Occidental students confront a reality of political campaigns: defeat

◼ For a semester, Occidental students spent 12-hour days campaigning for candidates -- and lost - Jason Song/LA Times

The midterm elections were over. The 11 campaign workers from Occidental College returned to class. But first, they heard from a school reverend.

"You win some, you lose some," Susan Young told the group. It's perfectly OK, she said, to have trouble readjusting to college life or to feel out of place.

In what is believed to be the only college program of its kind, the undergraduates in the Campaign Semester course spent at least 2 1/2 months, often seven days a week, 12 hours a day, working on behalf of candidates in contested states.

None won.

Many were resoundingly defeated, although two students worked for the reelection campaign of Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, who is in a runoff. All of the students worked for Democratic candidates; Republicans swept the mid-terms and took control of the House and Senate....