'Electrifying' moment in time
Residents enjoy historic night for more than just Obama win
Blue martinis were raised and cheers erupted in the home of Curtis Hunt and Sangita Kasturi each time presidential candidate Barack Obama won a state Tuesday night.
Along with their three children and more than a dozen friends and co-workers, the Naperville couple also filled in states on a large U.S. map they had printed out and posted on the wall. After holding an Election Day party in 2004, they decided to host another gathering to watch a win that Kasturi, 43, says represents "a new world."
(Danielle Gardner/Staff Photographer)
• Election: Complete coverage
"We hope to make it a tradition," she said. "We didn't want to forgo being a part of history and we wanted our kids to witness history, as well."
Children played as the adults sat around a big-screen television and debated political issues in Kasturi and Hunt's basement. Kasturi said their two sons, Benjamin, 12, and Lucas, 10, watched the returns, but Anjali, the 3-year-old, fell asleep after repeatedly asking her mother the difference between "Obama" and "Barack Obama."
For Hunt, 38, the highlight of his evening was Obama's win in Ohio because it was then that he realized the Democrat would win the election. Along with pulling troops out of Iraq and focusing on social problems like crime and health care, Hunt hopes Obama will bring a "return of reason."
"I'm hoping for a return to reasonable policies based upon critical thoughts," Hunt said. "I want to see decisions that are based on facts on the ground, a focus on the actual social ills of the country."
The election was the first time Kasturi and Hunt represented the majority of voters in DuPage and Will counties by voting for the Democratic candidate. Obama gathered 55 percent of the vote in DuPage and 56 percent in Will, even though both counties went for President Bush in 2000 and 2004.
Combined with three first-time wins on the DuPage County Board, the Obama wave will bring in more Democrats willing to run for seats in the future, said Bob Peickert, chairman of the DuPage County Democratic Central Committee.
"I think we're going to see a dramatic increase in the number of people coming forward," Peickert said. "I think our candidate pool will expand dramatically."
Obama's presence on the ticket was "electrifying," said Tom Wronski, chairman of the Naperville Township Democratic Organization.
The 125,000-person crowd attending Obama's election night rally in Chicago's Grant Park was certainly electrified, according to Stacey Cohen, a 2005 graduate of Waubonsie Valley High School who interned for CNN during the rally.
Cohen, 21, who is a senior majoring in broadcast journalism at Columbia College, helped prepare several days prior to the Grant Park event and spent the evening escorting VIP guests and helping camera crews. At one point the line to get into the rally stretched one mile, from Congress Parkway to Roosevelt Road on Michigan Avenue, she said.
"People were selling buttons and hats, everyone was really excited and there were people singing and dancing," Cohen said. "It was an amazing experience ... I've never seen anything like it."
