By Buster Baer
Staff Writer
The Young Republicans Club and Young Democrats Club faced off yesterday in the annual Democrats versus those of Republicans debate, which took place for the first time in the Costa auditorium during lunch.
The debate topic was the policies of President Barack Obama versus Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. It was moderated by Costa history teacher Steve Singiser.
“We were excited to be talking about a broad subject that everyone knows about,” Young Democrats president senior Adam Gerard said. “It was certainly a very pertinent topic because of the elections, and we were happy about the big turnout.”
In anticipation of a large audience, the event was held in the auditorium for the first time in the clubs’ histories. The debate lived up to the clubs’ expectations, and many Mira Costa students and teachers attended.
“I could not wait, and it was so exciting,” senior April Barajas said. “I was there the second fourth period ended.”
Both groups helped to publicize the event in the daily bulletin and on Facebook in order to ensure that they could gather a large audience.
“We like to put on these debates for those of us that like to argue about our views,” Young Republicans Club president senior Nick Jones said. “We also do them because we like to entertain the public and help them solidify their own political views.”
The Democrats’ debate team members consisted of Gerard, seniors Carter Cassady and Danny Kelleher and sophomore Chase Williams. The Republicans team consisted of Jones, along with seniors Jack Hadley, Nick Rigler and Bryan Sydow.
“The members of the other team are used to speaking off the cuff on political policies,” Gerard said. “It was a much stronger team than I have seen in the past, so we prepared accordingly.”
The debate included an opening statement from both sides, back and forth questions and answers and a closing statement from both the teams.
“Unfortunately, we had to keep it short because we had to condense the whole thing into one lunch period,” Jones said.
Gerard believes that the clubs’ preparation for the debate paid off in the end.
“We all worked really hard to prepare, and we’re really impressed on how well the opposing party did in the debate,” Gerard said. “I think it was a really good show that we put on.”
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