In two days, the University will host the Student Government elections, pitting the Foundation ticket of Colorado Robertson and Shannon Bates against the Vision LSU ticket, led by Dixon McMakin and Kristen Oaks, while the two fend off the Do Nothing slate of Brandon Taylor Craft and Wesleigh McLeod. We’ve seen the signs across campus – posted on the streets and in front of various fraternity and sorority houses. But six months ago, the Vision LSU ticket’s signs would have read “Dixon-Breaux.” Sen. Whitney Breaux, political communication junior, intended to run for SG president. But she learned of McMakin’s intentions to run himself, and the two decided to team up. “We agreed to come together,” Breaux said, “as we have shared allies and friends, and we planned to build families based on our intentions.” McMakin echoed this sentiment in a phone interview. “She approached me to run for VP, and she was on my list of good people,” McMakin said. She cited her ability to micro-manage as a benefit to Dixon’s “big picture style.” “We would have made a great ticket,” she said. Given Breaux’s record of service, there’s no doubt she is a valuable asset to the University. A senator since her freshman year, Breaux served as Senate Information Officer before returning to the Senate itself, representing UCFY before moving to mass communication. The one hurdle in her way to the ticket, as she put it, was “something I’ve had to deal with my entire life.” Breaux is a black woman. On Nov. 28, 2007, Breaux had a phone conversation with McMakin. He asked her to speak with her family, friends and advisers about “reconsidering” running for office. She mentioned, “Dixon said that Kristen [Oaks] thought it was a good idea, and I thought that was odd.” The next day, McMakin asked her not to run. Breaux said McMakin had been approached by a group of students who told him “they could not, and would not, support him if I was his VP candidate.” Her outspoken, brash nature was cited as the reason for her dismissal. “People had come up to me,” McMakin said, “saying they had worked with Whitney before, and told me they couldn’t work with her again.” “People like Dixon, people like [Sen.] Drew Prestridge, they agreed I was the best candidate, but the question became ‘Was I electable,'” she said. “It didn’t matter who could best help the students, and Dixon felt he was more easily electable with Kristen.” This sentiment was echoed by Prestridge, who wanted to talk to me because, according to him, “apparently Whitney’s been spreading lies.” When asked who, between Breaux and Oaks, is the better candidate, Prestridge tabbed Breaux. “I don’t think there’s any question that Whitney would have been the better candidate,” Prestridge said. “But she has burned so many bridges in her past that she wasn’t considered electable.” Breaux was led to believe her removal was because of race. “We had gone in front of different fraternities, saying things like ‘We’re just an Oreo,’ in an attempt to acknowledge the fact that I was black while making fun of it at the same time,” Breaux said. “One of his reservations was with his [Kappa Sigma] brothers, wondering if they were OK with ‘a black girl.’ “I threw race out there, which Dixon never did, but I grew to understand [my removal] was because of race. I don’t think he’s that stupid to tell me to my face that it was because of race. But the thing you have to understand is racism isn’t blatant anymore. No one is going to go to the top of the clock tower and scream out ‘I hate black people.’ You take this situation up North, though, and they’ll see the problem.” McMakin cited personal experience and the desire to get things done as the ideal qualities of a vice president. “Race was never a part of it,” McMakin said. “This is more stirring of the pot, that SG Kool Aid stuff, you know, with drama like on TNT. What you’re really looking for is someone you can work well with, because if you can’t work together, nothing gets done. If you can’t get the best people to run with you, you’re not serving the students to the best of your ability. You need good people with good values that care about the students. “As far as next year, there’s no question that the best vice president would be Kristen Oaks.” In the end, it didn’t matter who the candidate was, as Breaux, a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, explained to me. “Student apathy plays a big part in elections, partly because most of the time, the Greek ticket gets elected,” she said. “The Greeks are easily accessible and easy to mobilize, and if you can get in good with the head of a frat or sorority, you’ve got close to 180 or 200 votes right there. The students see that and think their vote doesn’t matter, but at the same time, if your ticket is filled with non-Greeks, you’re in trouble.” The underlying impression from each campaign exists in the form of electability. Truthful, proven leadership is needed at this juncture, not a foundation of clouded vision which will ultimately do nothing.
—-Contact Eric Freeman Jr. at [email protected]