A late publicity push by the College of William and Mary’s Student Assembly for the upcoming SA elections nearly doubled the number of announced candidates before the declaration deadline expired Thursday.
Twenty additional candidates joined the races for positions. A new team also joined the race for SA president and vice president. Jessee Vasold ’11 announced a campaign for president, joined by former Sen. Kim Green ’13 as a running mate. Sen. Ben Brown ’11 and SA Deputy Chief of Staff Chrissy Scott ’11 previously announced their candidacies for the position.
SA President Sarah Rojas ’10 said that the increased number of candidates was largely due to additional time and boosted awareness efforts on the part of the SA.
“I think that, when it comes down to it, it was down to publicity,” Rojas said. “We didn’t really do a good enough job to publicize [the election], so it just goes to show that when we advertise the elections enough, students get more interested.”
New candidates joined races in each social class. Six additional candidates declared for the four open senator positions for the Class of 2011, while three candidates joined the five previous candidates for senator positions in the Class of 2013. Conner Bleakley ’13 and James Palmer ’13 declared to run for the position of president of the Class of 2013, joining incumbent David Alpert ’13.
Candidates declared for every available position, while 13 positions are currently unopposed. The previous declaration deadline left 16 positions uncontested. Rojas said that some unopposed races were to be expected.
“Every year, there are positions that go unopposed,” Rojas said.
Thursday’s deadline was the second cutoff for declarations of candidacy. The first deadline, on March 10, produced only 25 candidates and left five positions with no candidates at all.
Following the low turnout, SA leaders announced plans to reschedule the declaration deadline and actual election to allow for more publicity. A bill detailing the measure passed in the senate Tuesday.
The election is scheduled to be held March 31, one week after its original date March 24.
*SA President/Vice President*
Chrissy Scott and Kaveh Sadeghian (VP)
Ben Brown and Betty Jeanne Manning (VP)
Jessee Vasold and Kimberly Green (VP)
*Class of 2011*
*Senator*
Caitlin Goldblatt
Cory Chapman
Micheal Young
Erin Mee
Niku Budhiraj
Michael Douglass
Matthew Peppe
Joshua Karp
*President*
Michael Tsidulko
*VP Social Affairs*
Wayne Pearson
*VP Advocacy*
Katherine Ainsworth
Patrick Carlson
*Secretary*
Sahra Roble
*Treasurer*
Jazmine Pina
Cory Flatt
*Class of 2012*
*Senators*
Carlos Quintela
Zach Marcus
Stef Felitto
Adam Stokes
*President*
Matt Schofield
*VP Social Affairs*
Stephanie McGuire
Christopher Fong
Kimberly Zeitz
*VP Advocacy*
John Pence
*Secretary*
Uriah Kim
*Treasurer*
Matthew Nathan
*Class of 2012*
*Senator*
Noah Kim
Curt Mills
JT Cobb
Jake Lewitz
Max Rozycki
Grace Colby
Timothy Lee
Scott Waldman
*President*
David Alpert
Conner Bleakley
James Palmer
*VP Social Affairs*
Lemondre Watson
Akie Fujita
*VP Advocacy*
Morgan Dyson
*Secretary*
Tess Deatley
*Treasurer*
Ryan McManus
Phillip Basnight