Students crammed into Lerner Piano Lounge Tuesday night to eat pizza, wax political, and admire Wolf Blitzer’s beard as they watched CNN project the results of 22 state primaries.
The watch party, hosted by the Columbia Political Union and co-sponsored by the CU College Democrats and the CU College Republicans, brought political junkies across the board together to watch the break-down of the numbers.
“It looks like it’s going to be a long night,” CU Dems Media Director Jonathan Backer, CC ’10, said. “We’re happy to have a lot of people here.”
“It’s the way it should be,” Imani Brown, CC ’10, said, expressing enthusiasm about the turnout and the event.
“Columbia definitely has a very politically active student body, and I’m pretty sure most students here have been voting,” Adil Ahmed, CC ’09, said. Ahmed, who has been rooting for Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.) for a year and sent his absentee ballot in last week said he had seen the Obama excitement on college campuses across the nation, but he commented that there seems to be a disconnect between the candidate preference of Columbia students and the state of New York. “It definitely feels like on campus that we have a lot of Obama supporters ... but I mean... with New York, Hillary won.”
The overwhelmingly-democratic room was filled mostly with vocal supporters of Obama, who broke into applause at each Obama victory. Despite being the minority, Clinton supporters clumped together near the front of the room and made their presence known.
Splayed out across tan leather chairs and spilling onto the floor, the audience ranged from die-heard politicos to students who gave merely the slightest of passing glances from their computer screens and homework to check up on the night’s progress.
“What brought me here was probably the free food initially, and what kept me here was the TV conveniently-located with this comfortable chair right in front of me,” John Krauss, CC ’10, said. Krauss mentioned that he was not supporting any candidate in particular.
At each win, a clamor rose from the crowd. When New Jersey was announced for Clinton, her supporters cheered while a nearby Jersey resident and Obama supporter shouted in protest, expressing shock about her home state’s decision.
Even those without clear political preferences weighed in on the candidates.
“I would like to see Obama win the Democratic primary and Huckabee win the Republican primary,” Krauss said. “I suppose I support Obama over Clinton, but not enough to switch my registration to democratic to vote for Obama. And Huckabee, I think, is the most entertaining Republican to watch, so I’d like to see him win.”
“I’m not really that dead-set on Clinton. I didn’t vote, so I feel kind of bad about that,” Liz Durst, BC ’11, said. She continued that she “was reading this stuff on Hillary, and it seems like my views are more in line with her.”
Anna Scaife, BC ’11, a New York native and Clinton supporter, looked up from her homework to make faces at a Huckabee victory speech where he announced that he would soon be president.
“I don’t mind Huckabee too much, but I mean, I obviously disagree with his policies,” Scaife said. Her Clinton support came from Clinton’s performance as a senator. “She has done a great job ... of bringing people together to work on important issues. I just think she has a really great grace under pressure that will do us well in the next four, hopefully eight years.”
Attention from the election shifted only when the news of a tornado in Nashville broke through the CNN Election Center and green screens immediately shifted from number break-downs to Centerville maps. But nothing could keep CNN from the primary results.
As the night wore on and the supply of free pizza ran out, the ranks thinned, but nevertheless several dozen students stayed on until the end.