THE SETTING
It is impossible to understand the situation of Spring 2000 election without a brief review of the previous four elections, beginning with Joey Stadlen's (Theta Chi) 36-vote margin of victory in 1996. Joey Stadlen being resigned from office halfway through his term, Chris Dorworth (Theta Chi) took the mantle as victorious Presidential candidate in '97 along with his running mate Brent Gordon (AEPi) as treasurer.
However the natural, but not automatic progression of Treasurer to President was interrupted in a most abrupt way--John McGovern, the independent who was implicated in the infamous 1995 defamation suit along with his patron Peter Vlcek (an Alumnus and a Fellow independent know as much for his skill in running campaigns as well as his capacity for underhanded tricks). McGovern, in his haste to win office before his defamation trial came to court, needed to stand for president as soon as possible. After failing to move the Spring election forward to February (Which actually has been the time for SG elections for most of UF's history) instead of March, McGovern's candidacy as president broke the hereditary progression. McGovern's running mate as Treasurer was Ian Lane (Sig Ep).
Brent Gordon, having stepped aside in '98 for McGovern,
then took the Presidential nomination in 1999 instead of Ian Lane, the
sitting treasurer. George Kramer of Theta Chi was elected treasurer
on the same ticket. The stage was set for conflict between Kramer,
who by succession deserved the Presidential nomination of the Greek Letter-Minority
coalition, and Lane, who also deserved succession by right of his previous
term as treasurer. Lane had prepared to be graduated and relocate
to Wall Street to be employed by a prestigious accounting firm--nevertheless
he was motivated to re-matriculate and prepare to run for President under
the Greek Letter-Minority coalition, and initially received great support,
especially from houses and individuals who had long been rivals with Theta
Chi; Theta Chi was viewed by rivals as being potent enough to upset the
balance of power. Another Theta Chi as president was too much to
bear.
THE CURTAIN RISES
While sitting Vice-President Jocelyn Moore was forwarded by her supporters as a candidate for Presdient in her own right, she was unable to gather enough support at the time, despite her relatively good standing with the press and personal popularity. It soon appeared to be that only Lane & Kramer would be fighting over the establishment's support.
(It is ironic, at least in retrospect, that Ian Lane was forwarded as the rebel greek candidate in Spring 1999, when unhappiness with McGovern and his probable successor and friend, Brent Gordon, had caused a temporary split in the Greek-minority coalition. Indeed, such a split was inevitable given the personality conflicts during the McGovern administration and the lack of any credible outside opposition (i.e. Vision). However, as was expected, the rift was healed, a compromise being made giving Gordon the presidential nomination, and Kramer the treasurial nomination. Even though the sitting elected treasurer, Lane was simply set aside in the Spring 1999 election--something he would remember well)
Early in Spring 2000, a complicated series of political chess ensued between Lane and Kramer's sides. Around this time a budgetary bill of law that disbursed over 9,000 dollars to the Hispanic Student Union was vetoed by Kramer, mostly likely since the HSA had 'cut a deal' with his political opponents and Kramer, having the crucial advantage of already being in office, took the realistic and necessary step in order to prevent more damage being done to his support. The entire veto controversy began when the Senate Budget Committee, chaired by Sen. Dean Gockel (Sig Ep) and containing mostly followers of Lane, such as Sen. Casey Devlin (A Tri-Delt representing the Murphree Area) and Sen. Cary High. The Alligator, however, presented the issue in a way that made it seem ambiguous and unflattering to Kramer, and restrictions on direct accusations against Lane's supporters making deals meant Kramer had to allude to "political dealmaking" without mentioning names. The result was to confuse the issue to the vast majority of the student readership. Further bad press was gained when Lane supporters, after the Board of Masters unexpectedly inferred that a special senate meeting would not be necessary, were able to override Kramer's veto of the bill by a voice vote by literally running in at the end the regular Tuesday senate meeting.
Lane, having secured signficant greek support, was still undecided as to whether his treasurer candidate should be Senate Budget Chair Dean Gockel or, less likely, Mark Adler of AEPi (Treasurer). Nevertheless Lane was established as the "majority greek" candidate, and had already forced Kramer to prepare his own insurgent campaign. However, after a short while of intense political posturing, followed by the defection of key Lane supporters who saw his campaign as different then they expected, Kramer's "front-runner" status was restored. Lane's executive running mates also defected to Kramer's campaign and plans were set to run the "Challenge" party with Kramer as President, Julie Donaldson as Vice-President, & Marc Adler as Treasurer.
