Oak Park Dems Jubilant after Obama Wins Second Term

To say the least, it was an exciting night at Fitzgerald's in Berwyn for the Democratic Party of Oak Park as they hosted an election night viewing party.

Dozens of party faithful whooped, hollered and cheered as they took in the results.

It was a time for celebration for a large number of Oak Park volunteers who put in long hours of phone banking and canvassing in Iowa and Wisconsin during the summer and fall.

During the four days running up to Election Day, more than 1,000 volunteers phone banked from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. and drove up to Wisconsin over the weekend to canvass, said Geraldine Delaney, coordinator of the Obama campaign in Oak Park.

"How can we lose with people like that?" asked Delaney, who was cheerful and positive all evening.

Phone-banking was fun—and sort of addictive, said long-time volunteer Ginny Yang, who made calls over the weekend.

"When we had a good conversation, people (in the phone bank room at the Woodbine Avenue headquarters) got excited; they picked up on the energy. It was like a mini-convention," she said.

Those efforts helped put Iowa and Wisconsin into the Obama column.

The place went wild after Wisconsin was called for Obama around 8:30 p.m.

Party faithful cheered when states went blue; they yelled when U.S. Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren won her seat; and they whooped when Sherrod Brown and Claire McCaskill won their seats.

"It might be a late night, but it'll be a good night," said Illinois Senator Don Harmon, who also won re-election on Tuesday.

But when the big news came at 10:15 p.m. that Ohio had put Obama over the top for re-election, the sound was deafening. People hugged, pumped fists into the air and clapped as there seemed to be a collective sigh of relief.

Even though not everyone at FitzGerald's on Tuesday night volunteered officially for the Obama campaign, they nonetheless campaigned in their own way.

Seven-year-old Fiona O'Connor, a second grader at Washington Irving School, put an Obama button on her backpack and even hung a couple of signs—one very pro-Obama and one very anti-Romney—in the window of her home. At school, she was telling classmates that Romney was putting money in other countries.

Her mom, Hannah, noted that she got phone calls from parents about that.

"I did not realize how much she was taking in," Hannah said about her daughter, but noted that politics is a big topic in her house.

Fiona loved it all—perhaps a candidate in the making. 

"It's cool to see the votes," she said.