Former SA Insiders Assess this Year's Race

Former SA President Vishal Aswani, former EVP Kyle Boyer, and former (or current) SA insider Elliot Bell Kranser ("EBK") gave WRGW News their thoughts on the SA election.

Vishal told us he doesn't really follow the SA anymore due to his busy schedule, but he said that although he had a few reservations with EVP candidate Jon Binetti at first, "the leadership he's shown outside of the SA (in SEAS and on the inaugural float) made me confident in both his willingness to positively contribute to student life and of his desire to help GW such that I ended up voting for him."  Jon Binetti is an SA senator representing the Engineering School, just as Aswani was before he was elected SA president in 2008.


Kyle Boyer declined to endose a presidential candidate, although he told WRGW News that Xochitl Sanchez's debate performance was "surprisingly strong." Boyer hinted that if turnout exceeds expectations this year, "there could be some surprises." Boyer also predicted a run-off in the EVP race, calling all four candidates "viable," and went on to endorse Rob Maxim by writing, "Rob Maxim is the best for the job.  He knows the nature of the job having assisted me in it [as Senate secretary].  He knows GW having worked on Cabinet, off-campus, and now as a newly-hired house scholar.  He also knows how to work with administrators in a firm but tactful way."  


Elliot Bell-Krasner has endorsed the candidacies of Jason Lifton and Josh Goldstein.  On Lifton, Bell-Kranser wrote, "I believe will be able to work with the GW Administration and get them to take an interest in what the SA does and what it wants to do." Bell-Krasner sees Goldstein as "someone who will do the EVP job as described, which means being objective about legislation, while at the same time working with the SA President on a shared vision. He is quieter than the others, but that isn't a bad thing, because it is not the job of the EVP to be loud and opinionated."  Bell-Krasner went on to predict a Dobson-Goldstein runoff in the EVP race.  

Last Year's Student Association Election: A Look Back

As candidates begin to announce their candidacies for SA President and EVP in the next week and the election season ensues yet again, here are some of the "memorable" moments of last year's race.

Kyle Boyer Thrown Off Ballot - In the most controversial moment of the campaign, the JEC expelled EVP Kyle Boyer from the Presidential contest after not claiming a car as an expense on his financial report (in addition to previous campaign violations). Boyer was just 2 votes shy of winning the contest outright in the first round, adding to the element of tragedy. SA drama at its finest moment.  Note to future SA candidates: report anything and everything as an expense.

Dylan 'F.' Pyne Gets Hideous Mustache Hacked Off - The current CCAS Senator promised to get it shaved off if he won a Senate seat, and we're happy he did. The mustache  hair on his upper lip looked absolutely gruesome, as seen in the video below, right before he shaved it off in-front of WRGW News.  Even more of a travesty: Pyne's terrible campaign slogans ("He makes scents") and his signs (pictured).

Logan Dobson Sails to Re-election - After 16 candidates ran for just 6 CCAS under-grad seats, Logan Dobson finished first in a landslide.  As a popular second year senator, you'd think he'd be elevated in the SA by fellow senators when it came to committee appointments, right?  The former Rules Committee Vice-Chairman tried to become Chairman of the Rules Committee.  Didn't work out.  Chairman of the Finance Committee?  Nope. Vice Chairman of any committee? No way, no how, no Dobson. Logan will probably get the last laugh if he runs for (and likely wins) EVP.    

SA Update

While running for SA President and EVP, Vishal Aswani and Kyle Boyer established themselves as reformers able to work across the aisle with the goal of improving the quality of life for GW students. This year, many eagerly wait for their first move as leaders for the most powerful student organization on campus.

On August 28^th, Aswani and Boyer released their shared vision for the 2008-2009 academic year. This comprehensive agenda addressed everything from academics to the environment. They plan to improve student advising as well as the application process for the study abroad program that many students participate in year after year. In addition, they also hope to improve GW’s sustainability ratings by adding more recycling bins and decreasing paper use in libraries and computer labs.

Parts of the vision came from each candidate’s platform during last year’s election as well as projects they have worked on in the past. Pieces of Boyer’s campaign to reduce metro fares for college students linger in the vision as well as Aswani’s plan to get federal aid for student orgs.