Lane and his supporters then made the next move, and a rather daring one at that. Offering his candidacy to the newly formed Florida Students Party, Lane was accepted and a rebel Greek letter-Minority-Engineering coalition was formed. The FSP, a name frequently used in SG politics since the time Stephen C. O'Connell won the SG Presidency under the FSP banner in 1938, was formed by independents such as Wade Vose, who designed the party as an alternative to the seemingly-dead Vision party, and hoped to gain support from the potentially powerful college councils. Early party members besides Vose were Frank Jason Rhoden, by rumor possessing a genius intellect, and Peter Zimek, another independent. After this infant party's acceptance of Lane's candidacy, Vose (co-incidentally a former Theta Chi initiate who de-pledged) resigned publicly due to "ideological differences" which he later elucidated to mean he only wanted to be non-partisan in order to run for a Board of College Council position.
The Announcement of the newly-empowered FSP brought most, but not all, of the remaining Vision senators to cross the floor. Minority leader Chris Geiger (Vision--Engineering) led the transition, giving up his seat on the powerful Replacement & Agenda committee in the process; also important was the re-affiliation of Kennita Johnson, a Graduate Senator in Engineering as well. Joined with him were all except two holdouts: Sarah Ryan, a two-term Vision senator from Liberal Arts & Sciences; and Stephanie Levine, in her first term and also from LS. Of the incumbent Progress party, over twenty student senators crossed the floor to FSP, including Senate President Pro Tempore Drew Felix (Sigma Chi and Business Major).
The executive slates were about to form. Lane
would announce Michelle Griffith (of Tri-Delt) as Vice-President, and Kennita
Johnson as Treasurer. Kramer, seeing the rebel coalition as now backed
by the strongly-independent Engineering council, along with Lane's new
running-mates, announced a new party name of "Impact" and a new executive
slate of football player Thaddeus Bullard (#11) as VP, and Ana Maria Garcia
(Theta), a law student who also earned a bachelor's degree in Finance,
as Treasurer. Julie Donaldson disappeared from the scene, however
Adler would remain with the Impact campaign in the interests of the future
and his house.
THE PLAY BEGINS:
The battle lines having been drawn, a long and vicious campaign began. Backing Kramer were almost all of the Greek houses and a lion's share of the involved organizations; namely, strongest support was from houses with Executive interests (Theta Chi, Theta, DG) in the Impact campaign. The large and powerful VISA (International Student Umbrella Group) organization, along with the vast majority (but not all) of the Black Student Union, were other sources of strength.
Lane could count on the dedicated support of his
own house, Sigma Phi Epsilon, which was socially prestigious and powerful
in its own right, along with most of several others houses: Sigma Chi (with
the notable exception of the entire Heekin family), Kappa Delta, and Delta
Delta Delta (who had one sister slated with Impact nonetheless).
A few other greek houses, or sections thereof, vacillated in their pledged
support (such as ZBT). Organizations which had joined their fates
to FSP included the Hispanic Student Association, the leadership of the
Asian Student Union, CASA Chinese-American Student Association (who were
given FSP T-shirts en masse), the Benton Engineering Council, and minor
dissidents of a few others. FSP could also count on the support of
3 executive Florida Blue Key officers: VP Jill Kovach (ADPi), Secretary
Darryl Stangry (Sigma Chi), and Treasurer Joe Johnson (Delta Tau Delta);
all of whom personally campaigned.
