Official primary election results

Candidates for the 2011 ASUSU elections totaled more than they ever have before at 59, and on Wednesday this number was whittled down to 39 after the primary winners were announced, Wednesday.

 

ASUSU Presidential candidate Ben Williams came up short in the primary elections with 773 votes, while finalists for ASUSU president, Keenan Nuehring and Erik Mikkelsen passed through the primaries with 1137 and 1167 votes, respectively.

 

Williams said, “Of course I would have liked t have gotten it (a seat in the finals). But, these guys have a lot of work ahead of them, and I don’t envy them for that.”

 

ASUSU executive vice president candidate and current Government Relations Council chair,  Kirsten Frank, was originally uncontested until Tues. 17 when Kade Hansen officially applied to be a write-in candidate.

 

When asked why she thought Hansen chose to run against her so late in the game, Kirsten responded, “I can’t think of a good reason. I think it is because he doesn’t like the idea of an uncontested campaign.”

 

Kirsten explained that the position of vice president requires a special skill set to do the job officially, a skill set that Kirsten has acquired over the years. She is a complete advocate for campaigns to be contested, but feels the position of vice president is too difficult of a position to try to win as a write-in without an idea of how to do the job properly.

 

Aggie Radio director and persona, Jordan Allred, who made it through the primaries as a Diversity vice president candidate, said in all honesty, it will take a miracle for him to beat his opponent Brooke Evans in the finals. Shocked that he received more votes than three others campaigning against him, he said he knows he still has his work cut out for him in the final campaigning. He said his goals are focused mainly around student organization development.

 

“Diversity VP has a lot to do with organizations,” Allred said. “I want to make organizations more money efficient.”

 

Student advocate candidates, Rob Jepson and Jason Russell, will run a tight race with Jepson leading by 22 votes, and Russell said they have both discussed the possible outcome of the position. Russell said they both expressed they would be devastated because they have put so much time into their campaigns. Russell said he believes his experience and being the only candidate to have sat on the student fee board will help him.

 

“I was sorry to see Sam didn’t make it because he seems like a really great guy,” Jepson said. “I think Jason is running a great campaign. I am excited to keep on trucking and may the best man win.”

Trevor Nelson, the current graduate vice president, is gearing up for final elections. Nelson said that he did not know what to expect in the primary election. His main campaign strategy has been word of mouth where as his contender, Cami Jones, is more of a typical campaign. Nelson said he is at the advantage because he is already in the position and will be able to move forward smoothly and with consistency.

 

He feels the hardest part will be getting graduate students to vote. Last year 180 students voted and this year only 130 voted. He plans to have the graduate school send an impartial e-mail encouraging students to vote.

 

Two of the most contested colleges were the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business with six candidates, Caine College of the Arts (CCA) with five candidates, and College of Humanities and Social Science (HASS) with four candidates.

 

The two that came out on top in the school of business are Scot Marsden and McKell Lyman, with Marsden leading the race by 10 votes.

 

Bryce Smalley, who lost his chance at a place in the finals for the school of business senator, said he felt as though the winners in this college had large social networks within the business school, which is key in making it through the primaries.

 

Brady Mathews was one of the two candidates to pass the primary election for CCA. Mathews expressed that it was hard to know how the campaign was going. He felt that because they were only allowed to campaign in the middle of campus rather than by the art buildings, students were unaware of candidates that were running and were not interested in voting. Mathews said that CCA has over 1,000 students and only 300 voted. His opponent is Mary Jacobsen.

 

Mathews is determined to increase the number of CCA students who vote for final elections. He plans to do this through asking professors to encourage students to vote.

 

“Mostly I think people aren’t educated,” Mathews said. “They don’t take the time to read the candidates’ platform statements or even look at who is running.”

 

HASS senator candidate, Rhett Wilkinson said he was pleasantly surprised when his name was announced as a final candidate.

 

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“I assumed Erika was going to make it to the finals because she has a good campaign and is very well-known,” Wilkinson said. “I also thought Andy with the boom box would get me.”

 

Wilkinson said his heart was beating when they announced his name as a final candidate. Of all the candidates, Wilkinson said Erika Nelson will be the most difficult senator to run against because of her involvement. Wilkinson said he has the advantage because his platform is far better than Nelson’s and he is unsure how she will carry out her platform if she does win.

 

Another HASS senator candidate, Andy Rawlings, was not so fortunate after the announcement of the primary elections.

 

“My goal was to associate my name with the image of me dancing,” Rawlings said. “I wanted to be known as the fun guy. I knew I was not as qualified as others so I decided to have more fun with my qualifications on the website and I think that hurt me.”

 

Rawlings said that playing the boom box loudly and dancing might have been annoying to other candidates. However, he felt that the tactic was very attention grabbing and he had fun seeing people smile. The hardest thing for him was understanding how to reach the HASS students.

 

Compared to last year, Kayla Harris, a member of the grievance committee, said approximately the same number of grievances were filed, however, candidates with grievances filed against them have responded well due to the recently implemented ethics section of the campaign bylaws.

 

“A big thing weíve done with grievances is made the candidate stay away from social media,” said Alanna Hill, assistant director of Student Involvement and Leadership.

 

Though she cannot speak to certain instances where grievances were filed, she said she does not believe any of the candidates had “ill intentions” during their campaigns, and simply did not understand some of the campaign bylaws.

 

kayl
a.hall@aggiemail.usu.edu

catherine.meidell@aggiemail.usu.edu