Stalking Results

Happy Friday everyone!

Earlier this week we were graced with the identities of two of the presidential NISG tickets, and since their organizations got recognized on Wednesday night it has been eerily quiet on the election front. It appears that this year's presidential race will be a boys versus girls showdown. Thanks to the rumors about the candidates, I was able to get numbers for their Facebook friends back in January for a "baseline." See a historical discussion of Facebook friending here. Lets get to the details provided to me via Google, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

I flipped a coin to see who to write about first, and Jared and Tanner "lucked out" on that one.

Presidential Candidate
Jared Heitz
Year: senior
Major: English education
Facebook friends:407 (+7 since January)
Twitter: @JaredHeitz , 179 followers
Google+ profile
UNI Feature story here
Student Org experience: Current Director of Academic Affairs, RHA President (x2), recent SAA member

It says in his story that he's an English major with an interest in teaching, so that may be a boon for recruiting votes in the College of Ed. I first met Jared as the president of the Residence Hall Association (RHA) when I was doing my campaign rounds last year, and it's clear he's a personable guy. He's been elected president of RHA twice and he's looking to add a NISG presidency to boot. He's obviously cooler than most of us who haven't migrated to Google+ yet. He also has a pinterest board, but there are no pins! Compared to his VP and the other ticket,  he doesn't have very many facebook friends, so it'll be interesting to see if they make a push in that area.

Being a senior means he's willing to take an extra year at UNI in order to serve students as student body president, no small feat. It remains to be seen if RHA leadership experience translates to good NISG leadership, as the roles are quite different. I'm excited to see what his vision is and what his plans are as your potential President.

Vice Presidential Candidate
Tanner Bernhard
Year: sophomore
Majors: marketing and finance
Facebook Friends: 823 (+5)
Twitter: @TannerBernhard, 255 followers
LinkedIn profile here
Youtube Channel
DM Blog Post
Student Org experience: Current Director of Finance for Dance Marathon, RHA Vice President, RA in Rider Hall, recent CATS member

I haven't met Tanner yet but he seems like an ambitious guy. As a current RA in Rider Hall, look to see if the ticket tries to get out the vote in the residence halls. Seeing as Jared and Tanner are leaning on their RHA experience, getting the vote out in their respective constituencies may be the key to get winning votes. It certainly helps their case that Tanner is a Dance Marathon (DM) exec, it being a popular group on campus that's well run and has great public profile. I'm interested in seeing if this ticket takes advantage of the wide array of students that get involved in DM. My significant other, a former DM exec, tells me that as the director of finance, Tanner is the only guy who knows exactly how much money DM has raised before the "Big Reveal."
Also note that he's a recent CATS member, a group of highly active students across campus and in student government. Courting student groups such as CATS and SAA are important in building a base of supporters and volunteers to advocate for the candidates.

I also found Tanner's YouTube channel, which showed off some of his video production skills. Given the increasingly digital nature of these campaigns, pay attention to how this ticket uses videos in particular to advance their ideas.

Having never met the two in a 'real' situation, I'm looking forward to sitting down with these two once formal election season has started, and seeing what they have to say. While they don't have a ton in the way of NISG experience, they have a long track record to stand by and I'm interested how they say that translates to a good NISG Administration.

Now for the ladies:

Presidential Candidate
Katie Evans
Year: Junior
Major: Political Science
Facebook Friends: 1,645 (+18)
Sorority Affiliation: Alpha Delta Pi
Student Org experience: NISG Senator (x2), Model UN, UNI Speech and Debate, UNI Democrats


Having a more common last name, the internet had a harder time finding stuff on Katie. Fortunately, I've known Katie since I've been involved in student government in 2012. Katie has extensive experience in the political setting, volunteering for Obama campaign in 2012 and being an officer for the UNI Democrats org for several years. Katie as a NISG senator has also done a fair amount of work as the chair of the Organization and Finance Committee, the most powerful senate committee. Senate, in general, has been working hard on several fronts including the housing ordinance and at the Statehouse, and Katie will benefit from  a working knowledge of what's been going on.

Being an experienced debater, expect Katie to push the issues and field hard questions in the Presidential Debate. Between Model UN and her background in forensics, Katie is used to speaking in a public setting- a vital skill when visiting and talking to student groups. I'll also note that Katie has the lucrative FSL connection that has been shown to make a difference; we'll see how Katie will utilize her connections with her ADPi sisters. I'll end with the fact that Katie is one friend shy of twice as many Facebook connections as the next highest, Tanner.

Vice Presidential Candidate
Renae Beard
Year: graduate student
Major: Women's and Gender Studies
Facebook Friends: 490 (+15)
Twitter @RenaeMichelleB, 21 followers
LinkedIn Profile
Awards: 2012 Iowa Honey Queen
Student Org experience: Opinion Columnist for the Northern Iowan

Considering Katie is by all accounts an NISG veteran, I thought it was surprising to see Renae join her on the ticket. I could just be ignorant, but I wasn't really able to find much on Renae except for her columns in the Northern Iowan (if I missed something, please let me know!!). Being an Opinion columnist myself, I often read what other columnists write about to think about topics for columns. As a WGS major, it's clear that Renae has a focus on social justice issues and should be well versed in speaking and advocating for social progress. Check out some of Renae's columns on the NI's site: "Actions mean more than words" , "It's not an ad, it's a cry for help", "We reform the social culture, not them" and "I yik love to your hateful yaks". Looking at the history of her topics, a trend can be easily identified. When I get a chance to interview her, I'll be sure to ask Renae how she thinks NISG's function would work to address the issues she's mentioned above.
I also found out that Renae was selected at Iowa's Honey Queen in 2012! I'll be taking bets as to whether Katie/Renae try to use that history to their advantage when making a marketing push. As a graduate student, this ticket will have an edge in getting their signatures from the graduate college to get on the ballot. Each ticket needs 250 signatures total, and at least 25 graduate students, to get on the ballot.

Considering the backgrounds that Katie and Renae have are very diverse, it will be interesting to hold them up next to the RHA-duo of Jared and Tanner. In particular, I'm very curious as to what vision these student leaders have for the next year, and a concrete plan that can bring that vision to reality.

In terms of the various  voting constituencies, this election is wide open! Given the low turnout in student government elections last year and in the November midterms, there's no telling who will show up to the polls this year. Between the Greek community, NISG insiders, Dance Marathon, Music majors, the Campbell Cult, Graduate Students and untold amounts of student organizations, each ticket will have to carve out their own base if they want this to be a competitive race.


A Word on Senate
In NISG, much like the real world, the Presidential tickets get most of the publicity and airtime, but there is still important work to be done on the behalf of all students in the NISG Senate. Getting involved in Senate is a really rewarding experience, and you learn a lot about how the University works and what it's challenges are. Starting today, Friday, anyone interested can pick up applications for Senate and President/VP. In order to get on the online MyUniverse ballot, you need to obtain 25 signatures from majors in your college by next Friday, Feb. 13. If you don't get on the ballot, you can run a write-in campaign, but need at least five signatures to win. Keep your eyes on the blog for further updates on Senate races!!

All in all, everything in pointing towards an exciting election season! With formal campaigning to being at 8 a.m. sharp Monday morning, be sure to keep your eyes peeled to social media and this blog right here for the latest updates. Until then, enjoy this last weekend until social media is bombarded with new profile pictures, slogans, buttons and much much more.