| Greek-Letter Houses and Organizations supporting FSP: | Greek-Letter Houses and Organizations divided but mostly supporting FSP: | Greek-Letter Houses and Organizations divided but mostly supporting Impact: | Greek-Letter and other Organizations supporting Impact: |
| Sig Ep, Sigma Chi (Except Heekin Family), TKE, Phi Sigma Kappa, Delta Chi, Phi Beta Sigma, Lambda Theta Alpha, Lambda Theta Phi, Sigma Lambda Beta, Gamma Eta, Hispanic Student Assoc., Benton Engineering Council, CASA (Chinese Undergraduate Society) | Tri-Delt, Delta Tau Delta, ZBT, PIKE (Not as active due to Administrative probation) | ADPi, AOPi, ZTA, Tolbert Area Council (President Chris Carmody and others supported Impact--other support probably went to Vision & Keg), Kappa Delta, AEPi, Chi Omega, Beta Theta Pi, Alpha Xi Delta (except Sorority President), Pi Kappa Phi, Zeta Phi Beta, Club Sports | SAE, Lambda Chi, Delta Upsilon, Chi Phi, PheeGee, Alpha Gamma Rho, ATO, Phi Tau, Sigma Nu, Sigma Lambda Gamma, Iota Phi Theta, Omega Psi Phi, Kappa Alpha Psi & Sweethearts, Delta Sigma Theta, Sigma Gamma Rho, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Gamma Sigma Sigma, Jewels of Tau, VISA, Kappa Alpha Order, DG, Phi Mu, DPhiE, AEPhi, TEP, Kappa Alpha Theta, Alpha Chi Omega, Sigma Kappa, Theta Chi |
Lane's secret (or not so secret) weapon was his willingness to spend part of his immense wealth on the campaign; for instance, rumors of "trust funds" abounded, and whether true or not, money from a trust fund is equivalent to money directly earned through labor. Lane was the owner of several successful businesses, as well as having come from a prominent family. Frank Rhoden was also reputed to have exceedingly wealthy progenitors willing to help finance the campaign. By the end of the run-off, most reliable sources placed FSP's total real expenditures at around $30,000 to over $40,000 dollars.
While momentum had been strongly in favor of FSP early in the spring, by early March the momentum had shifted back to a balanced state with Impact, while Gary Slossberg's (Vision's Presidential Candidate in 1998) announcement that Vision would stand for the election promised to split the independent vote from FSP; former IRHA Vice-President and Senate Minority leader Dave Winchester was called to run for President; longtime Vision official Jeremy Kaplan, although he had originally attempted to get FSP's executive ticket as treasurer to no avail, was placed as the candidate for Treasurer. Added to Vision was the Keg party, a group of former Residence Assistants in the Engineering college who formed a laid-back "Win or lose, we booze" party, consisting of the 3 executive candidates and a few senate candidates.
FSP then began a machiavellian strategy of winning through a series of related manoeuvres, starting with a media blitz consisting of Cable Television Commercials featuring Lane, a Karate Champion, breaking a stack of bricks; Cinema still ads, especially on weekends; Radio spots including one in all Spanish which associated Kramer as a "Dukes of Hazzard" anti-hispanic good ol' boy; T-shirt giveaways to allied houses and organizations such as the Asian Student Union; and virtually unlimited fliers, platforms, buttons, which the other parties had only limited supplies of. FSP also utilized its limited manpower so efficiently--most likely through using the knowledge that repercussions would happen to its houses if Impact won, along with incentives such as parties and such to members who campaigned--that it either matched, and usually exceeded Impact's at all stages of the campaign. For example, FSP campaigners in the Engineering College outnumbered Impact's 5 to 1 by the time of the run-off. Rumor had it that FSP supporters also enticed the creation of a "Better Student Union" party designed to split the BSU and frat support from Impact, helping force a run-off.
FSP's electoral support came from its aforementioned houses and organizations, students motivated by the advertising campaign, most of the Engineering College and its council, and a some of the limited independent support. FSP's aim was to force a run-off, and then backed by endorsements of the other parties, use the promise of victory to motivate its independent backers to move in for the finale.
Impact's electoral support came from the backbone of the Greek-Letter-Organizations and Minority groups, along with a few independents. It's aim was to win on the 1st ballot when the vote would split between FSP, Vision, and Keg. Vision's support came from the independents that had not already aligned themselves with FSP or Impact. Support was also taken from the 'Alternative Orientation' Student Union (ironically, having supported Progress the previous year), backing one of their own in Vision's Treasurer candidate. Vision's strategy was to rely on its name recognition and potential alligator endorsement to replace a lack of both campaign experience, manpower, and money.
The Keg party's strategy was to literally do nothing--no campaigning at all. The very nature of the laissie-faire party prevented hosting tables in Turlington and raising funds.
The BSU party's strategy was to campaign in non-traditional
ways, calling on its Presidential candidates personal popularity with both
greeks, independents, and minorities in the Club Scene.
THE ELECTION, 1st BALLOT (Click here for election results)
On the 4th & 5th of April, the Spring election commenced. Turnout was light the first day, whose bad weather meant under 3,000 votes and perhaps more likely 2,000, and both parties were uncertain as to what the results would be. It was considered somewhat certain that a run-off in the treasurer's race would commence, given the popularity of Jeremy Kaplan (relative to the Vision party as a whole) and the hispanic and black vote. The Alligator had surprised most by giving its monday endorsement Brian Tallman of the Keg Party for President, while giving its self-proclaimed "300-vote" endorsement also to Kaplan for the Treasurership.
