A conservative campus senses a shift

Democrats are hoping to make inroads

OXFORD, Ohio - It was lunchtime at the student center of Miami University in Southwestern Ohio, and the food court was hopping. Students streamed in and out, some texting friends on cellphones, others lost in their iPods. They were studying, gabbing, eating.

Traffic was heavy at a small table of Barack Obama supporters, beside which stood a life-size cutout of the candidate, a permanent smile on his face. Campaign stickers, postcards, volunteer sign-up sheets, and buttons - Warhol-like in their vibrant colors - were spread out before them.

"You want some Obama gear?" Jessica Gephart, 19, asked a student amid the bustle.

"Yeah!" he said, grabbing a fistful of stickers and buttons.

On many college campuses, where support for Obama runs deep, this scene would be nothing remarkable. But this is Miami, a historically conservative, public university in a deeply conservative region north of Cincinnati. It has long been seen as reflective of the area's Republican leanings; its reputation was well-known when I was looking at colleges as a high school senior in suburban Columbus 15 years ago.

"Liberal is a kind of a dirty word around Southwestern Ohio," said Sarah Owens, a 23-year-old botany graduate student and Obama volunteer. "Everyone's expecting this area to go red. Anything we do to put a dent in that, to overturn it a little, is going to be a success."

Indeed, the surrounding Butler County voted for President Bush by a 2-to-1 ratio in 2000 and 2004. But this year, the Democrats, buoyed by Obama's appeal among young voters and a highly organized campaign operation, are making their biggest push ever on this picturesque Georgian brick campus of more than 16,000 students.

Even the College Republicans at Miami, who are working furiously to help John McCain hold onto this critical state, concede that are finally facing some serious competition. When we visited the McCain volunteers yesterday, they were gathered at an off-campus house, painting signs for today's nearby rally with GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin: "Palin git 'r' done"; "Palin Fever"; "Palin is Patriot"; "Welcome to Palin Country," the signs said.

"This year they're giving us a run for our money," said Caroline Connor, a 21-year-old geography major and McCain volunteer from Dublin, Ohio. "It's a pretty big change."

"I have close friends who are Democrats," said Thad Boggs, 21, a senior from Washington Court House, Ohio, who is majoring in political science. "And they'll say, 'I registered a couple voters for Obama today.' And then I swallow hard."

When we asked students yesterday to take a stab at guessing the political breakdown of the student body, several said 50-50. But in a brief tour of campus, we found many more Obama voters - and more Obama signs - than McCain ones.

We met Jenna Ward and Jackie Sherrick, political science majors, as they were heading to an exam in "comparative security." They were laughing with each other. They both had PDAs in their hands. But they do not share a candidate.

"I feel like Barack Obama doesn't have the experience I would like to see in a leader," said Ward, a 21-year-old junior from Virginia who objected to Obama's plan to end the war in Iraq.

"I definitely think we need to get out of the war. We need to refocus on Afghanistan," said Sherrick, a 20-year-old junior from Dublin.

The students working for Obama enjoy the challenge of being at Miami and persuading friends and classmates to join their cause. Often, they say, students here are conservative only because their parents are, and that once on their own they begin challenging long-held assumptions.

"I see the movement swallow people," said Stephen Kostyo, a 20-year-old political science major from Findlay.

There appears to be a big difference in how the Obama campaign and the McCain campaign interact with their campus volunteers.

The pro-Obama students report having constant interaction with the campaign, and their strategies and day-to-day activities are very much coordinated. The Republicans on campus, however, operate with very little oversight.

"We basically do what we do," Boggs said. "They don't really give us direction."

To some McCain volunteers, that is how it should be.

"I know the campus. I know what works here, what gets picked up, what gets popular," said Courtney Rosellini, a 21-year-old from Racine, Wis., majoring in speech communications.

But the Obama activists on campus seem to be benefiting from their close relationship with the campaign field operation, helping to organize rides so students can vote early, schedule volunteer shifts, and plan voter registration efforts.

Connor and her cohort are acutely aware that, with McCain lagging in some battleground states, the last thing they need is a strong Obama operation peeling away student votes that Republicans used to be able to count on.

"Every day matters," she said.

I asked the McCain volunteers how they would feel if Obama were their president.

"I'm moving to Italy," Rosellini said.

"I'm coming with you!" added Carly Roman, a 21-year-old zoology major from Canton, Ohio.

Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com. Dina Rudick can be reached at drudick@globe.com.