As eight of the 2012 Republican presidential candidates took to the debate stage last week at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, George Washington University junior Dan Horning was watching.

But he wasn’t huddled in front of a dorm room television or watching from one of several campus viewing parties — Horning watched from candidate Jon Huntsman’s D.C. living room.

Horning has been an active supporter of Gov. Huntsman and the driving force behind D.C. Students for Huntsman. He paid $100 to attend the informal watch party fundraiser with fellow young politicos at the Huntsman home while the candidate’s wife and daughters played host.

That experience isn’t surprising given the abundance of national politics in the capital city, especially at The George Washington University located just blocks from the White House. It’s that location and political tradition that has several GW students at the center of regional student-centered political efforts ahead of the 2012 GOP primary.

GW is consistently ranked among the top politically active campuses, even stealing the top spot last month on Princeton Review’s annual list.

That is reflective of students’ unique immersion in the country’s political establishment, according to Christopher Arterton, a professor of Political Management at GW’s Graduate School of Political Management.

“I think it’s both extensive and intense,” Arterton said of student political involvement at GW, where he said there is certainly a core of students who attend the university because of a preexisting political interest, but also students who chose GW for other reasons but quickly took up the political spirit of the place.

To that political spirit, the College Democrats and College Republicans are the two largest student organizations on the GW campus, according to sophomore Amelia Wolf, the College Republicans director of public relations.

Ahead of the 2012 Republican primary race, Wolf said the GW College Republicans have decided not to support a specific candidate as an organization. Instead the group will work to support individual members who do organize for specific candidates.

“We’re just trying to give our members the opportunity to do what they want to do,” Wolf said as an effort to embrace students from all aspects of the conservative spectrum.

To that, one of the more active member-driven groups is the GW arm of the official D.C. Students for Romney chaired by GW sophomore Elie Litvin.

Both the Romney and Huntsman student groups are regional organizations working to engage students on several D.C. area campuses, but have their roots on the GW campus.

Litvin’s involvement includes travel to New Hampshire earlier this year for Romney’s official campaign kick-off, and aside from campus visits in support of Romney, Litvin is also using social media to engage the city’s politically aware students – an initiative he thinks will prove impactful.

“It’s critical to organize not just specific campuses, but the whole region,” Litvin said.

Echoing that point, Horning said he formed his grassroots Huntsman organization with other D.C. university campuses in mind, hoping to find strength in numbers.

“We’re only a Metro ride away from each other,” he said of the ability for area campuses to come together in support of 2012 candidates.

Another organization in support of Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s presidential bid is now officially registered as a GW student group, according to senior Paul Blair with GW Students for Perry.

Blair said his group will be working with the GW College Republicans and is hoping to draw Gov. Perry for a campus visit sometime in the coming months for an event with regional appeal.

In general, campus political activity waxes and wanes around the country between election cycles, but GW bucks that trend with fairly constant involvement, according to Professor Arterton, and that consistency hasn’t resulted in a radicalized campus as far as Arterton has observed. He presumes that’s a result of student participation in real government institutions through internships and other work in the city.

That real government experience is a contrast to other parts of the country where campus politics is more issue based, Arterton said. In Washington, the students often focus more on issues of the day because they’re brought into the actual institutions, keeping away from traditional polarizing political issues.

Of the most politically active campuses, Princeton Review puts three D.C. area schools in the top five, including GW, Georgetown and American University.

“I think people who come here can’t help but get caught up in the politics,” Wolf said.

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