After the results had come in, political science faculty gave their opinion on what elected officials will do during their new terms.

At noon Wednesday, political science professor Michael Fine and associate professor Rodd Freitag responded to student questions about the outcome of the elections.

With Governor-elect Jim Doyle in office, Fine said the university might suffer financial cuts.

“The university is at the top of the list for cutting,” he said. “I think we aren’t in for some good times around here.”

During Doyle’s campaign, Doyle said he wouldn’t cut funding to local agencies and K-12 education, Fine said.

The only other substantial program besides the UW System is the prison system, and, after a facility is built, there is a mandatory continual cost commitment, he said.

“In a budgetary sense, (universities) are easy pickings,” Freitag said.

On Tuesday night, a group of political science students and Fine gave their opinions and analysis of the election as the results came in.

Senior Andy Oettinger, vice president of the Society of Politics, a student political science organization, said the coverage of the election races wasn’t very useful.

The news stations showed some races with only 1 percent reporting, he said.

“Hold off on the numbers until a fair amount is reported,” he said.

Fine was amused that the exit polls, the method news services use to predict the outcome of races, were down at 4 p.m. because the polling agency that all news stations use decided their numbers weren’t reliable, he said.

The television stations had to wait until the votes were counted to display any results.

“It amuses me watching all these people on television with nothing to report,” he said.

The Society of Politics reserved the Menomonee Room in Davies Center to watch election returns on three televisions.

During the evening, students made predictions about what might happen if a specific official was elected.

Oettinger predicted Doyle to win the governorship, which was correct.

This term will be difficult for Doyle, he said, and it would increase the likelihood of a Republican candidate, possibly even Scott McCallum, to win the governorship in 2006.

Some debate on independent candidates broke out during the night.

Oettinger and senior Craig Smith had an argument on the purpose of voting for Ed Thompson, the Libertarian candidate for governor.

Smith cast his vote for Thompson as a protest against voting for Doyle or McCallum.

“The other candidates disillusioned me enough to vote for a supper club owner,” Smith said. “I’m not voting for what he believes in, but who he isn’t.”

Oettinger disagreed with Smith about his protest vote.

“You can make your point, but in this election with Thompson you’re losing your voice in the ultimate outcome,” Oettinger said. “Protest votes are meaningful when not in a close election, but not in this case or the previous presidential election.”

With no confirmed results in Wisconsin races at 11 p.m., the students and faculty had to leave Davies because it was closing.

Everyone went home, but Smith said he wouldn’t be able to ignore the election results as they came in.

“I’m such an insatiable political junkie,” he said. “I can’t watch ‘Will and Grace’ while this is happening.”