For the fourth time here in the Lamp‘s long memory, it’s ASUA Election season. The (controversial) Elections Commission sent out the names of the candidates[pdf] to the press last night. The candidates are:
President:
Katy Murray
Chad Travis
Leo Yamaguchi
Executive Vice-President:
Kevin Elliot
Krystina Nguyen
JW Phillips
Administrative Vice-President
Dani Dobrusin
Paige Sager
Ryan Weaver
Senate:
Taylor Ashton
Jake Barman
Logan Bilby
Alex Chang
Genesis Chapa
Justin Evans
Bryce Fronstin
Valerie Hanna
Lucas Holt
Dylan Janis
Vinson Liu
Daniel Marks
Bryan Namba
Danielle Novelly
Marc Small
Emily Smith
Claire Theobald
Joel Torres
Though this site no longer covers ASUA with the diligence the organization and its activities might deserve, more than a few of these characters have a lot of experience with ASUA and as such a history on this site. Leo Yamaguchi is a former ASUA Senator from the halycon 2009-2010 year, for whom we even have a 2009 Campus Policy Survey. It will be interesting to see how Mr. Yamaguchi’s platforms have changed since he claimed to support students’ right to vote on new policy. Chad Travis is a two-time and current Senator (and sometime Lamp commenter) who led initiatives to universalize class clickers, among other projects. Even Katy Murray is currently the ASUA Presidential Chief of Staff, so entire field has an ASUA pedigree. Given criticism that ASUA is an insular organization, the lack out even relative outsiders will be interesting to watch.
Given the low number of candidates, the Lamp‘s vintage criticism of the fact that ASUA holds a primary election to eliminate just one candidate is still keen. According to the Elections Code, “The commissioner is only required to hold a primary when there are more than 2 candidates for an executive position, or 20 candidates for the 10 senate seats.” There will be a primary election for both executive and senate positions on February 28th and 29th. How does this year’s Senate field compare to recent years?
Best wishes to all candidates — as always this site is open to and interested in discussion and platform information from candidates: desertlamp [at] gmail [dot] com.
I too have lost my tenacity (or will) to follow ASUA, so a lot of these ASUA Senate candidates seem pretty unknown. I recall several candidates in years past being FCC members or somehow already in the ASUA “family” so to speak. But this year, outside of the Bilby kid, I don’t recognize a one of these names. The Bilby kid I only recognize because his sister was an ASUA Senator. I think it will be interesting (or perhaps predictable) to see if that name alone somehow carries weight. I’ll air on the side of predictability and say he’s a sure thing for election. Probably doesn’t even need a platform.