Presumptive Associated Student Government presidential candidates Mike McGee and Bill Pulte have made headway in shoring up support from individuals both inside and outside ASG, spurring current ASG President Neal Sales-Griffin to warn against the candidates pressuring senators and leaders to join their campaigns.
Like in years past, the candidates’ verbal campaigning has begun well in advance of Friday’s deadline to submit petitions for ASG’s executive board. Nonverbal campaigning, which includes signage, e-mails, Web sites and petitions, officially begins Monday at midnight.
ASG Academic Vice President McGee said he does not want his run for ASG president to polarize the student body.
“We’re going to make critiques, but we’re not going to run a negative campaign,” the Communication junior said. “What we don’t want is for there to be a major split where people will leave ASG because of the result.”
His opponent, ASG Vice President Bill Pulte, said he is being careful about creating friction within the student body, adding that he still receives daily reports from Weinberg junior Tommy Smithburg, the ASG Operations Director slated to run as McGee’s vice president.
“Things can blow up if people aren’t doing their jobs, so I’m going to do the most I can with the three weeks I have left,” said Pulte, a Medill junior. “I try to maintain a very good working relationship, and I hope the other campaign feels the same way.”
Sales-Griffin’s remarks were prompted by senators’ complaints that the candidates’ campaigns were using their positions within the organization to garner support, the SESP senior said.
“There has been pressure to serve in campaigns,” Sales-Griffin said. “This is a problem if people feel compromised if they feel that they don’t want to join.”
While ASG Elections Commissioner Paul David Shrader said he was aware of Sales-Griffin’s concerns, the Weinberg senior said he had not received any complaints from ASG officers after he assumed his post.
Moreover, Shrader said the election guidelines did not cover verbal campaigning, and therefore he had no recourse on anything as subjective as creating a divisive atmosphere.
Off-campus Senator and Weinberg junior Jeff Cao said while he had heard the rumors of a scramble for influence, he had not been contacted by either of the campaigns, and he didn’t know who might have been.
Meanwhile, the candidates have both begun to quietly contact a variety of student group leaders outside ASG in order to reach out and gather ideas.
McGee said he had made overtures to “key student groups in different areas that get funded by ASG or with an interest, like philanthropy or theater,” but said he would not go into greater detail.
Pulte, however, acknowledged that as former president of Pi Kappa Alpha, he had discussed his campaign with Interfraternity Council President Lucas Artaiz. He added his selection of Patrick Dawson, a Weinberg junior who is Rainbow Alliance’s president and a long-serving ASG senator, as his running-mate would likely draw support from other senators.
“A lot of people like Pat, so you see a lot of senators involved in his campaign,” Pulte said.
Artaiz said he had met with both candidates in mid-February and had regularly discussed ASG with Pulte since Pulte became ASG vice president.
The Council’s main interests lie in working more closely with ASG, said Artaiz, a SESP junior.
“The relationships haven’t been developed,” Artaiz said. “There’s not a lot of dialogue between (fraternity) presidents and senators on issues.”
Ali Melnyk, president of the Panhellenic Association, said both candidates had contacted her late in Winter Quarter regarding issues that concerned PanHel but did not specify what those interests were.
“I just talked to them so they could get a better feel for some of the things that we needed,” the Weinberg junior said.
Weinberg senior Andrew Karas said both candidates had approached him as Arts Alliance president to meet. He said he had only spoken to Pulte thus far, although he was open to meeting with McGee.
Jeniece Fleming, the president of the National Pan-Hellenic Council, said she had talked about the campaign with McGee, but just on a casual basis.
“It would be smart, given my affiliation with the NPHC, but I think he reached out because I was a friend,” the SESP senior said.
Student leaders for the College Democrats, Mayfest and Dance Marathon said their current leadership had not received any official communication from the candidates.
Mayfest President Diana Richter, whose organization received nearly $150,000 last year from the Student Activities Finance Board, which ASG oversees, admitted she didn’t even know who was running.
“I’m not in the loop at all,” the Weinberg senior joked. “But they’re very busy people, they have a lot of people to talk to.”
