Two days after the Student Government Vice President resigned, the Red Party announced their presidential Candidate: Joseph Turner, current SG Treasurer.

Current SG President Carlo Fassi said he offered the candidacy to Turner in mid-November after careful review, and considering his experiences as an SG Senator, Attorney General, and Treasurer.

He said Turner has worked on many of the Red Party’s initiatives.

“The initiative [Turner] took, the character he’s shown and the drive he has, made it an easy choice. I do not regret the decision I made and I will not regret the decision I made.”

Turner said his philosophy is to add value to the student’s time here at UNF, and the value of their degrees after graduation. He said, after seeing the effect of the Aim Higher Campaign in keeping tuition from rising, it’s clear state level advocacy is of great importance.

When asked if he thought Turner’s nomination caused Namen to resign, Fassi said there had been a disagreement on the future of the Red Party that upset Namen, but he can’t say why he resigned.

Turner said he didn’t go into this year of SG with the intent of running for president, but when presented with the opportunity, he decided he could do a good job.

Turner said, so far, he has received an overwhelming amount of support from his friends and even people he does not really know.

Fassi said the Party Chair was ultimately who made the choice to nominate Turner.

In regards to Namen’s resignation letter, Turner said it’s always alarming when any staff member, regardless of the reason, has a problem with that organization.

“Every second we spend on office drama or politics is a second that we wasted and that we could have been using to help the students.”

“I can’t really think of any specifics that [Namen] pointed out in his resignation letter that I’ve seen first hand. Everyone has a different opinion, but I haven’t seen any specifics that I would go in and change right away,” Turner said, when asked whether Namen’s letter was pointing to real problems in SG.

Fassi said, “In the just over eight months we worked together, I can’t remember a time when ‘incompetency’ or ‘providing an environment not conducive to creativity’ was an issue, and I’ve reached out to William to talk about it. He hasn’t responded yet to me.”

When asked to answer questions regarding his letter of resignation, Namen said he was not going to answer questions until he was ready to and gave no indication as to when that would be.

Email Tiffany Felts at reporter11@unfspinnaker.com