Students react to election

By Benjamin Circelli
Senior Staff Writer
November 15, 2006

At last, the elections are over. Democrat Ed Rendell beat out Republican Lynn Swann to win the race for Governor of Pennsylvania, and Democrat Bob Casey won the U. S. Senate seat over Republican Rick Santorum. Overall, the Democrats claimed the minimum 15 seats they needed to take over the House, and won the Senate as well with a close vote of 51-49.

When surveying student opinions on La Salle’s campus about the results of the recent election, many of them seemed enthusiastic about Rendell’s win over Swann.

Senior Alessia Kline interned for Rendell this semester, so she was excited to see that her efforts in helping him campaign paid off in the end.

“Due to people’s distaste with Republicans because of corruption and the war in Iraq, Republicans tried to distance themselves from the President, and this ultimately hurt them in the end,” Kline said. “The Democrats got some big names like former President Bill Clinton to come show support, and this strengthened their position.”

Joe Hill, a communication major, was not surprised with the results of the election. He said he never thought that a football player would beat out a real politician.

“Swann didn’t have a shot because he had no real plan,” he said. “Their advertising was lacking and Swann only expressed that he felt it was time for a change instead of speaking directly about key issues and topics.”

Like Kline, Hill believes that President Bush played a key role in how people voted.

“It seems to me that it was just each Democratic candidate versus Bush, not the respective Republican candidate,” he said.

In the end, though, Hill said that he feels society was simply “trading one set of crooks for another.”

Bob Entenman, senior psychology major, agreed with Hill on certain points.

“I am very glad that Rendell won and the Democrats are back in power in the House and Senate,” he said. “I’m also happy to see that an Eagles supporter won the election, rather than a former Pittsburgh Steeler.”

Junior Communication and Sociology major Michele Muller was pleased by the results, but thinks changes won’t be made anytime soon.

“I actually sent my vote in through an absentee ballot, since I couldn’t get home on actual Election Day,” she said. “I don’t think this will change anything in the near future, though, since I don’t see the Democrats and Republicans working together well.”

Deidre Witkowski, a speech language hearing major, was one of the only people to not seem pleased with the outcome of the recent election.

“It is interesting to see the changes,” she said. “But I’m not overly excited about the election or the outcomes it may produce.”

Overall, members of the La Salle student body said they were very motivated to vote due to each individual’s personal reasons. The visits to the campus by Rendell and Swann also seemed to raise some students’ awareness of the election.

circellib1@lasalle.edu