While the nation prepares for the 2012 elections, Marquette’s College Republicans and College Democrats do the same. Republican chairman Ethan Hollenberger and Democrat chairman Andy Suchorski tell the Journal how they’re planning to ensure victory in November.

Ethan Hollenberger College Republicans:

Besides winning, what are the goals for this election cycle?

Number one: Turn out more student voters than we’ve ever turned out before. We want more people to vote on Marquette’s campus than ever before. It should be relatively easy with the voter ID now. Number two: Identifying more of our voters in winning the issues. So we want to get our issues across before we get our candidate across.

How many active members does the group have?

We probably have 40-60 active members at a time, probably closer to 60.

Do you think you will need more volunteers to be successful?

Yeah. We are going to need 100-200 active volunteers in the election cycle.

What about students who may be apathetic toward politics or just don’t have a persuasion?

You’ve got to find the issue they care about. Everyone has an issue they care about. That’s why we want to run an issues-based campaign. We want to show people why our positions are better than the other side’s. We are going to find issues that people care about. That’s how we target voters: find the key issues for them.

Do you think there will be momentum from the recall, one way or the other?

Definitely. The president has come out against Scott Walker, the democratic party has come out against Scott Walker, candidates for office have come out against Scott Walker. It’s going to be a tidal wave either way.

How do you keep people involved over the summer, especially when a lot of them may live out of state?

I think this summer we are going to target a lot of kids in Wisconsin. That way we can find the victory center in their neighborhood and tell them to go volunteer at those locations.

What activities do you have in the works for the rest of the semester?

There is a national student activism conference in Milwaukee that we are helping to sponsor with the Young Americans Foundation. We are hosting the state College Republicans conference in April, also.

Do you coordinate with other College Republican groups?

We are going to start. The group at UWM kind of fell apart so we will start building together and finding events for both of us to do together. Obviously us hosting the state-wide convention here is important.

Do you guys plan on using social media?

That’s something we need to improve on is making sure we are using social media to get our message out. The democrats use it pretty effectively. I don’t think we tweet or post on Facebook enough. I think if we did we would see people getting more engaged.

Do you have confidence students share the group’s views?

Yes. Obama’s approval rating among college students is plummeting faster and faster everyday. (In 2008) Obama was young and fresh running against a 72-year-old (John) McCain. (The Obama campaign) also spent a 100 million on college campuses in ’08. You’ve also got to remember this is a new generation of voters. Unless you’re a fifth-year senior, no one on campus next year will have voted in a presidential election before.

Andy Suchorski College Democrats:

Other than winning, what are the goals of the organization?

Student outreach. We want to reach out to students who might not neccesarily be engaged but are very much for Obama and for the recall. So reaching out to these people is our number one priority before November.

Do you think there has been a shift in views toward your side?

Without a question. That’s what this recall and the referendum in Ohio are about. Some generic congressional polls even have Democrats up.

How do you get students apathetic to politics on board?

I think that’s a question we are going to be wrestling with going forward. That’s definitely the biggest challenge on a college campus. Our level of involvement really increased with the recall. We saw an increase in attendance in meetings. This tells us what we’re doing is working and students are engaged

What activities do you have planned?

We started the semester with a conference call with Michelle Obama. Last semester we registered 150 new voters here at Marquette. We plan to continue that. Voter registration is key at Marquette considering we have a lot of people coming from out of state.

Do you think the results of the recall will carry momentum one way or the other?

Without question. I think it will be very demoralizing if we lose. Wisconsin Democrats have a very strong labor tradition. So if labor loses they may not be fired up to go out to the polls.

Is the organization in touch with elected officials, maybe other groups?

We are in touch with other college dem chapters throughout the state, especially MSOE and UWM. What we have going now is very fluid.

Are you guys active in social media?

We have a really strong social media presense. We’ve only had our Facebook and Twitter page for over a year but we have been really successful with that.

How many members are actively in the group?

Right now we consistently average 20 to 25 people per meeting, which is a big increase from last year where we had 5 to 10.

How many people do you think you need to add to work elections?

We had a perfect amount to do what we needed to do in the recall. Our guys were responsible for 1,000 signatures. We are more than capable of doing anything we need to do.

 How do you keep activities going over the summer, with people going home?

It’s tough. The focus though is really on those who stay in Wisconsin because there is only so much you can do. There is some level of engagement we still have over the summer, it’s obviously not as much.