With the race for the 2008 presidential candidacy underway, it can be easy to watch television and get caught up in the media hype. Some students are taking it a step further by participating and getting involved with the early election processes such as the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary.

Patrick Whitty, College of Arts & Sciences senior, attended the Iowa caucuses Jan. 3 and served as a field organizer for Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) campaign in the Des Moines area. After starting an internship last June, Whitty made the decision to become even more involved with the campaign by taking time off from school to work full time for the campaign staff.

"It's much different than a standard election," Whitty said.

He said Iowa residents participating in the caucuses show up at a certain time and place to register for either the Republican or Democratic Party. Participants then break up into groups to publicly declare and stand in support of a certain candidate. A head count is taken to see which candidates have the most support. Whitty said the caucus was a success and that Obama had an overflow of people in his corner.

This year the Republican caucus used a voting system similar to a primary, according to Christopher Murray, lecturer of political science for the Les Aspin Center for Government.

With a public display, Whitty said people often use peer pressure to gain additional support for a candidate. The caucus system focuses on relationship building, while a regular election is more about making a lot of phone calls and reminding people to vote.

"It's a very interesting display of democracy," Whitty said.

Now that the caucus is over, Whitty said the Obama campaign is focusing on shutting down offices in Iowa and making phone calls to other states. Now that he is back at Marquette this semester, Whitty said he wishes he could contribute more. But he felt it was time to come back since he has not been on the Marquette campus since his sophomore year.

Rather than being awarded votes in the caucus, Murray said candidates are awarded a number of delegates for Iowa's national convention based on the amount of support in each precinct. Unlike the caucus system, the primary election process uses a secret ballot in which people can vote at any time of the day, according to Murray.

Murray said one of the major differences between the caucus and the primary is time. Time is limited in a caucus and participants need to devote a certain amount of time to complete the process, whereas people can cast their vote and leave during a primary.

He said the good thing about the caucus system is that it gives control to the party and rewards the most popular candidates, which is essential for a party nomination.

Murray said the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary are important because they are the first election processes of the presidential race.

"As the first contests they create so much momentum for the candidates to do well," Murray said.

He said they are also important because the candidates actually spend time with the voters. In the later elections, Murray said the voters focus more on the media since the candidates do not take as much time to meet with the public.

Matt Clarke, a sophomore at Grinnell College in central Iowa, attended the Democratic caucus held at his college. He said about 500 people participated.

"Once we got inside the room, it seemed pretty chaotic to me," Clarke said. He said he liked the caucus system because it encourages honest discussion about leaders rather than the voters "being bombarded with commercials."