We’re full of surprises.
Voters in 22 states head to the polls today, including those in delegate-rich New York and California. But on the eve of the election, Senators Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama gave special attention to a smaller state: Connecticut.
For the first time in recent memory Connecticut actually matters in a Democratic primary. Clinton and Obama are in a statistical dead heat, with polls released early last week showing the two tied with 40 percentage points each.
Usually, by the time Connecticut’s primary comes around, the candidates have already been determined, making the state a bit of a non-issue for candidates. In 2004, neither John Kerry nor John Edwards campaigned in the state before the primary, and only one in five Connecticut Democrats even bothered to vote in the primary.
This year, Connecticut officials joined many other states in moving up the date of its primary to Super Tuesday. Connecticut residents now find themselves in the middle of a battle of courtship between two progressive Democrats, both revolutionary in their own right. It seems that Connecticut is finally living up to its state motto, “full of surprises:” Kal Penn, Ned Lamont and Don Williams were on campus last Friday to rally for Obama, while yesterday both Democratic candidates were not far from campus, with Clinton in New Haven and Obama in Hartford.
With a race so close, the youth vote is crucial, and Wesleyan students have jumped into the action. After a few years when it seemed that Wesleyan’s rich history of political activity was a thing of the past, students across campus are getting politically engaged. Both local Obama rallies have drawn hundreds of Wesleyan students. Some students have even re-registered in Connecticut instead of their home state so that their vote may potentially hold more weight. With over half a dozen buses running from campus to polling places today and student groups tabling at Usdan, Wesleyan is alive with democracy in action.
It seems fitting that Senator Ted Kennedy will give this year’s commencement address: in 2008, the excitement of politics is once again sweeping across the University.
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