Student Action dominates ASUC elections

Party wins four partisan executive seats, claims majority in the senate

Natalie Gavello, the next academic affairs vice president, stands in shock after the tabulations.
Taryn Erhardt/Senior Staff
Natalie Gavello, the next academic affairs vice president, stands in shock after the tabulations.

Related Media

Related Posts

The party makeup of next year’s ASUC Senate and executive offices was revealed to be identical to that of the current year when the 2012 ASUC general election results were announced Thursday evening.

The Student Action slate once again swept all partisan executive positions and maintained its senate majority, despite the emergence of more third-party candidates running for executive seats compared to last year. According to the ASUC Elections Council, this election saw the highest voter turnout in recent history — about 12,600 students cast votes.

Student Action candidates Connor Landgraf, Justin Sayarath, Shahryar Abbasi and Natalie Gavello will become the next president, executive vice president, external affairs vice president and academic affairs vice president, respectively. Independent candidate Stacy Suh, chief of staff to the current student advocate, will assume the role of student advocate.

In ASUC elections, voters rank candidates in order of preference. After the calculation of the first-rank votes, the votes are redistributed to the voter’s second choice. This redistribution continues until there is a clear winner.

Following the tabulation of the results, Landgraf said he was “just overwhelmed.” He and Sayarath are the fourth consecutive Student Action president and executive vice president.

But while the executive party makeup is repeated, the race to the position was much different. Seven candidates — four of whom were current ASUC senators — ran for president, as opposed to four candidates last year.

And though the CalSERVE party attempted to make a comeback after not running any executive candidates last year, the party ultimately saw the exact same result as it did in the 2011 election.

In the end, CalSERVE Senator Andrew Albright and SQUELCH! Senator Noah Ickowitz came in second and third for the presidential seat, respectively.

Albright said his party ran a good election.

“I think it was a good rebirth year,” Albright said, adding that a lot of people came out in support.

Ickowitz said that running and losing as a third-party candidate for president was not a defeat.

“What was more important than just winning was telling the two major parties that they were not alone in this election,” Ickowitz said.

The election saw the traditional presence of the Defend Affirmative Action Party and also saw the emergence of a new third party, Students for a Democratic University, which was started by campus activists, including Occupy Cal members. Neither party was able to secure any positions.

In the senate, Student Action won 11 of the 20 seats, while CalSERVE obtained six. The SQUELCH! and Cooperative Movement third parties will each hold one senate seat, and another seat will be held by an independent — the exact makeup of the last two senate classes.

Student Action senate candidate Emily Chen accumulated the highest number of first-ranked votes, though SQUELCH! candidate Jason Bellet was listed as the top senate candidate after votes were redistributed.

Yet while the executive and senate winners celebrated the results of the election, the fate of both student fee initiatives is still unknown.

The Class Pass referendum — which would extend the bus pass contract with AC Transit — was not included in the tabulations due to an injunction set on the results by the ASUC Judicial Council. The injunction was placed as a result of charges filed by Graduate Assembly President Bahar Navab because of incorrect language on the ballot.

Furthermore, the V.O.I.C.E. Initiative  — which asked students to pay $2 per semester to support The Daily Californian — was invalidated by current ASUC President Vishalli Loomba in the midst of voting for the election last week. The senate overwhelmingly voted to uphold her order, but as of press time, the Judicial Council had not yet announced a decision on whether it will overturn the order after a hearing Wednesday night.

Chloe Hunt is the lead student government reporter.

Comment Policy

Comments should remain on topic, concerning the article or blog post to which they are connected. Brevity is encouraged. Posting under a pseudonym is discouraged, but permitted. The Daily Cal encourages readers to voice their opinions respectfully in regard to the readers, writers and contributors of The Daily Californian. Comments are not pre-moderated, but may be removed if deemed to be in violation of this policy. Click here to read the full comment policy.

Comments

comments

43

Archived Comments (43)

  1. Guest says:

    after all this negative coverage student action AGAIN dominates, and the daily cal doesn’t have free rent anymore whahahaha

  2. Toby says:

    All I can say is that i’m so glad the SJP divestment slate lost- I am so tired of  our limited funds being used to push someone else’s narrow plotical agenda.  I’m embarrassed to say- i signed on to the SJP list just so I know what to vote aganinst.

  3. Arjunchopra92 says:

    Natalie clearly doesn’t know what she is doing. She looks off centered and speaks like SA’s pet parrot. 

