Their work and hours paralleled the victors’. But on Wednesday, there were no spoils for candidates left out of the Troy Caldwell ticket sweep of Student Association offices.

Reactions ranged from upset to sad, logical to emotional. With the results just hours behind them, the losing candidates dealt with similar sizable defeats in very different ways.

Presidential candidate Ken Getty

Getty knows the other side of the election-night emotional spectrum. Just a year ago, he received a phone call propelling him to the office of SA president.

Now, he looks at a non-SA future.

“I’m leaving this place with no regrets,” Getty said. “I can still do a lot of things. There’s things I feel personally about that I want to carry on.”

While Getty campaigned heavily for last week’s ill-fated first election, he eased up heading into Wednesday, focusing instead on the DeKalb mayoral race.

“This special election really took the wind out of the sails of my campaign,” he said. “So many people didn’t understand.”

Last week’s election yielded a 7-percent margin of error because of OneCard swiping malfunctions.

“I can’t be upset,” he said. “People believed in me. That means a lot. Politics is a game. I played my game. Troy played his.”

Presidential candidate Will Reilly

Reilly took news of his sound defeat with a laid-back approach.

“I wasn’t too happy when I found out because, unfortunately, it was something I wasn’t expecting,” Reilly said.

While he didn’t endorse Caldwell’s campaign, Reilly could see how Caldwell’s ticket generated so many votes compared to his own ticket.

“The main advantage Troy had was the organization of his campaign,” Reilly said. “He took a popularity contest and made it political. He came out and organized a bunch of groups to hand out fliers for him and campaign, and the other candidates just couldn’t match that.”

Not that the election proved to be a total loss for Reilly, however.

“I learned some valuable things from this election,” he said, “mainly about comparable political campaigns. We focused on what we could really do for the SA, and it’s evident that that’s not necessarily the best thing to do. I don’t think a lot of students care about the SA.”

Presidential candidate Shawn McGady

McGady didn’t even think the election results would be released Wednesday.

Therefore, he spent much of the night in the library, informed of his loss by a phone call from the Northern Star.

“I’m shocked, but by [Wednesday], I just wanted it all to end,” McGady said. “I think I could have touched on things a little bit differently. It’s all about timing — I don’t think I had the right timing. But life will go on. I had nothing to lose in running — I had fun while I was doing it, and I met a lot of good people.”

McGady still may be a part of the SA, with an executive or Student Senate position a possibility.

“I’m going to talk to Troy and see if I can get a cabinet position,” McGady said. “Seeing that I’m Greek, I’d be interesting in the Greek Affairs position. I’m willing to do anything Troy needs help with. If that doesn’t work, I’ll run for senate and help students out any way I can.”

Vice presidential candidate Mitch Starr

In seven years of election experience, Starr said he’s never lost the way he did Wednesday.

“I’m really, really, really upset,” said Starr, a member of Reilly’s ticket. “I think the first one being voided had something to do with it. Instead of two days, it was one. You basically cut out all the commuter students. I just about fell down when I found out about the margin of the results.”

Starr has served as chairman of an ad-hoc committee on campus crime and safety for the Illinois Board of Higher Education. He also was former mayor Bessie Chronopoulos’ campaign manager on campus, and said he was just upset over her loss as his own.

“I’m happy for Troy,” Starr said. “I wish him all the luck in the world. I have no plans of going away, probably going to see a cabinet position somewhere. I’m upset that I lost, but life will go on. There will be a student government next year.”

Treasurer candidate James Regelin

Regelin shared in the disappointment of the Reilly ticket’s loss — another draining side effect of the campaign.

“I’ve been up for 30 hours straight, and both elections we put our heart and souls into,” Regelin said. “I’m fatigued — it was a tough election.”

Regelin blamed part of his ticket’s problems on a lack of candidate debates.

“We tried to get open debates going, but none of the other candidates wanted to,” Regelin said. “I think this really turned into a popularity contest. We tried to go on the issues, and we’ve all had previous political experience — lots of it, in fact. We tried to be committed, and I just don’t think we were given a fair chance.”

Student trustee candidate Brad Kuhn

Kuhn said he’s not giving up on the SA after losing the student trustee race by more than 600 votes.

“I just called Alex to congratulate him,” Kuhn said. “It was a tough race. The margin was terrible.”

Even though he was excited about the voter turnout, Kuhn still heard people walking by and saying they didn’t care.

Now, he said, the goal is graduation.

“I started out very quiet in the SA and then I got too loud,” Kuhn said. “Then I started listening and sharing ideas. I’ve been doing this for five years. I want to be a voice for the students.”

He also voiced his concern over opponent Andrew Anderson’s student trustee candidacy.

“I heard a rumor that he ran in the race to take votes away — not that it made any difference,” Kuhn said. “I lost by a landslide.”

Next year will be a good year, Kuhn believes.

“We’ll see if they do everything they say they will,” Kuhn said.

Editor in chief Melissa Westphal, managing editor Erica Fatland and editorial editor Whitney Carnahan contributed to this story.