco, a program that created universal health care for San Francisco.

“People come up to me and say, ‘Mayor Newsom saved my life,'” said Any.