I Stand Corrected
- About 5,400 students voted to elect district seats for Student Senate on the first day of Student Government elections, a much higher turnout than in past years.
- Fliers with the word “Lies” printed on them that listed a series of lies and corrective truths, which covered a few Orange and Blue platform points, were handed out as a registered political advertisement from the Gator Party, after Gator Party members were suspected of stripping the University of the full print run of the day’s campus newspaper (which had run an unflattering article about private emails and abuse of power).
- Members of the UF College Republicans hung a banner near their table in the Plaza of the Americas supporting the Gator Party.
I totally agree with the Alligator on the second point, that trying to deprive students of freedom of the press because you dislike what’s being printed is very undemocratic and could backfire (not to mention is ineffective when the newspaper has a website). All this will do is piss people off even more.
On the third point, it’s fairly rare to let partisan politics interfere with student politics, but I suppose FBK is desperate enough to side with the partisan minority on a college campus in the hopes of getting a few non-Greeks to vote for them. But really – on the eve of Obama’s election, FBK is siding with McCain?!? Smart.
Jumping back to the first point, that turnout is huge. 5400 in one day is Spring-level turnout, but on a good day. 5400 is the entire turnout for my Fall 2001 campaign over 2 days. 5400 is huge. And given the dynamics of what’s going on, and the news hitting the Gator Party, I just can’t imagine that high turnout is good news for them – unless they managed to get all of their pledges to vote on one day (as unlikely as that may be).
Anyway, so I’m wrong. SG can change. Moreover, SG elections can still be entertaining and thrilling from a distance.
Too bad I can’t say the same about the 2nd presidential debate last night.
I’ve been calling this since the Paul Drayton fiasco. The System is in trouble. There’s no controversial multicultural revolt this time, there’s no Greek split (ala Carmody/Fried). I think this is the first time the GDI’s and the GDI’s alone are the driving force behind the most serious challenge to FBK-backed Machine.
I’d also point out that one interesting tidbit from history is that the last time turnout spiked unexpectedly was 4 years ago, when another African American with charisma was inspiring Gators to get involved. Granted, back then it was a direct connection to SG, but I don’t doubt that the enthusiasm for Obama is helping to generate enthusiasm for voting in SG (and hence my love for the GOP’s embrace of the Gator Party).
I think crediting the turn-out to Obama does a major disservice to the Orange and Blue Party who have worked their asses off like no party EVER BEFORE IN RECENT SG HISTORY. When is the last time you heard of SG parties starting voter contact 2 weeks out with an aggresive canvassing program, combined with the fact that the Greeks are so used to winning they honestly have no idea how to campaign, i am expecting big things in the way of District D and C tonight…..maybe =)
You’d know better than I what’s motivating the UF students to vote this year. I’m just speculating that this being a presidential year it gave students an excuse to focus on politics when normally they wouldn’t.
But that early voter contact could prove quite beneficial. And high turnout does seem to suggest good things for the O&B, especially in winnable areas like C and D. We’ll see tonight.