I n September 1999, Nick Gonzales and Ben Cwayna began recruiting Republicans for 4 South Case Hall.
“We tried to stack this floor so we could have a party this year,” said Gonzales, dressed in a camel hair sport coat and khaki pants during a GOP election party Tuesday night in his and Cwayna’s suite.
“We’re trying to make it fun and further people’s interest in politics.”
Students around East Lansing threw parties Tuesday night to celebrate Election Day and watch results come in with friends and fellow party supporters. Most planned to stay up until the final results came in - no matter how late.
“We’ll be up all night,” said Gonzales, a political theory and constitutional democracy sophomore. “We might stay up ’til Friday if the absentee ballots are not cast.”
Gonzales and Cwayna - a political theory and constitutional democracy sophomore dressed in a navy sport coat and khaki pants - started decorating their room Sunday with Bush-Cheney signs, Web sites up on their computers, books and an autographed photograph of Gonzales with GOP presidential candidate Texas Gov. George W. Bush.
Many friends who attended the party also dressed up.
“The main thing is that we’re having fun with it,” Cwayna explained, sitting beneath an 8th Congressional District candidate Mike Rogers campaign sign. A downloaded picture of former President Ronald Reagan and a “Jesus is on our side” sign hung from his loft.
The party began at 9 Tuesday morning, and Republican - and some Democratic - friends filtered in and out throughout the day, Gonzales said. About 12 people were at the party around 10 p.m., and Gonzales expected more.
The party was a little quiet around 10 p.m. because the attendees were “extremely unhappy” about early results in key battleground states showing Democrat candidate Vice President Al Gore ahead, Gonzales said.
“If we start getting electoral votes, this thing’s going to be jumping,” Gonzales said.
But those results made a party downstairs pretty lively.
The Case Hall Programming Board, Case Hall’s government, put on an election turnout party. Although members of all political parties attended the gathering, more Democrats stayed longer.
“As major Democratic states have been coming in, Republican people have been going out, maybe to join other conclaves,” said Brad Harris, president of the board and a political theory and constitutional democracy sophomore.
The board provided pizza and pop at 7:45 p.m., when the party started.
“Now that the food has sort of dwindled, people have left,” Harris said. “But we’ll be here till the wee hours of the night. We don’t want to wake up and get a nasty surprise.”
Unlike the Republican party upstairs, many of the people at the board’s party were in jeans and T-shirts.
Katie Syswerda attended in her pajamas.
“I didn’t vote, but we haven’t had an election this big that would draw a crowd (since I got to college),” said the special education sophomore, who did not like any of the choices.
A nonpartisan election party drew a crowd of about 30 to a house on the 400 block of Grove Street. The house’s living room was covered with Bush-Cheney, Gore-Lieberman and Ralph Nader signs.
“Election Day is cause for a celebration of democracy,” said party organizer Ari Sussman, a political theory and constitutional democracy junior, dressed in a suit and tie. “This is our first party ever because a party needs an ideology.”
Sussman’s friends played guitar, watched television and drank beer to celebrate democracy.
“We had debate parties for two out of the three debates,” Sussman said. “We planted the seeds during the first debate, which would culminate in an election night fiesta.”
Sussman’s friend Chris Henderson said the party would not end until election coverage did.
“We’re going to stay up ’til Alaska comes in,” the mechanical engineering senior said.
