EMILY REID/Arizona Daily Wildcat Jeff Stapleton, a history junior and member of the UA's Young Democrats, bites his nails as he watches the close race for governor last night at the Democratic election rally.

The UA's Young Democrats were running on coffee, sugar and very little sleep as they and couple hundred other local Democrats, awaited election results last night.

Members of the club joined hundreds of other Democrats from across Tucson last night as election returns trickled in to their local camp set up at the Viscount Hotel on East Broadway Boulevard.

"Last night, we were hanging signs up in the morning around town," Young Democrat President Michelle Rust said. "That was exciting. I got three hours of sleep. I'm running on adrenaline now."

The Young Democrats arrived at the hotel at after 9 p.m., as the large crowd that was there began to thin.

However, the eyes of everyone still in the lobby, festooned with red, white and blue streamers, were glued to the several large screen TVs in the room.

The tired eyes of some of the Young Democrats disclosed both their hard work throughout the election and the anticipation they felt about the incoming results.

Throughout the election, club members spent their time phone banking, walking door-to-door to hand out information packets on the candidates, talking to students on campus and encouraging people to register to vote, according to political science sophomore Patrick Cummings, director of student affairs for the Young Democrats.

Just before the polls closed last evening, Rust and other Young Democrats held up signs at Speedway Boulevard and Euclid Avenue "to get people's attention, let them know, remind them to vote."

Rust said that during elections, the young democrats "basically do whatever they need us to do, we phone bank, we go out to precincts, hang signs, hang signs around town ÷ anything we can do to get them elected. And sometime they'll have you do, you know, run down to Kinko's to get some copies made ÷ last minute things that they can't get done, that, you know, we're able to do."

Rust said that she did not expect any surprise wins or losses in the election, although she hoped that Janet Napolitano would beat Matt Salmon in the close race for governor.

At about 10:35 p.m., things were looking up for Ted Downing and Dave Bradley.

However, an hour earlier, Mary Judge Ryan got up and thanked everyone for their support and said that they'd put up a good fight.

"I'm kind of shocked about Mary Judge Ryan," Cummings said. "I knew it was going to be a hard race, but I wasn't expecting it to be this big of a blow," referring to her loss to U.S. Senator Jim Kolbe. "So that's kind of sad, but we're still hoping for Janet."