Two years ago Evil Dave Sheldon overcame a 20-point margin to defeat Manu Bhardwaj in the Associated Student Government presidential runoff election.
In today’s runoff election, Jay Goyal will try to replicate Sheldon’s feat.
Goyal, who received 28 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s election, faces an uphill battle in his quest for the presidency against Jordan Heinz, who garnered 46.7 percent of the vote. Heinz was only 106 votes away from winning a majority.
Aided by the endorsements of the three other presidential candidates, Goyal said he believes he has a chance to gain ground. In the 1999 election, Sheldon also received the endorsements of three candidates who did not make the runoff.
But Sheldon, who now lives in Seattle, said he does not see any parallels between his election and this one.
“We were kind of a special case,” Sheldon said. “Talking a whole lot of smack worked for me. I read the article about the debates this year, and it put me to sleep. Where’s the excitement? Where’s the drama? And most importantly, where are the real issues?”
Heinz agreed and said he isn’t scared of a repeat of Sheldon’s runoff turnaround.
“Evil Dave and Jay are completely different people, running during times of completely different campus environments,” said Heinz, an Education junior. “Evil Dave was an ASG insider to the extreme who had some great campaign tactics. Jay is a reformer.”
Heinz also said he does not expect the three endorsements of Goyal to impact his campaign.
“It’s what I expected,” he said. “The other three candidates are all about reforming ASG, and that philosophy doesn’t work this year. I have confidence that the student body will realize that having experience in ASG, and at Northwestern, works.”
Goyal, however, said he was hopeful that support from the other candidates would help make a difference.
“The endorsements of the other candidates will help close the gap between Jordan and I,” said Goyal, a Weinberg sophomore. “The other candidates obviously followed the issues surrounding the election closer than everyone else, and their support shows they have intimate knowledge of my ideas and platform.”
One candidate, Howard Lien, said he was endorsing Goyal because a Heinz victory would “represent more of the same from ASG.”
“During my campaign, I was happy that I was able to bring up issues and ideas,” said Lien, a Weinberg sophomore. “But if Jay wins, my campaign will have accomplished more in bringing actual change to the campus.”
Lien also said that Heinz’s ties to the administration impacted his decision to endorse Goyal.
“Jordan has stated that his goal is to become even closer to the administration,” Lien said. “I just feel that many of Jay’s proposals and philosophies are more similar to mine.”
But ASG President Adam Humann, who backs Heinz’s bid, said the other candidates chose not to support Heinz because they ran on an anti-ASG platform.
“Not to take anything away from Jay, but if the other candidates were seriously interested in supporting the candidate who will get the most done for the student body, they would have backed Jordan,” said Humann, a Weinberg senior.
