Collegiate Times

Whenever Kate Maxwell was not in class over the past couple of months, she was probably working on the McCain campaign.

From the beginning of the school year until Election Day, Maxwell's life was heavily identified by politics. Even though her candidate didn't win, she said she would do it all over again.

"We'd do it all again in a heartbeat," Maxwell said, referring to herself and the other College Republicans, who could be found calling Blacksburg citizens almost around the clock, going door-to-door to get out the vote and organizing numerous events featuring campaign surrogates at the Republican Headquarters.

Maxwell was one of many campaign workers who struggled to balance school and politics. She was the political director for the College Republicans Federation of Virginia, but she's also a junior political science major.

"I definitely missed a good amount of class this semester -- I'm sure my professors could tell you," Maxwell said. "We were working right up until the end. It was pretty crazy."

In retrospect, she said she would have done many things differently throughout the campaign. But she'll have many more opportunities to work on campaigns, as she plans to stay involved in politics. She will campaign for a candidate in next year's race for Virginia governor and attorney general, and she's running for chairwoman of the College Republican Federation of Virginia.  

Dan Geroe, the president of Tech's Young Democrats chapter, has also been busy over the past few months. He has been behind President-elect Barack Obama since the primaries, but the Young Democrats didn't support a specific candidate during that time.

"I would try to convince my friends more in private," Geroe said.

By the time Obama was offered the bid to run for president on the Democratic ticket, Geroe was home for the summer. He returned to Blacksburg to a level of excitement and involvement he didn't anticipate.

"This year was really amazing," Geroe said. "I've never seen the kind of involvement both from a student body or from a campaign before."

Geroe said the Obama campaign's ability to out-organize the McCain campaign had a major impact on the election.

"Obama's massive outreach abilities (was) pretty much was the most important factor in this race," Geroe said.

In addition to canvassing, organizing many political events on campus, and performing various other duties for the Young Democrats, Geroe, a senior, was taking 4000-level courses during the campaign. He was also applying to law school. He slept about four to five hours, sometimes three, every night. On the Wednesday following Election Day, he skipped classes.

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