They hope to start working on all these issues immediately and stressed the need for cooperation from all people in the Student Association.  Check back soon for SA updates!

- Sam Collins

Aswani Announces Cabinet

As promised, the SA President Elect Vishal Aswani has announced his committee’s choices for the SA cabinet. In a press release earlier this week, Aswani called the selection process “difficult,” due in part to “the number of applicants [that far exceeded] the number of posts available.” He went on to say that this was a show of increased student interest in the SA and that “this heightened level of interest will lead this year’s applicants to become involved in the improvement of life for students at GW.” The list of cabinet members includes some students who ran in the general election, including Julie Bindelglass, Nick Polk and Shawn Dejbaksh.

- Samuel Collins, Jr.

Spring Break Briefs

• Vishal Aswani won the SA Presidency the Thursday prior to Spring Break. The results took only half an hour from the closing of the polls to be verified by the Joint Elections Comittee. With a little over 3,000 students voting, Vishal beat opponent Kevin Kozlowski by a 55.1% to 44.82% margin. Vishal will be joining WRGW sometime this week to discuss the win and his plans for next year.


• Program Board announced last Saturday that Gym Class Heros will be the musical act for Spring Fling. The event is planned for Saturday April 5th in University Yard. Tyga and Kidz in The Hall will also be performing at the event. More on this later in the week.


• Hillary Clinton was on campus last Monday to deliver a foreign policy address. As her third event in the last three weeks, she spoke about Iraq policy on the week of the five year anniversary of the invasion. She remained strong on her belief to pull troops out of Iraq and used this event to focus not on differences with Democratic opponent Barack Obama, but differences with Republican nominee John McCain. "Despite the evidence, President (George W.) Bush is determined to continue his failed policy in Iraq until he leaves office and Sen. McCain will gladly accept the torch and stay the course keeping troops in Iraq up to 100 years if necessary," Clinton said. "They both want to keep us tied to another country's civil war - a war we cannot win."


• The women's basketball team headed west to the big dance on Wednesday. Playing at Stanford University, the Colonials defeated Auburn on Saturday in the first round of the tournament, 66-56. The second round took place on Monday, where the 5-seed team took on 3-seed Cal. Sarah Jo Lawerence made a last second layup propelling the team forward to the Sweet 16 in Greensboro after a 55-53 victory. Check out our sport's director Frank Dale's blog for all the details from the trip.


• GW Baseball inaugurated the new Nationals Ballpark on Saturday. The 9-4 win over St. Joes was the first game played at the park. Nationals officials hoped that this would serve as a practice game for ballpark employees. More on this later in the week.


• The University announced today that Julian Bond, the chairman of the NAACP, will be this year's commencement speaker. The commencement ceremony on May 18th coincides with the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's assassination. More on this later in the week.

- Mallory Thompson

SA RESULTS LIVE FROM THE BALLROOM!

Hey folks,

9:08pm
Guest blogger David Earl here saying good evening from the Marvin Center's Grand Ballroom. Candidates and their minions are waiting eagerly for election results. We're live here with WRGW, joined by News Director Mallory Thompson, Sports Director Frank Dale, Hatchet Editor David Ceasar, and currently joined by Brand Kroeger, current SA EVP.
A few notes:
- Team Aswani is sitting front and (right) center, about three rows deep. Vishal Aswani is in fact sporting purple hair to match his shirts. It looks, well, interesting.
- Elliot Bell-Krasner (EBK) is marching around the room. We don't know what he's really saying. It comes out as random noises
- The JEC, under the direction of Tim Miller, is currently huddled up. They're doing their pep talk. They seem pumped.

More on the way! SAing.

9:15pm
Brand Kroeger, when asked what candidates he supported, he rattled off the fraternity brothers of his that he supports, and chose not to endorse a Presidential or EVP Candidate. He did say, though that there were Presidential candidates who "did things negatively" and candidates who "did things positively."

