Four groups, two sides, one goal: Vote.
It’s supposed to be one of the closest presidential election races America has seen in years, so it’s no wonder Whitman students and Walla Walla community members are fully engaged with the latest political happenings. Although the opinions and voting behaviors of people can be polar opposites, there seems to be one goal with both sides around here: get out the vote.
“Especially before the primaries, we like to call and make sure people go out and vote. We’ll start doing that again soon,” Lenore Barkan said. Barkan runs the Walla Walla County Democratic Party headquarters where signs, candidate information and voter registration forms are availableThe close gap between Obama and McCain support numbers in the area has proven to be a challenge and motivating factor for the county Republicans to keep Walla Walla’s traditionally red base going strong.
“Education tends to liberalize a community a little bit,” County Republican Chair Jim Johnson said. With three colleges in the area, their efforts as a party could use help from volunteers and donations.
“Because of the influx of some different demographics, it’s changing a little bit over time [and] we’re going to have to work harder,” said Johnson about the shifting voting behaviors of the community. The Republican headquarters also provides the same resources as the Democratic headquarters and they both have some energetic support coming from Whitman.
Roman Goerss, the Campus Conservatives president, has been particularly active in connecting with local Republicans by attending county meetings with Johnson and gathering students to volunteer their time to help the party.
Since Washington may be considered a swing state, both sides are focusing on gathering more support by strengthening the bases they have while also persuading the unregistered and undecided to vote in their direction.
“There’s an incredibly small base to draw upon, there’s an even smaller amount of people who have the time to be active,” said Goerss about getting others involved with the club’s efforts. Like the Walla Walla County Republicans, it’s harder to find people with the time to put a lot of work into the conservative cause.
The focus on getting people to vote can potentially help both parties greatly. Voter registration drives going on all across campus have been the result of not only the political clubs, but also from individual efforts.
Whitman’s Young Democrats president Becca Sexton has also kept that focus in mind for the sake of the Democrats.
“This election has gotten people so excited, so whatever we can do to get people to support Dems would be great,” Sexton said.
Barkan suggested that the Democratic community in Walla Walla is “way more active now. The Obama campaign has really activated Democrats in this county.” The headquarters have been a good place for students to meet other Democratic supporters. According to Barkan, about 125 Whitman students are part of their volunteer crew.
The Democratic and Republican parties in the area have been fairly active this year by setting up booths at local fairs and other public events. Johnson saw this as a great opportunity for his party to register people who haven’t done so already.
“There are two reasons why we wanted to do this: one, as citizens, we want everyone to vote. Two, in Eastern Washington, two-thirds of the people that vote tend to vote Republican so we want to make sure everyone is getting heard,” Johnson said.
The presidential debates this weekend will be the next area of interest for both groups. The Global House is planning to host a discussion after the televised debate and have invited Sexton and Goerss to represent their respective campus clubs.
“We want to have a discussion of what was said and the differences in the candidates. Basically, just getting the conversation going,” Sexton said. She hopes that the talk is more educational for people and not as much a conflicting argument.
For more information on how to get involved here on campus, you can contact Sexton and Goerss via email. To get involved in the county, you can go to the Democratic Headquarers located on 226 East Main Street and the Republican Headquarters located on 1622 Plaza Way.
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