The ASUCD senatorial election results, announced Friday, declared four candidates from BOLD, one from LEAD and one independent as the victors.
Of the 3,154 votes casted, BOLD candidates Andre Lee, Rebecca Sterling, Darwin Moosavi and Matt Provencher earned the most first-place votes respectively. Followed by Provencher was Tatiana Moana Bush from LEAD and Emmanuel Diaz-Ordaz, an independent candidate.
Lee, a senior political science, sociology and philosophy triple major, is now serving his second term as senator, having ran and won in the fall 2009 election under LEAD. Lee gained 521 first-place votes, which secured him the top spot in the first round.
“I really think [BOLD] worked well as a team,” Lee said. “It definitely helps to not be the only one working on a project, which I think is something that ASUCD is lacking: teamwork to get things done.”
Bush, a senior political science major, said that she was surprised that other LEAD candidates were not successful.
“I definitely thought that Zach [Hansen] and Kase [Wheatley] would be among [the winners],” she said. “Zach had the swimmers and the athletes and there’s the co-op community for Kase … However, on voting day, you never know who’s going to come [through] for you.”
On the other hand, Wheatley said that he was not entirely surprised by the outcome of the election. It was disheartening that students most valued extending tailgating, making a sports bar and making safe boats financially sustainable, he said.
“ASUCD has a lot of power: They created the CoHo, they created Unitrans and they created the experimental college,” Wheatley, a sophomore civil engineering major said. “But instead of creating new things, things that empower students, we focus on the small groups of students that want to get shitfaced.”
Wheatley also said that slate identification likely factored into students’ decisions.
“For four BOLD people to win, I definitely think the slate has something to do with [them getting elected],” he said. “LEAD did get beat out by BOLD this year, and I think that LEAD is dying.”
Despite his loss, Wheatley said he will still strive to implement his platforms on campus.
Emmanuel Diaz-Ordaz, the only elected independent candidate, said running under a slate would have made his campaign easier. Winning the last spot, Diaz-Ordaz received only 11 more first-round votes than the other independent candidate, Cameron Brown.
“[My campaign] definitely would have been easier if I ran with a slate,” said Diaz-Ordaz, a junior animal science major. “But you may have to compromise your ideas under that slate. I wanted to win this and win it on my own.”
Additionally, Wheatley noted that the students, whose portion of student fees goes toward ASUCD, ought to be interested in what it can do for them.
“It was kind of obvious when I was campaigning that most people just don’t care at all about the elections,” he said. “It’s interesting how little students care even though they pay ASUCD $41 every quarter. There’s $11 million in reserve funds that we can be doing amazing things with.”
Sterling, Moosavi, Provencher, Bush and Diaz-Ordaz will officially take office at Thursday’s senate meeting. Lee will continue at his post.
ASUCD Vice President Previn Witana will use the week to train the new senators before swearing them in at Thursday’s meeting.
Witana, who runs the weekly senate meetings, said that while new senators have a lot to learn, it won’t be long before the they become an experienced group.
“It’s always a bit of learning curve,” Witana said. “You have to figure out all your duties. They will become seasoned senators a quarter into their job and get a feel for their various units.”
Thursday’s meeting will also mark the farewell for outgoing senators Don Ho, Bree Rombi, Abrham Castillo-Ruiz, Joel Juarez and Levi Menovske.
MARTHA GEORGIS can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.
