After another week of campaigning, Dodson Auditorium erupted in cheers Wednesday evening as the Student Government election season ended with the More ’09 ticket celebrating a win.Stuart Watkins and Martina Scheuermann won the run-off election with 55.06 percent of the vote. They defeated candidates Andy Palermo and Phoebe Hathorn of the Next Level campaign, which secured 44.94 percent of the vote.The More ‘09 ticket also fielded a variety of college council presidential and vice presidential winners, including the Agricultural College, Manship School of Mass Communication, University College Center for Advising and Counseling, the University College for Freshman Year and the colleges of Basic Sciences, Business and Education.Parker Wishik, director of communications for the More ‘09 campaign, said he was impressed by how close each of the races were this year and was glad to see such commitment to the University from the students.”I’m happy we won. The campaign season as a whole was very clean, and that is the best part about winning,” Wishik said. “I don’t see how LSU can loose in an election like this, where every candidate is so passionate about the University.”The run-off election saw 6,446 students turn out to vote — 1,325 less than the general election. Though the election results won’t be final until Friday at 4:30 p.m., Commissioner of Elections Jordan Milazzo said no complaints have been filed as of Wednesday evening. Milazzo said he didn’t expect any complaints to be filed but added anything could happen until then.Watkins said he was excited by the results and is ready to begin working to fulfill his campaign promises. He said he’s most interested in tackling environmental sustainability on campus.”Students wanted sustainability in the general election, and we carried it through to the runoff,” Watkins said.Watkins added his administration is ready to enact every issue on his ticket’s push card, and he attributed his success to a straightforward campaign.”We kept it clean, positive and fair,” Watkins said. “That is what the students wanted to see.”Scheuermann said she and Watkins stayed true to their message throughout the campaign season and was happy with both her campaign and her ticket.Scheuermann said she’s ready to confront impending University budget cuts and, in the future, expects to increase the communication between students and SG.
To quickly facilitate the transition period, Watkins said he and his vice president-elect were sacrificing their spring break to work with SG President Colorado Robertson on future plans for their administration.”It’s not about the person. It’s about the policies and the students they’ll be representing,” Robertson said.Robertson said the transition period started last week when he spoke with the candidates about setting up their executive charters, mapping timelines for political appointments and continuing some of the programs his administration began.He also said Watkins and Scheuermann would be accompanying him and SG Vice President Shannon Bates to the Council of Student Body Presidents in Lafayette this weekend.Robertson commended all the candidates who took part in this year’s election season and said he was looking forward to a smooth transition and the continuation of an active SG.Though larger tickets that fell out of the race last week did not endorse the More ‘09 campaign, Watkins and Scheuermann were supported by the leaders of the Make it Reign campaign, which finished last in last week’s general election. Jeffrey Noel, former presidential candidate for the Make it Reign campaign, said he predicted a 55 percent/45 percent split in favor of More ’09 on Wednesday morning.”They were definitely the best candidates and ran a good campaign,” Noel said. “Of all the big tickets, I’m definitely happy it was them.”—-Contact Adam Duvernay at [email protected]