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Student campaign work over
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by James Davison
Thursday, November 4, 2004
For many University of Wisconsin students, the outcome of Tuesday’s voting was a payoff for the hundreds of stressful hours logged in the days and weeks leading up to Election Day as workers for candidates’ campaigns.
Now the election campaigns are over and some student campaign workers find themselves with their workload screeching to a halt and a lot of additional free time.
Senior Amanda Mueller, who was the UW campus coordinator for Pres. George W. Bush’s campaign, said her schedule will free up a lot now that the election is over.
“It is a load off my shoulders knowing it is over,” Mueller said, adding there was a large amount of extra work in the final days before the election.
Mueller has been working on the campaign since February.
“It is going to be kind of strange [now the election is over],” she said. “I haven’t missed a class yet. I’ve just been cutting back on sleeping and eating.”
UW senior Jesse Walter worked for the Students for Tammy Baldwin group. He said in the final week before Election Day he worked 12 to 14 hours per day.
Now that the campaign is finished, “I am playing catch-up with school, which was put on the back burner … because I was so busy,” Walter said. “It’s interesting because campaigns are frenzied in the last week with all energy [going] into campaigning … and all of a sudden it’s over.”
Walter, who was responsible for setting up and publicizing student Baldwin events on campus, said he doesn’t think he will do any more campaigning, but may still involve himself in politics in the future.
“It was a great experience, but it was pretty stressful,” Walter said.
Mueller, who was responsible for volunteer recruitment and helping to register new voters, said the excitement of working for a campaign made her hard work worth it.
The Republican National Committee paid Mueller, but she said she would have done it for free.
“I’ve always been very interested in politics and this wasn’t a run-of-the-mill election,” Mueller said.
Walter said he has been a big fan of Baldwin for a long time and working for her has been worthwhile.
State Rep. Mark Miller, D-Monona, who was elected Tuesday to the state senate, said he had several students helping his campaign.
“They filled every role imaginable: literature drops, writing press releases, stuffing envelopes, planning strategy,” Miller said. “They were great — very important.”
—Ryan Masse contributed to this report