Calls to mind the problems that he had with OG Oyiborhoro this year, with the accusations of racism, and Kevin Kozlowski, who has established himself as the candidate to continue the legacy of Brand Kroeger and Nicole Capp. See if we can't get more out of him for the remainder of the night.

9:31
People are milling about, doing a whole lot of tnothing while the Joint Elections Comittee also seems to be wandering themselves. A humorous little tidbit: Tarek al-Hariri was caught depositing $1 in the JEC "Swear Jar," we're all excited.

9:42
Took a walk over to see how the JEC was doing, and was promptly told to turn around, there was work going on. Must admit, its difficult to decipher what that work is.

It doesn't show many signs that these election results will come remarkably quickly. While the JEC did have the benefit of almost exclusively online voting this year, the JEC members have said little to nothing. Apparently there was only one paper ballot, but there is the pesky need to count write-in votes. OG Oyiborho is expected to have a substantial number of write-in votes.

9:57pm
Interesting point, there has been no sign of OG. He has not yet joined us here in the Grand Ballroom Ballroom.

9:58pm
Just as we brought it up, OG has joined us in the Grand Ballroom. He has come in quietly, and is only joined by a handful of friends. There are no OG t-shirts a la Vishal and Kevin, and no crowd surrounding like Tarek has enjoyed a good portion of the evening.

JEC Members are drifting right now, hard to see what's really going on.

10:07pm
Brand Kroeger has been with us here live, and, when we mentioned that Lamar Thorpe had walked into the room, Brand insinuated that the crowd was likely talking about accusations of sexual harassment. Yikes.

10:28pm
Wandering around the room, we found Presidential candidate Kevin Kozlowski sitting in a chair in the hallway outside of the continental ballroom, draped in his jacket. It looks like the campaign has taken a toll on him. He's currently sick as a dog. Stuffed up and exhausted, I joked with him that he looked like FDR in his final months.

Campaigning has left candidates weary. Vishal hasn't moved from his seat in nearly two hours, and seems pretty dazed. OG, often a very animated guy who knows how to work a room, is literally silently huddled with his supporters near the back of the room, with a group that includes former President Thorpe. Tarek seems to be in good spirits, but is certainly not bouncing around the room.

The JEC does not seem to be close to announcing just yet, and students are getting anxious. Steve Glatter, current President Nicole Capp's Chief of Staff, said that they are currently counting write-in votes, and had the opportunity to shed a little light on the OG write-in campaign. It seems that students had to have made an attempt to write the last name of "Oyiborhoro," and would be given the benefit of the doubt. "OG," "O G," etc. would NOT be counted. We'll see what that means. OG had been asking supporters to simply copy and paste his name into the ballot. Time will tell if that works for him.

10:37pm
JEC Chairman Ben Balter announces we're "10-15 minutes" from knowing the results.

10:48pm
An anonymous JEC member has just told me that Vishal won "at least 75%" of the law school vote, typically a HUGE voting block here on campus. This could mean major, major things for this election. We'll have to see if a run-off is necessary.

10:49pm
Hannah Byam, General Manager of WRGW, here and it looks like the JEC just voted to accept the results - we're standing by to see what that means for our wait here tonight.

10:57pm
The candidates and their campaigns have more clearly defined their "territory" within the Grand Ballroom. Kozlowski and team are subdued, as their candidate is feeling very under the weather and that seems to have quieted them all. The purple of Vishal's camp adds an interesting visual energy; equally enjoying themselves are the Boyer (for EVP) camp. Each campaign clearly has its own personality
Also around the room, JEC Chair Ben Balter has been walking around working the room, but Tim Miller just called him back behind the line. Getting closer to news, perhaps??

11:02pm
With three exaggerated winks, JEC Chair Ben Balter tells us about "five minutes, about five minutes."

11:07pm
Tim Miller, joining us on-air, shares that the JEC must vote on questions of the "intent of the voter" - this is particularly important in this contest, as it sounds like "OG" and clear attempts at spelling his name are being counted as votes for Oyiborhoro.

11:15pm
The crowd just reminded Tim Miller & the JEC that the 10 - 15 minutes announced nearly 45 minutes ago had clearly passed. This is not news to Miller or the JEC ... it would be interesting to know what the hold-up is, and if perhaps it is a result of the OG question.

