College Republicans report an uphill battle for the House
Some voters have strange habits, as members of the Georgetown College Democrats and Georgetown College Republicans have learned in the months leading to the upcoming elections. Both groups have been hitting the streets as November approaches, trying to tip the balance in places where a few dedicated students hope they can make all the difference.
The Democrats spent last weekend canvassing neighborhoods in Kenton County, the most populous county in Kentucky and the site of one of the more heavily contested House elections this year.
Liz Fosset (SFS ‘08) drove down Friday night with about 25 other students in a four-van caravan for a nine-hour ride south to support Democratic candidate Ken Lucas in his House race against the incumbent Republican Geoff Davis.
When they got there they found only four people working on Lucas’ staff, so Fosset and her fellow Democrats headed to the neighborhoods to catch up on getting the word out.
“We definitely did a lot,” Fosset said. While Fosset directed operations from the local headquarters, students went door-to-door throughout the weekend, singing Lucas’ praises and registering voters.
Matt Smallcomb (COL ‘09), a former Voice editorial board member, dealt with residents face-to-face,and encountered some interesting people.
photo by Simone Popperl
“She has a habit of voting twice,” he said of one Kentucky woman. Abusing the poor organization of the local election authority, he said she votes at one station and then drives to another before they get word that she has already voted.
The challenge to the students was to get her to vote Democratic both times: in the 2000 elections she couldn’t make up her mind, so she cast one vote for George Bush and one for John Kerry.
The students also contributed by updating a local database of names and telephone numbers of Democrats, an important service given how inaccurate the information was.
“The list we had was mostly Democrats, but the lists were so outdated that we ended up talking to lots of Republicans,” Smallcomb said.
But even at the Republican households, the students said they were well-received.
“Literally everyone I talked to said that this country is going in the wrong direction,” Smallcomb said.
Based on these experiences, the College Democrats are enthusiastic about the possibility of winning back Congress for the Democrats.
“If the elections were held tomorrow, the Democrats would take back the House and the Senate,” Smallcomb said.
While the College Democrats were busy down in Kentucky, the College Republicans have been trying to tip the balance in the Virginia and Maryland Senate races to re-elect Senator George Allen (R-Va.) and put Michael Steele (LAW ‘91) (R) into the Senate for Maryland.
“It’s always an interesting experience,” J.D. Allman (COL ‘09), College Republicans Director of External Affairs, said of going door to door. “The people were pretty positive.”
But Ryan Hart (SFS ‘10), the Freshman Representative for the College Republicans, said that the people he spoke to in Virginia were not so much positive as disillusioned.
“No one had real strong problems about [the Republicans],” he said.
“Overall things aren’t looking great at the moment,” another College Republican Phil George (SFS ‘09) agreed.
photo by Alison Gillis
Hart blamed this lack of enthusiasm largely on recent scandals within the Republican Party, such as the recent resignation of Representative Mark Foley.
“The Foley events are kind of putting a damper on things,” he said.
Allen’s campaign in Virginia is further complicated by the recent uproar over his alleged use of a racial slur to refer to a volunteer for his opponent Jim Webb at a summer rally.
At one house Hart visited, an Indian woman in a sari answered the door, but slammed it in his face at the first mention of Senator Allen.
Despite such setbacks, the College Republicans interviewed remained hopeful that their party would not lose the legislature.
“I think we’ll keep the Senate just because less seats are up for grabs,” Hart said. He said he is less confident about holding the House. George is just hoping that things will settle down before the elections.
“We’ve hit a patchy road”, he said. “I think some of that might die down by the beginning of November.”
At the most basic level, both groups admit to sometimes fighting a political battle more than an ideological one. The College Republicans are just hoping that people will not be upset enough on Election Day to throw the Republicans out, while Smallcomb conceded that the College Democrats in Kentucky are supporting a candidate who is Republican in all but name.
“Most of us would not say that we really support [Lucas’] views,” he said. The College Democrats are campaigning for him simply because he is a Democrat.
Though Smallcomb expects the Democrats to win both elections, he thinks that people may not be voting Democrat as much as they are voting not-Republican.
“Perhaps the reasons why aren’t necessarily the best reasons,” he said.
Additional reporting by Marco Cerna
