With the election less than two weeks away, the political race is heating up, both on and off the campaign trail. Otterbein College Republicans (OCR) and Organizing Otterbein for Obama (OOO) are two major political groups on campus endorsing their party's candidate. At Sunday's McCain rally, OCR recruited and organized over 70 volunteers to help out throughout the day. Aside from the rally, "Activities that we plan have a lot to do with being seen around campus," said Tom Davis, senior actuarial science major and co-chair of Otterbein College Republicans. The group meets every Wednesday to go over upcoming events and organize conservatives on campus. "It's easy for us to take a back seat on what seems to be a dominated liberal-mind campus," said Davis. "We try and organize ourselves in a way that will best promote our values and candidates." Members of OOO were also at Sunday's rally, demonstrating on behalf of Dem. Candidate Sen. Barack Obama. According to Becky Rollo, evening circulation supervisor at Courtright Memorial Library and representative from OOO, their message was "not anti-McCain, but pro-Obama."
Any sign mentioning McCain in a negative way was not allowed because, "the candidate we're supporting has made it extremely clear that he wants a positive campaign." Rollo said that OOO members were spat at, yelled at and verbally abused. "They said 'you're a baby killer, you're a communist.' We tried to just turn the other cheek," she said. Now, OOO is coordinating with Westerville for Obama in the campaign home stretch. "The number one request from the Obama campaign is that we canvas the school through Oct. 28," said Rollo. The group will meet Tuesday, 3 p.m. in Roush 213, and will be driving Obama supporters registered in Franklin County to Veterans's Memorial Hospital to vote early. Students both involved, and not involved in either organization, have shown their political support through joining groups on Facebook. As of Wednesday night, over 600 students were members of one or more political Facebook groups, including "Otterbein College Republicans 08/09" (33 members), "Otterbein for McCain" (81 members) and "Otterbein for Obama" (513 members). "It's exciting that students are this engaged in the campaign," said Bob Gatti, dean of students and vice president for Student Affairs. Students have mixed emotions about what they've seen. "I think it's important to support the candidate of your choice but I think some of the messages have gotten a bit out of hand," said Kaylyn Williams, senior nursing major. Mike Ruffing, senior sports management major, echoed that opinion, saying "It's cool to be a part of everything that's happening, but I'm ready for the election to be over." t&c;
