Introducing the Candidates: Greenway-Beaves

Welcome to the first of our three part series, “Introducing the Candidates.” We’ll tell you who’s running for NISG President and Vice President this spring and give you a little bit of information about them. The first ticket we’re overviewing is Rhonda Greenway and Adam Beaves.

Quick Bio

Presidential Candidate

• Name: Rhonda Greenway
• Major: Political Communications and Global Studies
• Standing: Junior
• Experience: Off-campus NISG Senator, Model UN Secretary-General

Vice Presidential Candidate

• Name: Adam Beaves
• Major: Political Communications
• Standing: Junior
• Experience: Former NISG Senator, UNI Forensics

The Ticket

• Webpage: www.rhondaandadam.com (suspected)
• Facebook group: To be added
• Pros: The Greenway-Beaves ticket has pulled together a strong team of NISG insiders to guide their campaign. Both candidates have a background in politics, particularly Greenway, that can be leveraged for support.
• Cons: They remain the decided underdog in this race and lack any real diversity in the constituencies where they find support (similar majors, standing, and backgrounds).

Greenway finds a special place in this writer’s heart for her background in the Iowa legislature. She was a political junky in high school and found a job in the Iowa Senate her senior year as a Page. The following summer, she continued her political involvement as a Democratic canvasser and joined NISG’s Freshman Council when she came to UNI. She quickly became involved with the Model UN and became Secretary-General this year. Her NISG experience is limited; the bulk of it has come as a Senator this fall. Candidates, unsurprisingly, find their way onto Senate the fall before their run. The optimistic reporter in me calls it getting informed. The cynic calls it a quick NISG experience grab. Greenway boasts a Facebook friends’ list of 849 after her fall friend add spree, but the number remains below where it needs to be for election time.

Beaves is a graduate of Hoover High School, which served him well during his time at UNI. Coming to college in 2008, he was greeted by high school friend and then NISG Senator Adam Haselhuhn. Beaves jumped into a Senate spot his freshman year and had his first taste of NISG elections the following spring on Haselhuhn’s team. This experience should be invaluable for the ticket. Beaves is active with the UNI Forensics team – a constituency that could have some power if motivated to action. He also works with the Students Against a Violent Environment and has served as a member of the Maucker Union Policy Board. He has 757 Facebook friends.

The ticket faces an uphill battle in this election. The pre-campaign underdogs have certainly won in the past (see: Cezar-Lobdell v. Bentley-Doudna), but it requires a great deal of strategy and innovation. In my opinion, the ticket should position themselves in a professional manner to grab any supporters put off by the Walrath-Goldsmith ticket. A great way to start this would be for Greenway to remove “princessrhonda08@msn.com” from her Facebook page and for Beaves to admit he’s not majoring in “Kicking ass and taking names.” Perhaps the ticket has other plans. Whatever they do, they face an uphill battle against the name recognition and star-studded leadership team of Spencer Walrath and Ian Goldsmith.