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Five authorities on education, economy, gender issues and environment gathered together Tuesday night to lead a political discussion to answer the question “Are you red or are you blue?”More than 40 students attended the event, hosted by The Reilly Center for Media and Public Affairs and coordinated by Project Geaux, a University organization dedicated to involving students in the election. Madeline Peters and Chelsea Gomez, co-coordinators of Project Geaux, organized the event to help students look deeper into how to vote in the upcoming election. “We had ‘Are you red or are you blue?’ to show there’s more than a political party or a person,” Peters said. “We held this to show that you really need to know what you’re voting on … there’s so much past what you hear in that 30-second sound-bite commercial.”After each panelist spoke,  members from College Democrats and College Republicans informed the audience of their respective presidential candidate’s stance on each issue. For economics, Melanie Oubre, College Democrats representative, said Sen. Barack Obama believes strongly in bringing jobs back from overseas, creating green jobs and giving the middle class a tax break. Chuck Fontenot, College Republicans representative, said Sen. John McCain wants to keep the capital gains tax at 15 percent and noted the downfalls of Obama’s plan to increase the tax.Sarah Quintanar, economics doctoral student, said the increases “would not be detrimental” and businesses would be able to see high profits despite a tax increase.Jordan Bantuelle, co-president of the Environmental Conservation Organization, spoke about the need for solar, geo-thermal and wind power sources, saying each is possible but lacking the political will. Both political representatives agreed their candidates are focused on the environment and the need for more fuel-efficient, clean-burning alternatives to coal. Bruce Parker, Safe Space coordinator at the Office of Multicultural Affairs, and Isabel Blum, president of Spectrum, spoke about gender and sexuality issues, noting the need for the Employee Non-Discrimination Act and equal pay for women. Oubre said Obama would favor appointing supporters of the current Roe v. Wade ruling to the Supreme Court, while Fontenot said McCain would lean toward opponents. Leonard Clifford, English and political science junior, said the discussion was informative, but he would have liked to see more students in attendance. “I’m glad we’re having conversations about what’s going on in the political arena, but I think we need to have more and it needs to be broadcasted more so students can attend,” Clifford said. “The topics were great, but if more people would have been there … we would have gotten a broader opinion on the issues.”Peters said the attendance exceeded her expectations. “This isn’t a mandatory event — it was just people who are interested,” Peters said. “You always want to see the room overflowing, but if there is discussion and people are asking questions … then that’s great.”Student Government Sen. Amanda Gammon, Arts and Sciences representative, announced the preliminary results of SG’s mock elections at the forum. The deadline to vote in the election has been extended until noon on Wednesday. Final results of the mock election will be announced at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday night at the SG Senate meeting.  —-Contact Katie Kennedy at [email protected]