Peter Rudinskas, a third-year chemical engineering student, follows the presidential race like other undergraduates. But the political button he wears every day in support of John Kerry stands for more than just his support.

Rudinskas is the second male delegate in the 33rd congressional district for Kerry, the senator from Massachusetts.

Kerry, along with Sen. John Edwards, (D-N.C.), is one of the front-runners in the Democratic presidential primaries. Candidates will compete in 10 state primaries and caucuses, including California, on March 2, or “Super Tuesday.”

In California, votes for the Democratic primaries are counted in terms of congressional districts. Each district is allotted between three to seven delegates for each candidate. Based on the number of votes each candidate receives within each district, a portion of the district’s delegates go to the Democratic National Convention in July to cast their votes for their candidate.

The 33rd congressional district extends to parts of West Los Angeles, including Culver City.

If Kerry wins a sufficient number of votes within the 33rd District, Rudinskas will head to Boston for the convention. 

Doug Ludlow, president of Bruin Democrats, said he doesn’t know of other UCLA students who are delegates because a student usually needs particular connections in local Democratic parties to become a delegate.

Rudinskas currently serves as secretary of the 48th Assembly District Committee and is running for election to the Los Angeles County Democratic Central Committee.

County committee officials are volunteers who conduct party-building activities and endorse candidates between elections.

But Ludlow also said not all the delegates have been determined, so there’s still a chance UCLA students will be involved in the future.

Rudinskas ran for the delegate position after receiving encouragement from other delegate candidates and based on his previous involvement with the Democratic party.

“I was honored to be considered as somebody who would want to go to the convention,” he said.

“As somebody who is not a professional political person, I want to do more than just casting my vote,” he added.

Rudinskas said he wants to address the problems that affect the greatest number of people. 

As a delegate, a mass outreach to the people within his district is a priority. If he goes to Boston, Rudinskas plans to apply digital technology to interact with voters in his district from Boston and help them voice their concerns at the convention.

“This will allow the district to be a small part of what goes on … (to) be indirect participants in the process,” he said.

To communicate with voters, Rudinskas said he also plans to conduct a cross-country road trip if he heads to the convention, stopping in different regions to speak with community members. 

As a chemical engineer, Rudinskas said he has technical skills which he applies to shaping public policy, and he plans to apply the analytical skills he has acquired by studying engineering to help solve social and economic problems.

“In Boelter Hall there are people solving problems with much greater difficulty than ones in government and they succeed at it, and I sometimes wonder what would happen if we were equally as good in solving problems … in the political system,” he said.

Rudinskas is not the only student in UCLA history to be a delegate.

Rick Tuttle, executive director of the Dashew International Center, was a Democratic delegate in 1968 when he was a graduate student in history.

He was a delegate for Robert Kennedy, who was assassinated on June 5, 1968, prior to the August Democratic National Convention. But Tuttle and other Kennedy delegates still attended the convention because they needed to cast their votes for a candidate.

“We were in a state of great shock right after the death of Kennedy … We had lost our candidate,” he said.

Tuttle ended up voting for Eugene McCarthy, a senator from Minnesota who lost the party’s nomination to Vice President Hubert Humphrey.

The days that followed involved intense but unsuccessful efforts to have Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass, enter the race.

The anti-war movement against U.S. involvement in Vietnam was taking place at the same time as well. Tuttle recalls stepping out of the convention to speak with demonstrators along with other delegates.

“It was quite a time,” he said.

Other delegates to the 1968 convention from UCLA included Eddy Anderson, a cheerleader, and Steve Salm, a financier in the Athletic Department.

“There was some UCLA presence in this process,” Tuttle said.