Republican student candidate Evan Baehr '05 lost his bid for Borough Council on Tuesday, claiming 24 percent of the total vote. Andrew Koontz and Roger Martindell won seats with 39 percent and 37 percent, respectively, out of about 6,400 votes.
"I'm pretty exhausted right now," Baehr said Tuesday night. "It was a really long day. But it was good to work with the local volunteers . . . and to hear people say, 'You've brought more energy to this campaign than I've ever seen.'"
An early start
Baehr's plan for Election Day day was mapped out on four separate schedules. He went over them the night before Tuesday's election in a pre-battle meeting with the College Republicans.
"We have knocked on every door in the Borough twice and every Borough resident has received a phone call. One-thousand six-hundred people visited my website on Sunday," said Baehr at the meeting. "There's reason to be optimistic about tomorrow."
Now tomorrow had come, and Baehr was showing cracks in his ease.
Though steady at the wheel of his van, he seemed as reliant on his Blackberry as a coffee addict on caffeine, glancing at its screen every few minutes and touching it unconsciously when it was on his hip. It was 6:15 a.m. and he was already sent an email telling them the polls are open. His slacks were pressed and his Cole Hahns polished. Baehr was ready to run.
Baehr picked up his mother, Anne Baehr, then drove to Einstein Bagels to pick up $160 of coffee and bagels. The candidates were required to supply voting sites with food, and over the next hour Baehr visited the Borough Hall, Chestnut Street, Trinity Church, Harrison Street, the Methodist Church and Mt. Pisgah.
A southern touch
At 8:30 a.m. Evan Baehr joined a group of volunteers on a street corner to wave campaign signs at traffic. This tactic is an injection of his Southern background into the more reserved style of Northeastern campaigning.
"All campaigning in the South is done like this, out here with the people," Anne Baehr said.
Baehr's political career as a whole can be viewed as a similar encounter between heritage and personal drive.
Although Baehr's Florida home district is notably conservative, Baehr grew up in a family that took little interest in politics.
But he had a latent political streak. The young Baehr followed local elections closely, participated in high school debate and was chosen, during the 2000 presidential election to compete in a mock presidential debate in the role of then Gov. George W. Bush.
He became increasingly active in conservatism during the following years, taking internships with policy groups and searching for universities with strong political science programs.
He arrived at the University an aspiring Wilson School major. By the end of his freshman year, he had joined the College Republicans and been elected student representative to the Borough Republican Committee.
Baehr didn't consider running for office, though, until the spring of junior year.
Getting the votes
Baehr's campaign began by holding meetings, filing paperwork for a position of candidacy, completing campaign finance paperwork, finding donors, carrying out direct fundraising, planning campaign advertising and finding volunteers. His 15-hour-a-week campaign work grew to 25 hours and finally a nearly round-the-clock effort.
"I can't imagine, looking at the amount of emotion and energy Evan has been putting into this, the presidential candidates must be iron men," his mother said.
On the University's mostly liberal campus, votership is not always in Baehr's favor.
Founding the voter registration initiative "P-Votes" with College Democrat president Jay Saxon '05, Baehr initially enjoyed a relationship with the opposition's leadership.
As tension rose in the presidential race, however, he saw the student body increasingly judge him by his party label.
"Nobody says, 'Oh, Evan Baehr, I'm so against his stance on the rampant deer problem in Princeton,'" he said. "They just react to the name 'Republican.' People who would otherwise support you don't want to because they don't want to see you as a Senator one day."
Baehr said this kind of party-line thinking prevents democracy from gaining variety.
"People here like Rush Holt, but nobody would suggest we elect six Rush Holts and send them to Congress and expect them to come up with solutions to problems," he said. "But here, Councillors never disagree with each other. That's why they make such irresponsible decisions."
Much of Baehr's campaign was an effort to educate students on local issues. "Once I could actually sit people down and explain the issues, people started to say, 'Hey, I like him,'" he said.
On the road
At 10 a.m., Baehr drove to the office of Jamestown Associates — a political consulting firm — then to Trinity Church.
"This is an important polling site," he said. "I'm nervous because I want to do well, but sort of thinking 'If I don't win, how will I react to it?'"
He paused and added, "A lot of it's out of my hands right now. Before, if you got nervous, you could turn around and do something. Now you can just wait."
Baehr's afternoon schedule reads like the diary of a seasoned politico: "sign waving at library," "sticker distribution" and "pick up challenger sheets." But scattered within were reminders that he is still a college student. One block is held for "lunch at Cottage w/ mom," and the 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. block simply reads "nap/paper."
By 8 p.m., Baehr was pacing at Trinity Church. When Trinity's polls close, Baehr leapt up to read the final numbers.
"I'm beating Martindale by 160," he said. "This is very good in terms of margins."
Charged up by the promising early results, Baehr's campaign group headed to Conte's restaurant to join a district-wide Republican election party. The bar was jammed with people, orange light and pizza.
Baehr looked over poll results as they arrive. "District 8, no students, won it. District 6, woo! District 4, strong."
His face was flushed but glowing.
For a half hour, the room was buzzing with people copying data from phone screens to tally sheets, laptops to charts. All of this information was copied onto a wall grid.
Suddenly, the room launched into applause. Baehr was standing on a chair, a crowd surrounding him. From the back row, it looked for a moment like he's won.
"Guys, thank you for being here tonight . . . thank you so much for your help with my campaign . . . we were close, but we didn't make it," he says.
"So we lost. That said, we had a very strong showing. Just because we didn't take a seat doesn't mean we didn't achieve some real victories. Just in my short time here, I've seen more energy in this local Republican Party than anything I've been in before. It's a real honor to be your candidate this year and to have your support," he added.
And with that, his campaign is over. Leaving Conte's some time later, Baehr looked tired but not defeated.
"I think it's a victory without the office," says College Republicans chief of staff Kyle Detwiler '05. "We really showed the town that issues students care about are important. If next year candidates come to campus to debate, it will be a victory beyond our wildest dreams."
"This is a great exercise in American civics," he added. "A man with a dream stood up and let his voice be heard."
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