Inaugurate my love

When President-elect Barack Obama becomes the real deal next week, try to picture him wearing a toga and holding a bow and arrow - something like the cherub above, but maybe without the red high heels (Obama would never wear such impractical shoes).

Obama is a cupid, of sorts. His election was about hope and all things positive. It's not surprising that many of his supporters wound up falling for more than just him.

One of the more high-profile Obama love stories is the marriage of Harvard professors Cass R. Sunstein and Samantha Power (yes, the one who called Hillary Clinton a monster). Both have been big names in the Obama campaign. The two politicos met while advocating for the president-to-be last winter. They were married by summer.

Of course, they can't say much about their love (or anything else) right now - they're neck deep in transition - but Sunstein did send me a quick e-mail about his Obamaffair. It said: "Flowers bloomed and birds sang in Iowa in January." Did they ever.

One soon-to-be-married couple who couldn't go on the record with their names (he now works for Obama, who apparently likes to keep love on the down low) told me they met while campaigning in New Hampshire. It was a match made in heaven - or, actually, a match made in Manchester.

The Obama campaign marked the second round of love and politics for locals Kristen Uekermann, 30, and Ray Coderre, 27. Their political cupid is John Kerry. Sort of.

In 2004, Uekermann was a Wesley Clark supporter and Coderre was a Howard "Deaniac," says Uekermann.

"After both of our candidates failed, we needed jobs," she says.

They started dating after signing up to work for Kerry in Washington, D.C., and were engaged after two months. Now they live in Brookline and are pursuing degrees at Harvard University. Last year, like good Democrats, they signed up to help Obama.

"I was a Hillary girl. I came around, of course," Uekermann says.

The couple will be celebrating the inauguration in the Bahamas.

"We'll be laying on the beach, toasting Obama from there," she says.

Richard Parker, a public policy professor at the Harvard's Kennedy School, says that if a campaign couple makes it to inauguration, there's cause for celebration. Election-spawned relationships are usually intense, overly serious, and quite short, he says. Rarely do these twosomes last past November.

It's like summer camp, especially for younger campaigners who are stuck in a remote location, working 16-hour days.

"There's a certain amount of casual hooking up," he says, adding that campaigners need to "release [their] ya-yas, if you will."

Sometimes campaign lovers already have real spouses at home.

"I've seen some pretty tragic break-ups occur," he says. "People say, in the heat of the moment, 'I have found my soul mate. No one reads district-to-district polling analysis like she does.' "

Crushes on campaign workers are usually fleeting. But if a couple is still together on Jan. 20, it might be the real deal, Parker says. And this year, Obama isn't the only candidate who can take credit for creating love that might go the distance.

John McCain was also a cupid. The senator may have lost his election, but he did bring happiness to 25-year-old Amber Hillman, who was the Massachusetts director of his campaign and happens to be the daughter of former Kerry Healy running mate Reed Hillman.

Before she took the Massachusetts job, Hillman was in New Hampshire. There, she met 27-year-old Robert Heuchling, the McCain coalition director for New England. The two started dating in October. They're still going strong.

"It's hard to date, and you can't go through all the normal processes when you're on the campaign," she says. "We were able to do that when the campaign ended and we realized we had some long-lasting potential."

Four more years? We'll see. In the meantime, the twosome will be getting together on inauguration night for some love and consoling.

"It'll definitely be bittersweet," Hillman says. "I'm guessing we'll probably do some commiserating."

Meredith Goldstein can be reached at mgoldstein@globe.com.