Students with real life campaign experience spoke at a forum Tuesday night in Davies Center.

Seniors Nate Otto, Nicholl Caruso and sophomore Duncan Cameron each participated in the forum sponsored by Pi Sigma Alpha, the political science honor society.

Society president Megan Werner said the forum was held to give students the opportunity to hear from other students who have taken part in the political process.

Otto ran for Eau Claire City Council this spring and Cameron ran for state assembly in the 93rd district last fall.

Both Otto and Cameron lost their elections.

Caruso took a semester off of school and worked on the campaign for Rep. Larry Balow, D-Eau Claire, last fall. This spring she worked on the campaign for City Council member Toby Biegel. Both candidates were elected to office.

More than 35 people attended the forum to hear what the student speakers had to say.

“It’s really easy to start to run for office,” Otto said on declaring a candidacy. “It’s the winning that’s the hard part.”

The speakers outlined some of the potential problems encountered when trying to run a successful campaign, including money, getting name recognition and finding enough volunteers to help.

Both Otto and Cameron mentioned lack of money as a problem in their campaigns and stressed fund-raising as a way to get more money.

Caruso suggested sending press releases out to the media and Cameron mentioned going door to door as ways to help the candidate gain more recognition in the community.

All three speakers encouraged those planning to run to get volunteers involved as early as possible.

Cameron and Otto also talked about the disappointment of losing their races after campaigning so hard.

“I took about two months to get over it,” Cameron said. “I’ve basically taken the whole experience and said it’s more reason to fight hard.”

Sophomore Ashley Quist said she attended the forum to earn extra credit for a political science class she is in.

“I learned a lot from it,” she said.

Although she liked hearing about the former candidates’ experiences, Quist said she isn’t planning on running for political office anytime in the near future.