By Dan FletcherThe Daily Northwestern
Matt Bogusz said he was proud of his campaign team and excited to get started as executive vice president, after he received more than 80 percent of the vote in Tuesday’s ASG election.
“I’m very proud of my campaign team – they did a great job,” the Weinberg sophomore said after receiving 2,280 votes. “We couldn’t have done as well as we did without them.”
There were 2,825 votes in the uncontested race, with 348 abstaining votes.
As executive vice president, Bogusz will run the Associated Student Government executive committee and will be the chief liaison between senators and student groups.
Although he faced no official opponents, Bogusz said the time during the campaign allowed him to gather feedback from students about his platform. He stressed improvements to student group space and resources as his goals for the next year.
“I think (at least) one part of my platform connected with everyone I talked to this week,” he said.
His ideas were spread through a flyer campaign that spoofed popular advertisements, Bogusz said.
One flyer hyped an “ASGRevolution,” a take-off of the Chevrolet advertisement. Another told students to ask for a “Double shot of Bogusz” at Starbucks.
“We were told constantly by everyone we talked to during the week that the flyers were amazing,” Bogusz said.
He also posted smaller versions of the ads on many dorm room doors Monday night.
Bogusz said he was still unhappy that he had no opponent in the election.
“I wish there was someone else on the ballot, but I applaud (write-in candidate Micah Friedland) for his effort,” he said.
Friedland, a Weinberg sophomore, received 70 votes – or about 2.5 percent of the total vote – in his impromptu write-in campaign against Bogusz.
Friedland told The Daily on Sunday he was running because he wanted to be in ASG, and to help student groups. He said he was confident he would impact the election results.
After the election, he said he really didn’t want to win.
“I’m glad the vote total was as high as it was, even though I don’t think my votes did all that much to impact it,” Friedland said.
He said his short-lived campaign was a one-year shot and he wouldn’t compete again.
For his part, Bogusz said he was happy that SESP junior Jon Webber won his race for the presidency and looked forward to a night spent celebrating with him and outgoing Executive Vice President Rishi Taparia.
Reach Dan Fletcher at [email protected].