The first day was not without events as accusations and character insinuations were made by interested parties. First, an email by UF Karate Sport Club instructor Christian Sterian accusing Lane of falsifying his Karate achievements was sent to an unknown number of individuals. Impact denied any involvement in Sterian's actions and did not raise it as a campaign issue.
The next day, FSP was confidentially predicting a run-off in the Wednesday papers. An aggressive and competitive day of campaigning as both main parties were attempting to avoid or capture a run-off. FSP managed to outnumber all of the other parties on campus, and were present at almost every single position along key student areas--e.g., at the bus stops greeting students going to class, and at points along the green between the Reitz Union and the Computer Science Building. Impact had enough motivation at this point to put a strong force around all the key polling locations, though not to the same extent as FSP.
Early Thursday morning, the long-awaited results were announced to a jam-packed beyond legal capacity Orange & Brew. Lack of a microphone forced the small-voiced Supervisor of Elections, Melissa Moody, to speak without amplification to the hushed crowd. She was, unfortunately, not up to the task and near half the room was unable to comprehend who had won. Nevertheless, the results were in: turnout was at around 21%, slightly down from last year but still high. Impact gained a plurality of about 42% of the vote across the executive and senate races, winning 27 of the 40 seats. FSP won 35% in the executive races and 12 senate seats, including all of Engineering, a few smaller colleges, and part of Graduate, Business, and Liberal Arts seats. Impact won everything else, including the Freshman, Sophomore, and 3 of the 5 LS seats. The third business seat was tied between the two parties and, according to the SG constitution, would be decided by a vote in the sitting student senate.
The Vision cause was hopeless from the beginning. Kaplan in the Treasurer race appeared to have siphoned votes from Keg party voters and FSP in his race, earning 14% of the vote, about 4% more than Winchester. Its party chair, Gary Slossberg, had led the ticket in the disappointing Spring '99 election, and chaired the party the following election in which no seats were won at all. Vision was able to provide only a token opposition, offering a table at Turlington & the Reitz Union, and holding several campaign functions at the "University Club", a private establishment know for being the type of club which posts a rainbow on its front door. Vision was destroyed in every single senate race except Nursing, which is lost as well but at least managed to put up a fight, since only Impact ran with an unknown candidate. Even that was a disappointment as Vision, for the second election in a row, was left without a single victory in any senate race. As part of this embarassment, Vision had lost its 3 year hold of the Engineering seats, and gone from first place in the college to last place, behind even the Keg and Impact parties.
Tallman of the Keg Party finished 3rd in the Presidential race, earning a surprising 11% of the vote, and his treasurer earning 10%. Keg's support mostly came from disinterested greeks who had no particular care as to SG in the least, along with their many personal friends (Tallman himself was a former Residence Assistant, along with several other members) and Engineering students. They won no seats.
The "BSU" party finished in last place with a little less than 3% of the vote.
3 of the 5 constitutional revisions were passed, notably #3 (Honor Court Restructuring) failed by a mere 65 votes short of a 2/3 majority, and #4 (Single Executive Ticket) failed by a resounding 64% vote against it.
The similarities between the 1992 Bret Berlin election victory were beginning to show. Impact, like the Gator party of '92, had won an easy plurality of the vote, allowing it to capture the vast majority of the senate seats. Berlin's percentage total on the 1st ballot was similar to Lane's (slightly over 30%), and the senate results were almost the same (10 in 1992). Berlin was able to win by his personal campaigning skills, the strong support of the independents, and only a slight (%5) drop in turnout.
The Elections Commission shockingly ruled to invalidate the entire election on grounds of the Sterian email; FSP was able to convince the Commission that the letter had been so harmful as to prejudice the executive as well as the senate races. The Board of Masters quickly overruled that decision, noting that FSP had failed to produce one witness or voter who was influenced by the vote; it also used the stare decisis of the 1995 elections that remedies for personal defamation should be pursued through the court system, not through the elections commission.
The run-off was now to take place as scheduled the following week, and the question at hand was: What will the other parties do?
