You won’t see the youngest candidate for Associated Student Government president handing out any flyers at the Rock, but you might see him at Bill’s Blues rapping in bling and a beanie. Weinberg sophomore Luke Adams said he thinks his raps will provide more information than his opponents’ posters.
“They’ll see the name, but they won’t see the game,” Adams said. “They won’t see the issues.”
Adams’ unique campaign skips the paper and tape, instead using his love of performing to engage students through entertainment.
“It’s so cliché to go out there and chalk up the sidewalk and throw up posters,” he said. “I’m doing a carbon-neutral campaign. You’ve got to do funny, inventive stuff to win over the people that don’t necessarily vote.”
For Adams, a member of the Three Legendary Cats improv group and Northwestern University Radio Drama, that means drawing on his experience as a performer.
“Luke is very serious about the office, but he wants to show that he can have a little fun doing it,” said Michael Philben , his campaign manager. “He has an extremely forceful personality, but he can really motivate people and make things happen.”
Adams is also a naval ROTC squad leader, which he said he believes is his “main selling point.”
“These other people who are running, their activities could be to pad their resume,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if I do a lot of activities, because either way I’m going to be an officer in the Navy. I already have my job picked out for me. Everything I do is both for fun and to help people out around the university.”
Like some of the other presidential candidates, Adams said he thinks ASG spends too much time and money on the wrong issues, and the money should be “shuffled around.”
“ASG is more concerned with appropriating funds to bring entertainment to campus than with programs like wireless or the intercampus shuttle or the Shop-n-Ride on Saturdays,” he said. “I say maybe we have a less eminent performer for the fall concert, and with that sacrifice we put the U-Passes in.”
Adams said he is confident about his chances in the election next Tuesday.
“Everybody loves the underdog,” he said. “Hillary said she was like Rocky, but I’m like Rocky II, where he actually wins.”
– NATHAN ADKISSON