Also, a football game has broken out in the Ballroom. Thank goodness we have Frank Dale, our sports director up here to give a play-by-play.

11:28pm
Dave again - Jay Kaplan and Brand Kroeger have just been called forward, it looks like we could be nearing our final moments of the campaign. I'm not going to lie, I'm tired, and would love to get out of here.

11:39pm
Final Moments? We here at WRGW don't lie, or get things wrong, we just have different definitions of the word "final moments." Yet, finally, the time has come.

The RESULTS: 4390 voting (5 more than OG has friends on facebook)

Senate:
CPS:
Michelle Tanney (36%)

SMHS:
JP Simon
Muhammed Ali

Grad- SHHS:
4-Way Tie. Will update when we get all the names.

UGrad-SHHS:
8-Way Tie. Will update soon.

G-SEAS:
Juan Falquez

U-SEAS:
Andrew Breest

G-ESIA:
Bianca Garcia

U-ESIA:
Patrick Hanley
and two others we didn't catch in the applause
(update: Ernesto Apreza & Louis Laverone)

GSEHD:
Archie Kuburubia
Two-way tie: Josh Hartman & Adrienne Williams

U-Business:
Dan Price
Rice Holman

CCAS-U:
Julie Bindelglass
Mike Komo
Chris Pappas
Christopher Borchert
Lee Barakalow
Logan Dobson

Grad-At Large:
Arsenio Rodriguez
Ricardo Pineres

U-At-Large:
Nick Polk
Rob Lockwood

Law School:
Arsenio Rodriguez
Ricardo Pineres

PB-Vice Chair:
Elissa Davis (63%)

PB-Chair:
Tiffany Meehan (54%)

G-MCGB:
Mike Vogel

U-MCGB:
James Barnes
Melissa Meyer
Shaun Prapaisilp
Ethan Elser

Executive Vice-President:
Kyle Boyer

SA President Run-Off Candidates:
Vishal Aswani (37.2%)
Kevin Kozlowski (30.3%)

We'll post in full very soon. Update: Official certified results can be found here.

11:52PM
Early Reflections:

It looks like Vishal and Kevin, the two candidates for a run-off, are going to be a part of a moderately close race. Vishal was only 2.8% from winning the election outright, but Kevin only trailed by 7% in the general election.

The run-off should be interesting. Expect OG Oyiborhoro to throw support to the Aswani campaign, as it is evident that he believes Kozlowski was directly responsible for his being kicked off the ballot in the first place.

Nearly a third of the campus is up for grabs, and it should be an interesting election on March 11 and 12. Generally, turnout for the run-off is significantly lower, but this election should shape up to very interesting...

Thanks everyone. We'll polish up this results as soon as we can, and we're happy to be out by midnight. Check out www.gwradio.com to hear our interviews with Vishal and Kyle live!

SA Election Update

Below is a feature segment from WRGW's News Director Mallory Thompson.  Previewing candidates SA Senator Kevin Kozlowski, SA Senator OG Oyiborhoro, SA Senator Vishal Aswani and Peace Forum president Tarek al-Hariri, this piece serves as the kick off to the Student Association election season.

Students have until Monday until the filing process is complete for all SA, Marvin Center and Program board positions.

 SA Election Update

Vishal Aswani Announces Candidacy

On Wednesday night's news show, SA Senator Vishal Aswani and Business Director here at WRGW announced his bid for 2008- 2009 SA President.

Aswani is a junior in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and is the House Proctor of 2034 G Street.

In his announcement, Aswani pledged to be "a voice for all students" and to "fight for their rights." If elected he plans to work on improving school dining options, greening the university, and strengthening the university as a community - not just as a higher place of learning.

As for his competition, SA Senator junior Kevin Kozlowski, SA Senator junior OG Oyiborhoro, and Peace Forum organizer sophomore Tarek al-Hariri have all declared their candidacy.

Stay tuned for more updates on the SA race as the filing period comes to a close this weekend.

Click for audio:  Vishal Declares Candidacy