Liberal activism marked Smith’s tenure as co-chair of the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Supporters’ Alliance (BGLTSA) last year. He has also headed up Beyond Our Normal Differences (BOND), another campus group dedicated to sexual orientation issues that is now known as Building on Diversity.

Smith has also been active in promoting the queer studies movement and currently serves as vice president of the Black Students Association (BSA), which has a predominantly liberal leadership.

Chapa has spent the majority of his extracurricular time on the opposite side of the fence.

As an active member of HRC, Chapa helped cultivate the relationship between the Republican group and student groups such as RAZA.

But Smith and Chapa say their partnership is more logical than it seems on the surface.

They are counting on strong student group support from their opposing camps to garner enough votes for a win.

“Obviously having a variety of groups that we’re involved in helps,” Chapa says. “The more people you know, the more support you’ll get.”

But so far even the student groups Smith and Chapa have been actively involved with have not thrown their full support behind the ticket.

Despite endorsing Chapa for vice president, the HRC board did not choose to support Smith’s presidential candidacy.

Smith says their refusal to endorse him may be a result of his opposition to Harvard support for ROTC.

“We counted the votes and simply couldn’t endorse any candidate for president,” says Josh Mendelsohn ’04, secretary of the HRC.

Smith and Chapa also failed to win the BGLTSA’s endorsement—a failure Smith did not take lightly.

In an e-mail to the BGLTSA list, Smith questioned the board’s 6-4 vote in favor of Chopra.

“My opponent’s platform makes no mention of lgbt issues and in the entire time he’s served as chair of the UC’s ‘Student Affairs’ Committee, he has done nothing for lgbt-specific issues,” Smith wrote. “There is little reason to believe he suddenly discovered the light Tuesday night. We deserve better.”

But though Smith was disappointed by the BGLTSA’s decision to endorse Chopra, he did win the last-minute endorsement of the BSA last night.