Suffolk students of all political stripes – Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians – gathered last Tuesday night for the first bipartisan Thanksgiving dinner.

“Partisan politics is pretty nasty at the national level, but it isn’t always that way at the state and local level,” explained president of Suffolk’s College Republicans Nick Lattarulo.

Lattarulo and Conor Finley, president of the College Democrats, decided to host a dinner during a class with Graham Kelder, a pre-law advisor at Suffolk.

“Mr. Kelder said that the political clubs worked together when he went to college,” Lattarulo said. Lattarulo and Finley have been friends for years, and “we decided to bring our groups together before the holiday to show that [bipartisanship] can happen at Suffolk, too.”

As Conor Finley explained, “we have a debate between [the three political clubs] every year, but we wanted something less formal too.” The three club presidents argue social, economic, and foreign policy at the debate.

“There is usually some ideological overlap at the debate,” Finley said. “It’s not like we disagree on everything. We hope that people remember that when they sit down at something like this.”

The political clubs have big plans for this spring.

“This year we have 82 registered members, which is a record for the Suffolk Republicans,” Lattarulo said. “We’ve hosted a lot more events this semester than in the past, and we’re trying to set a precedent for club participation. We want to keep this going into the spring and have a really good year.”

“We want to teach our members about policy, so they can better understand and communicate” their ideas to others, Finley said. “We also want new members… we want to get more Suffolk kids interested in politics and get them involved.

Finley also said he wants to give more opportunities to College Democrats, such as internships with state legislators or the chance to work on local campaigns.

Both presidents hoped that the tradition of bipartisanship would continue to bring students together and work together.