One campaign dominates another

It’s that time of year again! The Student Senate elections are happening this week from Thursday  to Sunday. I have never been to involved with Senate politics, but this semester, I decided I should probably get involved, due to the fact that Senate handles the students’ money, and I want to make sure that my money is being handled properly. 

This semester, we have two parties running for president and vice president: Dillon Spies and Taylor Strong, and Nate Jones and Garret Lower. I have seen fliers from both parties hanging around campus, and I have come to this conclusion: It is obvious that Dillon Spies and Taylor Strong have the upper hand in this election.

I was walking in the Student Center on Wednesday when Spies and Strong were handing out cookies. Being the portly gentleman I am, I decided to get one. After talking with the candidates about all of what they would like to do to improve Student Senate, I thought they had some very good talking points. Spies believes that Senate should be more open to the public. We both agreed that not enough people were engaged in Senate activities. I think it’s a good thing to see that he wants people to be more involved. I honestly do believe that there aren’t enough people showing up to the meeting, and there should be much more involvement from students.

I wish I could tell you I support Jones and Lower’s campaign. I wish I could tell you that, but from what I have seen from them so far I am not impressed. Not only did they cover every square inch of the High Rise elevators in their posters, but they even went so far as to write campaign ads on the sidewalks across campus. I get the fact that you’re running for office, but putting up campaign ads on every square inch of public property just makes me think, “Wow, these guys are desperate.”

Not only that, but they use students’ money to make those fliers. I don’t even want to know how much ink they had to use. It may not come out of student activity fees, but the colored ink used on campus inevitibly comes back to the students. In addition, after the shameful display of showmanship I heard about in the Rita King Library, they will definitely not be getting my vote.

Regardless of your stance on politics, it is a known fact that political mud-slinging is a low and childish tactic. After hearing about Nate Jones telling Dillon Spies’ campaign manager that he needs to “put his big girl panties on,” I lost all respect for him in that moment. He apparently even went so far as to tear down one of their fliers. If you are going to be a serious politician, the last thing you need to be doing is making idle threats and acting like a five year old.

If you are going to vote in this election, I implore you to really consider voting for Dillon Spies and Taylor Strong. From my firsthand experiences, I do believe that they genuinely care about the input of the student body, and I believe that they would do a way better job of running Student Senate than the competition.