THE RUNOFF
It was apparent to most that the Vision party would endorse Impact, since sentiment was strong in Vision for Impact, owning to the perception that Impact ran a "cleaner campaign." Keg's endorsement was not an issue since its voters would be highly unlikely to return to the polls, and the BSU party was certain to endorse FSP. After meeting with both candidates, Winchester was still feeling neutral, but Slossberg and Kaplan were most impressed with FSP, who had promised to integrate the entire Vision platform into their own, including the questionably popular proposals of repealing the "One Florida" state initiative, as well as the pet issue of adding sexual orientation to anti-discrmination statutes. Kramer's side was open to Vision but not as willing to openly share platforms, and Lane liberality in dealing with Vision earned him the important endorsement. In all, about three-quarters of Vision's membership preferred FSP over Impact. Kaplan swore to (Kennita) Johnson that all of his "people" (perhaps another, less appropriate word was used) would get out and vote for her.
Keg wrote a rather lackadaisical endorsement of FSP as well, owning most likely to their mutual ties in Engineering. Both Keg's and Vision's endorsements hit the Alligator on Tuesday, the only bright spot for Impact being Vision's Vice-President, Theodore "Teddy Bear" Lazier, wrote a letter as well declaring his neutrality in the run-off. The Alligator for itself endorsed by FSP candidates.
The first day featured clear although hot weather and a surprising high turnout for a runoff, both indicating an FSP advantage.
On the personal attack front, two instances gathered a lot of attention: On the first day, an suspected agent of the FSP circulated a rather crude piece of propaganda which openly accused Kramer of outright racism, reprinting the official veto message in a selective way which implied that Kramer vetoed the special events budget of several minority organizations including the Black Student Union (which was support Impact & Kramer). FSP campaigners used the propaganda to manipulate minority votes before the Supervisor of Elections quickly ordered FSP to cease and desist.
On the second day, a member of Club Creole responded with a letter defending Kramer, Impact, and levelling its own allegations against Lane. The Alligator later summed it up as "It questions the racial stance of the FSP executive ticket by stating none of the candidates were present at any of the Black History Month events or at the One Florida protest march in Tallahassee earlier in the semester."
Weather was hot for most of the day until the end of polling, at which time rain began to threaten. Turnout was reported to be high. The Alligator featured letters responding to Tuesday's slew of endorsements and allegations, notably VISA's former two-term president denouncing the anti-Kramer letter, as well as the Black Student Union's Vice-President refuting allegations of racism in the Impact campaign. Throughout the day, Impact campaigners had held signs asking students to ask them "about the Truth of Kramer's Veto" in an attempt to further stop any damage done. Also, in the Engineering college, a handful FSP fliers that were originally sent to the greek houses, promising support for greek causes and listing greek candidates, had been posted.
FSP for its part was able to field its usual army of volunteers, mostly from the rebel greek houses (KD, Sig Ep, etc.) whose members were motivated both from a taste of victory as well as a fear of what defeat would do to their houses political power. The FSP ran its daily full-page ads in the Alligator, this time on page 3, while Impact had to settle for a half-page sized ad on the 2nd editorial page. Vision had its leadership out, sometimes sitting behind FSP tables with a campaign sticker on, but as usual did not have the presence to actively campaign. As typical for the entire election, the only active campaigner running on the executive ticket was George Kramer, the other candidates on both parties never quite taking as active a role in personal appeals to students.
By the time the polls closed on Wednesday, both sides were completely exhausted. Overall turnout was expected to be high, benefiting FSP, but turnout was also high in the Impact Greek houses and Organizations, and no one was willing to make a prediction besides announcing it was "too close to call". The ballots being counted relatively early, the Elections Authorities ordered a second recount on their own initiative and presented the results after one o'clock AM on Thursday morning.
Turnout had dropped over 20% with 7,200 ballots cast.
To a chorus of mad applause and cheers, Ana Maria Garcia was announced
as the winner in the treasurer's run-off, by a margin of 51 to 49 percent.
Since split ticket voting had been common in Presidential & Treasurer
races, FSP was considered to have more chance with Kennita Johnson than
Lane, the FSP side of room became tense while the Impact side was as well
holding its breath. "With 51% of the vote. . . George Kramer and
Thaddeus Bullard" was announced as the Impact supporters cheered at a deafening
volume--a majority of a mere 200 votes. FSP's supporters seemed reserved
and met outside to hear consolation from its leadership, and hope that
the elections commission complaints against Impact regarding the Club Creole
and Sterian writings would be fruitful.
CRITICISM--WHAT HAPPENED?
The question to be asked was, what happened to FSP? They had seemingly done everything possible to get the vote out, motivate their supporters, infiltrate Impact's structure with an uncanny ability to know exactly what strategy Impact was planning on throughout the election, and they had the strongly-independent Engineering college on their side. Yet turnout had dropped considerably, much more than the 5% drop that Bret Berlin faced in 1992.
