Students split over mayoral race

Campus political groups were evenly divided along party lines for yesterday's mayoral race between the Democratic incumbent Ed Rendell and his Republican challenger Joe Rocks, though the election's eventual outcome was of little surprise to either side. After months of activism, the University's College Republicans and College Democrats took a more passive role last night, anxiously awaiting election returns at campaign headquarters. As the votes were tabulated, Rendell, who is a University alumnus, quickly pulled ahead of the former State Senator Rocks, winning his second four-year mayoral term. Student reaction on both sides was strong. "The best man for the city won," said College senior Eric Roberson, president of the College Democrats. College Democrats Political Director Deborah Chasan, a College senior, agreed. "The Mayor has done a fine job. If it ain't broke don't fix it," she said. Wharton senior Dan Debicella, president of the College Republicans, which began its major campaign on behalf of Rocks two weeks ago, said the results were as he expected. Despite the defeat, Debicella said he is confident "the Rocks campaign will do a lot of good in driving the mayor to be more conservative." "He has both a liberal and a conservative side -- the conservative side showed in his tax cuts and handling of unions," Debicella explained. "Hopefully, [the campaign] will bring out his conservative side in dealing with the issues that Rocks brought up." College senior Dain Landon, a member of the College Republicans, said he is reassured by the belief that "the gain from the campaign was in pushing issues to the forefront." "Rendell is in the position to address issues he was able to skirt in the past," Landon said. Last night's celebration by the College Democrats was tempered by the reality of the tasks which still face Mayor Rendell. "His first term brought the city back from the brink of fiscal disaster," Roberson said. "Now he might have a tougher task in dealing with the smaller projects such as education, attracting businesses to the city and the effects of budget cuts in Washington. These are a whole [new] set of challenges." Members of the College Republicans, though disappointed, maintain that they are impressed with Rendell and continue to be optimistic about the future, according to Engineering sophomore Edward O'Shea, a member of the College Republicans.