 "Photo: Courtesy of The Los Angeles Times/Washington Post News Wire")
Students, professors and teaching assistants filled every available seat of Trabant University Center's Multipurpose Room A Tuesday evening for one of the biggest nights in politics.
During a day more commonly referred to as "Super Tuesday", the department of communications and the department of political science and international relations held their own, first-ever, "Super Tuesday" event in hopes to explain and interpret the results of 24 primaries and caucuses around the nation on that day. "Super Tuesday" received its name because, on this day, more delegates will be selected for the presidential nomination process than any other day of the year.
A panel of five professors, dubbed "The Best Political Team Not on TV," began the program by explaining important facets of the primary election process. Primaries are filled with more rules and regulations than the general election, held every year in November.
Joseph Pika, professor of political science and international relations, said the process in which a candidate wins a state's delegates, or voters who help elect the president during a party's national convention, is the most important part of Super Tuesday for the candidates.
More than 50 percent of the delegates towards the convention were selected on Super Tuesday, Pika said. A candidate who does well on Super Tuesday is more likely to become nominated for president by his or her own party.
"If one candidate or the other puts great distance between the other candidate and wins an overwhelming number of the candidates then they have a great shot," he said.
Political science professor Jason Mycoff said Super Tuesday occurred earlier than normal because many states were stricken with "calendar envy," or a desire to push the primary in their state earlier in the year.
Iowa and New Hampshire hold the first caucus and primary in the nation and voters in those states get the first say on who becomes the next president. Other states do not like this and want their vote to mean something, he said.
"You might ask yourself 'Well that doesn't really seem fair.' That's what all the other states start asking themselves," Mycoff said. "They all want to be early in the process because they want their votes to count more."
The year 2008 has been unusual because states moved primaries up earlier than in past elections, a tactic called frontloading, Mycoff said. Iowa and New Hampshire, by their own laws, must go first but other states moved up too early within national party rules. Two states, Florida and Michigan, were penalized for moving up too soon and some of their delegates were nullified, he said.
Unlike 2004, by "Super Tuesday," more than half of the country has already voted in their state's primary or caucus, Mycoff said. In 2004, by Feb. 5, the nation was still looking at the results of Iowa and New Hampshire.
"It's all about calendar envy," he said.
Danna Young, a communications professor, said other issues should be focused on rather than the "horse race," or the race between the candidates.
In a room filled with televisions tuned to CNN and Fox News, Young warned about major news outlets and what they tell the public about during the election process.
Young said in recent years, the trend in the media has been to discuss the strategy of the campaign, such as fundraising and the horse race, instead of the issues. This can be detrimental to the common people's opinion on politics and on the election.
"If you only define how politicians behave in terms of strategy and motivation, they're doing things because they're behind or ahead, it starts to seem as though nothing is an authentic gesture," she said. "Everything is just a means to an end."
Another issue Young brought to light out was how the media covers the drama of the campaign. She said the best example of this is Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) crying during her trip to New Hampshire.
The story of Clinton crying in a local coffeehouse was filled with everything voters look for in media coverage of an election, she said. In fact, some political pundits believe that is why Clinton won the New Hampshire primary.
"That story was so juicy," Young said. "Not only did it have these trappings of personality, violating journalistic expectation, drama, emotion, you also then had 'Hillary pulled it out New Hampshire. It was because she cried.' "
Senior Ryan Silberstein said he feels an event like this provides good background for those getting involved in politics. He said the timing of the event was appropriate, as political interest is at a high point during "Super Tuesday."
"I think there is real value in doing it tonight, especially as more states have their primaries," Silberstien said.
He said he believes students at the university are like other college students across the country who get politically active before a campaign. He said the apathetic feeling is cyclical and an event like Super Tuesday only helps people get more involved in politics.
"This might be a sight of change. Maybe things will move in a more politically active direction," he said.
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