Jubilant Democrats danced, chanted and pumped their fists on Election Night in Onondaga County.
“We’re taking back our country, as a party!” proclaimed Diane Dwire, chairwoman of the Onondaga County Democratic Committee, to a raucous crowd at the Election Night party. The crowd responded to Dwire by erupting in cheers.
Tuesday night, the County Democrats’ Election Night party was in the ballroom of the Holiday Inn on Electronics Parkway in Liverpool. By the time polls closed at 9 p.m., the party was in full-swing.
The room was filled with clusters of red, white and blue balloons. Guests snacked on cheese and crackers and chicken wings. They drank beer and wine while they milled around the room and waited for election results.
If they weren’t wearing business suits, the people attending the party were clad in attire that pronounced their support for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama: t-shirts, hats and pins. Upbeat rock music from a local radio station boomed out of a corner.
By evening’s end, they had plenty to celebrate: Obama had claimed the White House and made history as the first African-American president. Dan Maffei would be going to Congress from the 25th Congressional District. State Sen. Dave Valesky was re-elected from the 49th Senate District. And New York State Assembly incumbents Joan Christensen of the 119th District, Bill Magnarelli of the 120th District and Al Stirpe of the 121st District were making victory speeches at the party in Liverpool.
“We’re going to party tonight!” Stirpe proclaimed.
Party-goers spent most of the night watching two large television screens placed in corners of the room. One was tuned to CNN and the other to local station News10Now. Each time one of the stations broadcast a Democratic victory, the crowd cheered wildly. New York and swing states Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida elicited the loudest responses.
At the polls on Tuesday, conversations with both Democratic and Republican voters indicated a Democratic victory.
At the polling place at the Nob Hill apartment complex on Lafayette Road, Willie Monds, a registered Republican, voted down the Democratic Party line. He voted for Democrat Barack Obama for president because he said he wants a change and he thinks Obama can deliver that change, he said.
“I’m an angry Republican,” Monds exclaimed. “I’m fed up with all the dirty politics.”
On Tuesday night, Mike Smith, 57, of Fayetteville, echoed the frenzied feeling of the party in Liverpool in his reaction to Obama’s lead. He already has a hotel room booked in Virginia for the presidential inauguration in January, he said.
“I’m hugging people I don’t even know,” Smith said. “There’s no place I’d rather be.”
(Jamie Munks is a senior with dual majors in newspaper and political science.)
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