Senators Clinton and Obama add spice to the 2008 presidential election.(Elizabeth Lim/DP, Julie Siegel/DP)

There are 20 months before Election 2008, but the campaigns are already in full swing. $26 million raised here, $25 million there and the candidates just started slinging their mud.

Penn Leads the Vote tripled voter turnout during last year’s midterm election and the Penn Democrats are throwing their weight into next month’s mayoral race. Active political participation can be felt pulsing through this campus.

There is so much on students’ minds and with so long until the election, I wonder if Penn can sustain this energy and activism.

David Helfenbein, a junior political science major knows he maintain his enthusiam. David is the co-chair of Penn for Hillary and said the choice to work on Hillary Clinton’s campaign came naturally. “I got involved with the senator when I was 13 in New York,” David told me. “I’ve always believed in active participation. I always get excited for this. It was a natural progression.”

It’s loyalty to the Senator that has David, and other Clinton supporters, running so hard, so early. “When I’ve met her, I’ve found her to be the most caring, energetic, intelligent person that I know,” David said. “She has been very caring to the staffers and interns. The sense of loyalty, of thanks — people just want to give back to her.”

But loyalty isn’t the only ingredient in the recipe for activism. Dorna Mohaghegh, a sophomore political science major, is the communications director with Penn for Obama. After becoming “jaded with the political process,” Dorna recognized that negativity drove people away from becoming involved. That’s why she joined the Obama campaign. “Barack Obama is the only one who offers good, clean optimism,” she said. “He’s not naïve, but he inspires faith.”

And she thinks Senator Obama can inspire more student involvement, too. “He doesn’t seem distant from us,” she explained. “He’s someone to latch on to.”

Pennsylvania’s primary won’t be held until April 22 — relatively late in the process — but both David and Dorna believe that more student involvement will follow with victories from their respective candidates.

As David told me, everyone must “take the election one step at a time” with the final goal firmly in sight. To take the cake, loyalty and optimism are good first steps. But the cooks can’t abandon the original recipe, and the kitchen has gotta’ get messy. The electorate is a picky eater.

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