by Lola Garcia
Student voters broke away from recent tradition in this year’s SGA election for president and vice president-president of academic affairs by avoiding a run-off election and not electing a former SGA administrative coordinator (AC) to office.
This year’s AC, Mike Maloney ‘06, lost his bid for the presidency in a one-round election on Monday. Cownibble Joint Board senator John Bohman ‘06 won a decisive victory, taking 551 votes to Maloney’s 308.
The margin of victory in the vice presidential election was even more significant. Loosehead Joint Board Senator Chris Ochoa ‘06 took 697 votes, beating East Campus Senator Jason Chen ‘07 by over 550 votes.
Write-in candidates took less than ten percent of the vote in the presidential election and about 11 percent of the vice presidential election.
For the first time in recent memory both the presidential and vice presidential elections had only two official candidates and neither went into a runoff election. According to the SGA Constitution, if a candidate does not receive at least fifty percent of the vote, there will be a second run-off election, usually between the top two candidates. In past years, with students having the option of three to five candidates, run-off elections were almost guaranteed.
In another break from recent years, the AC—usually an electoral favorite—was defeated. This year’s previous vice president Andy Grimm had been an AC. Liz Allan ‘04, president for the 2003-2004 academic year, had served as AC the previous year under President Alejandro Oyarzabal ‘04, who had served as AC in 2001-2002.
Despite recent history, Maloney denied that ACs held any advantage in president and VP elections. “I’m not really sure the AC has an advantage,” he said, “if you look farther [than the past three years] that is not the case.”
Maloney attributed his loss to the strength of the opposing candidate rather than to any negative associations the student body had with the current SGA administration. “John’s a great candidate with a lot of great ideas,” he said, “I feel that even though I lost the election, the student body isn’t losing anything.”
Bohman attributed his victory to students wanting more out of the SGA. “I think the students of Grinnell know that they are capable of more and voted for a candidate who will help them realize that potential,” he said. Bohman ran on a platform of a “new SGA,” and said that under his administration SGA would be “self-assessing and self-improving.”
“I hope to achieve greater transparency, greater engagement with the student body, and greater drive,” he added that he wanted this effort “not just from SGA, but from the entire campus community.”
He also said he was looking forward to working with Ochoa, despite the fact that Ochoa had openly campaigned with Maloney. He said his relationship would be “a friendly and productive one.”
“Chris is someone I have a great respect for,” he said. “He has invested a lot in the campus community, and I don’t think I could have picked a better VP myself.”
Ochoa echoed Bohman’s optimism. “I think John and I will have a great working relationship” he said. “That I chose to run with Mike did not effect the working relationship we had established before the election, and I don’t see it as a problem.”
Ochoa reiterated the importance of more student involvement as well. “Next year I hope to tap into student opinion about academic issues on a greater scale than I have seen in the past,” he said, “I will work to increase student awareness about SGA and get more students involved in the process.”
Ochoa attributed his sound victory to “the student body recogniz[ing] that I have the experience and drive to act as a means to express student opinion.”
Chen attributed his loss to his radical agenda. “My agenda is new and less heard, unlike the old issues that have been widely accepted as desirable,” he said. “Acceptance of new things often takes time.” He said his main mistake was not explaining why some of his ideas, like a new method of course scheduling and a grade review committee, were feasible.
Arts | News | Opinion | Features | Sports | Archives | About Us