    You only won because people thought you were good looking, truth is that one year from now they will regret doing so…

    • Guess says:

      No, people voted for her because she was the best option. Who wants to vote for some one who brings a every offensive speaker to campus. BSU had every right to bring Louis Farrak to campus, it is free speech, but that does not take way the fact that it was offensive to many students and reflects poor judgment. Why would I want to vote for someone like that. Thats exactly why Naomi lost, under diff situation I might actually had vote for her. 

    • Guest says:

      i think you forgot to remain anonymous, brah

  4. Guest says:

    Natalie G can serve my affairs, anytime. All that and Cal smarts, too? Yowzer!  (Ah c’mon, y’all were thinkin’ the same thing).

  5. Whatever says:

    Honest was right, it IS  a circlejerk…

  6. Current student says:

    Get ready to bend over and pay these a**holes’ legal bills…..

  7. guest says:

    anyway, its much ado about nothing.  further establishing the trend in society – when as there is less and less to get excited about, people get increasingly way too excited about some bullshit.   emotional displays that are this ricockulous should probably be reserved for, like, winning the olympic gold, saving 30 trapped miners, or proving p!=np. 

  8. Meh says:

    this picture actually looks like the lady just learned that a family member died.  or, if you consider that the dudes are smiling, it looks like they are hella harrassing her and shes upset. 

  9. Guest says:

    [Yawn] ZZZZzzzzzzzz.

  10. Carlos says:

    No BAMN and no DAAP.    YEAH!!!!!

  11. Calstudent says:

    More money from the Senate to Greeks who get drunk at their “philanthropies”. Unfortunate.

  12. Guess says:

    I don’t think that Student Action candidates were better choices. But I think CalServe is too focus on a certain group(s) of students and hopes that their votes would be enough to win, but I guess this time it was not. Also some of their candidates had done some controversial stuff this semester that made me, personally, question them. 

  13. Cynical Cal student says:

    There is no way 12,600 students actually voted. 

  14. Chong Lor says:

    Naomi, that girl would have been a great Academics VP. Just watch the video debates and you would know who is best suited for the job.

  15. Adsahjh says:

    Man, CalSERVE really fucked up screwing over Johnny Mo. Had everything going for them, dominated the execs the year before, then got revealed as a bunch of liars, thugs, and criminals. Nobody remembers the episode since it happened probably 4 years ago, but the reputation stuck.

  16. Adsahjh says:

    Caption contest time!

  17. student says:

    no mention of the fact that Students for a Democratic University, a brand new party that the daily cal didn’t like, came in 3rd after the two main parties several times, before established ones like SQUELCH or DAAP for that matter.  that’s big news…

    • Guest says:

       finishing third in a student election is really not “big news”.

      and Squelch got a Senate seat, so they won a whole lot more than SDU

  18. Student Action is riDICK. says:

    I am utterly shocked that Natalie was elected. Is this a joke? She is clearly unqualified and incompetent. Like the previous writer, I totally understand that Sharyar was elected but let’s be real. Natalie? Every time she speaks it is obvious she is just memorizing what the Student Action coords tell her. 

  19. guest says:

    We will see if these campus political figures do anything new in office, if they follow up on the things they have promised.

    • Student Action is riDICK. says:

      Did anyone follow up on the things they promised this year? Vitalli Roomba and Julia Who? The only person who did anything this year was Joey. 

  20. GeorgeM says:

    What’s with the shock?  You won a popularity contest, Natalie.   No one knows what you stand for, just that you are SA.

  21. N4T4L13 says:

    She’s emotional you idiot. She got the post , dont hate cos you cant get it.

  22. Someone says:

    I can understand that Justin and Shahryar were elected–they’ve done great work in the past year and are qualified for the position. But Connor and Natalie? Come on. That’s such a joke…

  23. calgreeks says:

    the 10% of Cal students who are Greek run this shit

    • YOU_FOOLS says:

      I mean they need something useless to do besides partying right?

      • Nomnomnom says:

        I’m not Greek but that seems like an ignorant point of view to have about people in general – that you can clump everyone together under one stereotype and then assume that they will all comply with that stereotype. Also, the idea that 10% of a student population as diverse as Berkeley can “run this shit” doesn’t make any sense at all. Last I checked 90% is still more than 10%

  24. Berkeleyprotest says:

    Changing times demand a more appropriate name, like Student Inaction

  25. Nhunhu says:

    haters are gna hate. 

  26. Guest says:

    Ay no mames, pinche vieja payasa, parece que gano la loteria.

  27. Guest says:

    natalie looks like shit. just saying.

  28. Engineereingstudent says:

    so, nothing changes. kinda pathetic.