By Hailey Heinz
During the first two months of the academic year, political groups on campus had no shortage of things to do. With a cutthroat presidential election that sharply divided the nation, the College Democrats and Republicans stayed busy. Both groups were involved with canvassing, rallying, making phone calls and traveling to swing states to walk door to door and talk to voters.
“I’d say it was about 75 percent of the focus [of the group],” said Annabelle Guerra, president of the College Republicans and a senior political science major. “Not just the presidential election, but also different statewide positions.”
Now that the election is over, both groups are turning their attention toward recruitment, and are starting to plan for the gubernatorial election in 2006. For the Democrats, some of the focus is on maintaining a positive outlook after candidate Sen. John F. Kerry lost the presidential election.
“We’re trying to build that morale back up,” said Heidi Buchanan, president of the College Democrats and a junior political science major. “My e-board and I are trying to bring people back, to give people a reason to come back, and say, ‘Hey, we’re Democrats, we lost the election but we’re still in this. All is not lost. You should be proud to be a Democrat and keep coming to meetings.'”
Buchanan said she hopes the group will be heavily involved in the gubernatorial elections in two years.
“I’d like to have a big voter registration drive for the next election, work to get more people involved and get more people who want to canvass for the democratic gubernatorial candidate, whoever that may be,” she said.
On the Republican side, Guerra said the election results set them at ease.
“There’s an extreme sense of relief, of closure,” she said. “A lot of our students worked tremendously hard.”
After those months of hard work, some of the Republicans have a trip to look forward to.
“We’re planning to send about 30 of our members to the inauguration in January,” Guerra said. She emphasized the importance of the ceremonial parade, since President George W. Bush’s inauguration in 2000 was characterized by protesters after the bitterly contested election. “There was a lot of anger and frustration in 2000,” she said.
Guerra said coming from a predominantly liberal campus in a liberal state, she thinks it’s important to be represented at the inauguration and show that there is a Republican presence.
“Why not be active there, and have signs, so that people realize that in Boston, Massachusetts, home of Michael Dukakis … home of John Kerry … that we are active here and we have College Republicans,” she said.
One of the most important aspects of recruitment is maintaining a visible presence on campus, Guerra added.
“If there are any students on campus who are right-leaning, we want them to know that we’re here,” she said. “We don’t want any students to feel alienated because of their political beliefs.”
As a publicly-visible Republican in a liberal environment, Guerra is matter-of-fact about her political beliefs and the election results.
“What I say to a lot of my liberal friends is, ‘Don’t get mad, get even.’ We won this time, but don’t get sore about it; that’s the democratic process.”
