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For the first time in his 15 years as a Berkeley City Council member, Kriss Worthington has endorsed student candidates for the ASUC elections at UC Berkeley.

Worthington, whose district includes the UC Berkeley campus and surrounding Southside neighborhoods, endorsed Andrew Albright, Sydney Fang and Anthony Galace, three CalSERVE executive slate candidates who have worked on city and campus issues such as redistricting, affordable student housing and the city’s second response ordinance over the course of the past year.

Albright is running for ASUC president, Fang is running for external affairs vice president and Galace is running for executive vice president.

Worthington did not endorse the fourth and final CalSERVE member on its executive slate, Naomi Wilson, who is running for the position of academic affairs vice president, because he said he has never worked with her regarding city relations.

“I wasn’t endorsing the party,” Worthington said. “I was endorsing three individual people who I have observed doing a lot of work in the broader community of Berkeley.”

CalSERVE and Student Action are the two main players in the campus’s two-party majority system and are both running executive slates this year. CalSERVE’s platform traditionally defines itself as UC Berkeley’s long-standing, progressive student party that focuses on issues such as campus safety and environmental sustainability.

In the past 10 ASUC elections, Student Action has held an average of 65 percent of the four major executive seats, while CalSERVE has had an average of 35 percent.

Though this is Worthington’s first time endorsing candidates for the executive slate, fellow Councilmember Gordon Wozniak previously endorsed current external affairs vice president Joey Freeman during last year’s election term and has endorsed current ASUC senator Shahryar Abbasi for the same position this semester. Both Freeman and Abbasi are running with Student Action.

“(Shahryar) was involved on the student redistricting issue — he’s come to council meetings several times,” Wozniak said. “I’ve worked closely with Joey Freeman, and I hope Shahryar can continue some of the projects he worked on.”

The external affairs vice president — which both Abbasi and Fang are running for — is the ASUC representative to the UC Student Association and oversees the ASUC’s lobbying efforts, focusing on matters outside of the UC Berkeley campus, specifically in the city of Berkeley and the state.

Wilson said she supports her fellow candidates and Worthington’s endorsement even though she was not endorsed herself.

“You shouldn’t endorse someone solely due to political affiliation. I’m excited to work with him hopefully in the next year,” Wilson said.

Albright, a current senator, said Wilson may not have been endorsed because of the nature of the position she is running for.

“As ASUC senators in general, we have access to city politics,” he said. “Her work has not been focused on the city but (on) taking action on higher education … improving lives in and improving communities on campus.”

Worthington said he based his endorsement on the individual actions of students as opposed to the party with which the students were affiliated.

Voting for the ASUC elections is set to take place this week between Tuesday and Thursday.

Anjuli Sastry covers city government.

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