by Daniel Davis
 

Question: How long since this university last had an independent Student Body President?  Actually the last time was in 1988 when an engineering student named Homer Willis won in 1988. Twelve years, in a university time, is several lifetimes in real-life political terms considering that students keep being graduated.  To put this in perspective, the last independent who won campaigned at the same time as George Bush the elder was and Marshall Criser was UF President.

It didn't have to be this way.  In 1996, an independent by the name of Colin Murphy ran on a platform of serious SG reform.  But with victory only a days away, a most peculiar series of events cost him the election and kept the 'big boys' in power.

Colin Murphy first gained fame in that most worthy of careers, an Alligator columnist.  He wrote that SG was ruled by "the same people who have been screwing up for years" and also derided the main opposition party, the "94 Party".  He observed, "No, 94 is not supposed to represent the number of votes they are going to get.  That would be an overestimate."

But while Murphy opposed the status quo, he also censured "the lunatic fringe of UF politics."  He viewed the SG radicals as holding extreme, almost unrealistic rhetoric; he considered their uncompromising attitudes at odds with the mainstream student body.  (He can hardly be blamed for thinking so; the presidential nominee of the '94 party's previously tried to abolish the song, "We are the Boys" because of 'gender bias')

In the fall of '95, SG dropped to its lowest ebb in years when only one-party competed on the ballot.  The SG radicals, led by the Independent Student Coalition (ISC), had decided to run a "vote for no one" campaign, in which (literally) they ran 'no one' against the FOCUS party.  The only real opposition consisted of a few independents running against the odds--including a freshman named Gary Slossberg.  In the end FOCUS swept 39 of the 40 seats--apparently nothing comes from no one.

Murphy was fed up enough with both sides.  He founded a new Alliance party and announced his candidacy for Student Body President.  He was joined by several prominent reformers including Nick Zissimopolous, later a respected leader and two-term Vision senator.

Running against him was Brian Burgoon of the powerful Equity party, the radical "Cash Back for Students" party allied with the ISC, and a joke called the Tupperware party.

The Alliance party had much appeal and quickly gathered support.  On election night it surpassed all expectations, and with over 2200 votes Murphy's new party entered a dual run-off against Equity.

Victory was imminent--victory only required the "Student's party" to accept electoral reality and support the only reformer left with the ability to win. Together both independent parties had enough votes to triumph.

But then something bizarre happened, even by SG presidential election standards.

The blue-key bashing, would-be SG smashing, and homecoming-hating anti-SG radicals went 'greek'.

Amazing but true, playing the coveted role of 'Kingmaker' they refused to recognize any party of change besides their own, especially an upstart party as Alliance which had done well where they had continually lost.  Private wrongs evolved into a vicious smear campaign against Alliance and Murphy.  The radicals threw every undeserved dirty name in the book against Murphy and as such Alliance: 'racist', 'sexist', and other unfair epithets.

Then, unbelievably, the Student's party leadership--including a vocal member named Charles Grapski who had lost his own Presidential race the year before--struck an "endorsement deal" with Equity.  In return for their crucial endorsement, Equity made fleeting promises to enact part of the radicals' party platform.
 
Despite much popular support, the slander and the radicals' betrayal took its toll.  One independent student senator wrote: "I voted equity.  I can't believe I voted for equity…"  The damage was done and Equity won the run-off.
 
It had been extremely close in the Treasurer's race but Equity's Joey Stadlen defeated Tyrone Debique by only 32-votes, the closest margin of victory in memory.

After this disaster, the mainstream independent voters who had hoped for 'anyone but equity' reacted with outrage.  The Alligator's editorial board criticized Grapski's role in particular:

"Since coming to UF, Grapski has fought the Florida Blue Key-backed Student Government system with nothing short of bloodthirsty vehemence... through his support for Equity, Grapski has eliminated any legitimacy he had as an independent leader on campus.  He has negated his very existence as an SG watchdog and seemingly has succumbed to the power of Blue Key...The thought of someone else -- like Alliance's Colin Murphy -- in the system seems to frighten him almost as much as the accusation that he is softening on Blue Key."

But the campaign was over, and the strangest thing had happened.  A few angry SG radicals single-handedly destroyed the only independent hope they had, out of pure spite.
 

14th January, 2000
 

Quotes from

"Don’t encourage SG power games", by Colin Murphy ('The Truth') The Independent Florida Alligator February 9th, 1994

"Letters to the Editor:  Students' Party endorsement of Blue Key bizarre" by Bob Widenhofer, 8E, The Independent Florida Alligator 3rd of April, 1996

"Closed game" by The Independent Florida Alligator's Editorial Board, The Independent Florida Alligator 2nd April, 1996