If one answer has to be given for the FSP defeat, it must be the low turnout of Engineers--turnout went from 750 voters to about 400 from the 1st ballot to the run-off. Another explanation from the Impact side was that the massive media campaign and overflow of FSP volunteers around campus had backfired, and more students were turned off than motivated. FSP's own view was that the circulated letters of Sterian and Club Creole caused the apathy towards FSP's cause. The best explanation, however, is that the Independents just weren't motivated to vote for FSP despite the media campaign. They might have looked favorable upon Lane and Johnson, but either weren't willing to personally vote, or assumed Lane would win anyway with the endorsements and advertising in his favor.
Another problem on the FSP side was the slightly incomplete understanding of the Berlin Victory. Berlin had won his 1992 election by personally campaigning in the Plaza weeks before the election, gaining the important backing of independents (Berlin's campaign even hired professional political consultant Josh Weinstein, who was housed on Berlin's expense at the Holiday Inn on 13th and given a campaign credit card with no credit limit). Berlin's Action party went so far as to distribute contraceptives reminding the user to vote action. In short the support of both the usually apathetic and the traditional independents was won in 1992. FSP in 2000 lacked the efficiency of the 1992 campaign, although they approached the level of success, they simply were unable, despite the heavy spending and hard campaigning, to break the cycle of apathy that has such a hold on the majority of the student body.
Thus ended the most memorable election since 1992, and in this last Spring election of the 20th century a telling example to future campaigners as to what political reality truly is.
This ends the story of how George Kramer's and his Impact party overcame every slight and obstacle thrown at them from manipulable student unions, fratricidical maniacs, and every rebellious denizen waiting in the recesses of the 3rd floor to unleash their private wrongs upon the student body--All of this from the moment he took office as Treasurer in 1999 to early Thursday morning to 13 April 2000 the following Spring to become President by a majority of 205 votes: The harder the fight, the sweeter the victory!
And there cannot be anything but pride to those
who fought under the FSP banners--there is honour in a fallen campaign
when it is no fault of the defeated themselves. The FSP did everything
it could possible do to win short of an armed coup d'tat. But as
Machiavelli noted, our ability is only one-half of life; fortune is the
other.
"Victory: it is a matter of willpower."
--Marshal Ferdinand Foch (1851-1929)
Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Armies in the First
World War.
Success
is counted sweetest
by those
who ne'er succeed.
To comprehend
a nectar
Requires
sorest need.
--Dickenson
THE END
APPENDIX A:
SAMPLES OF CAMPAIGN MATERIAL USED IN THE SPRING 2000 ELECTION:
Click on the images below to see them in full size:
The Florida Students Party platform, run-off edition, front cover.
The Florida Students Party platform for the run-off, back.
After receiving the endorsement of Vision, the platform became rather crowded
with various ideas from both parties.
Impact was able to run an effective media campaign, using college-specific
platforms as well. The above was a direct mail campaign postcard to all
on-campus students. Other postcards featured appeals to International
Students.
APPENDIX B:
PORTRAITS OF CANDIDATES WHO STOOD IN THE SPRING 2000
ELECTION AND OTHER RELEVANT PEOPLE:
George Kramer (Theta Chi), Presidential Candidate of the Impact Party |
Ian Lane (Sig Ep), FSP Presidential Candidate, show above in 1998 celebrating his victory as Student Body Treasurer-Elect |
Brent Gordon (AEPi), Student Body President 1999-2000 |
Ryan Chandler (Phi Tau), sole candidate for Chancellor of the Honor Court |
Michelle Griffith (Tri-Delt), Vice-Presidential candidate of FSP |
Ana Maria Garcia (Theta) Treasurial Candidate, Impact |
|
Thaddeus Bullard, Vice-Presidential Candidate, Impact |
APPENDIX C:
A humorous distraction from the Spring 1999 Election. The former Honest
Party resurrected itself to push a write-in campaign for Roy the Kitten--the
graffitti in chalk "Vote for Roy" had been written all over campus prior
to the election. There were no pet-candidates in the Spring 2000
election however. On the far left is Elections Supervisor Elizabeth
Shule attempting to maintain a dignified decorum in the Baja Tortilla Grill;
to the right and front in Plaid shirt is Elections Commission Chairman
Hunter Carroll, calmly watching the circus.
Click on the image below to see it in full size:
