By: Matt Head, OTV Station Manager
The 2009 spring election was the last time an SG presidential candidate ran unopposed. Red Party candidate John Barnes breezed his way into a second term as student body president.
This year, the spring election was a battle between a Moderate Green David and a Red Goliath.
The elections, held every spring for presidential candidates, give students the opportunity to elect their next student body president. If a party chooses not to endorse a presidential candidate or an opposition cannot be formed, it is not anyone’s fault. Perhaps students are happy with the current lay of the land or are too busy to care.
Two students were clearly not happy with the lay of the land and decided not to let the election be carried on without them. John Fails and Philip Sabado formed the Moderate Green Party because they claim a dialogue between SG and students needed to start. Everyone just wants what is best for the students, right?
They ran a traditional non-red platform you may have seen a thousand times but with little to no success. The platform is based on being “anti-greek” and having effective communication with students. They said they would campaign on “the underground” that will allow them to reach more students.
They had poise, intelligence and beyond their years type moxie about them people could respect. They didn’t have any new or fresh ideas but it is obvious they believed in what they were selling.
As with any business, if you don’t sell enough you will not be around long enough to matter. During days of searching the campus and polling for exit numbers, Fails and Sabado were rarely seen. Supporters were even fewer and further between. The lack of any senate candidates on their ticket certainly didn’t help.
The Moderate Green Party knew they were underdogs from the beginning. They knew they would have to work the hours, skip a few classes and pray to the SG election gods if they wanted to win – and try this little thing called campaigning.
The Moderate Green party could probably finance their next election on a book they surely will not write: How Not to Run a Campaign. The book would give advice such as: Only have one item on your platform, don’t buy big green signs to attract attention, and don’t venture out into the land and speak with your constituents.
Carlo Fassi, the Red Party presidential nominee and winner of the election, said he was somewhat upset with his opponents’ turnout. He said he didn’t see much of Green around the polling regions, but did see them around campus.
The election was held on Super Tuesday. Maybe the Green Party was missed because they were out campaigning in Georgia and Idaho. Or maybe this is the value of the education from UNF.
Maybe the political science classes teach out of the How Not to Run a Campaign textbook. The newest chapter in the book should be titled “Failed Campaigns.”
Email Matt Head at m.head@unf.edu
