Students' Party strong in LSA-SG election

The Students' Party followed up a strong showing in last week's Michigan Student Assembly elections by taking eight of 10 open seats in the LSA Student Government election.

"I was surprised to an extent," said LSA-SG President Lauren Shubow, a member of the Students' Party. "I think both sides did a lot of good campaigning."

The release of LSA-SG election results was delayed until yesterday because the election director fined several of the candidates for postering in unapproved areas. The results were held until all the penalized candidates paid the fines.

Shubow, an RC junior, said she expected the Students' Party to take the majority of seats after she saw the MSA election results, although she didn't expect it to be so lop-sided.

"In general, it was a good election," Shubow said.

All eight of the successful Students' Party candidates were previously associate members of LSA-SG, Shubow said. As associate members, the students could perform all the tasks of elected members except voting.

Students Party candidate Gerard Jenkins, an LSA first-year student, attributed his win in part to his experience as an associate member of LSA-SG.

"As an associate member I was going to meetings and getting involved," Jenkins said. "Some of my competition were not associate members, and I couldn't really understand how you can run if you don't know what you're running for."

Although he could have stayed on LSA-SG without running in the election, Jenkins said he ran in order to combat corruption in the organization.

"I know there are some people on the government who only want things for their student organizations," Jenkins said. "I wanted to see some changes as far as how people take care of business."

Newly elected LSA-SG member Seema Pai, an LSA sophomore, said she chose to run for LSA-SG even though she had no experience with the organization.

"I had never been to an LSA-SG meeting before, but I had been involved with MSA," said Pai, who ran with the Michigan Party. "I wanted to work more with academic affairs, and LSA deals with that a lot more."

Pai said the election went smoothly, although there were a few things she would change in her campaign strategy.

"In the end, whoever had the best ideas won," Pai said. "I think I would probably personalize my campaign a little more next time."

Three incumbent LSA-SG members who ran as independents did not win re-election.

"I hope all the active members of the government remain as associate members - they started a lot of good things," Shubow said.

Ronak Shah, an LSA sophomore, was one of the independent candidates who lost his seat.

"I think that there's a definite possibility I'll stay," Shah said. "I have plans to contribute and continue working with LSA on future projects."

The fall elections were a first-time event for LSA-SG, Shubow said.

LSA junior Gregg Lanier, external relations officer for LSA-SG, said he was pleased with the election turnout.

"I was very happy with the turnout. I didn't think it would be as large as it was."

LSA-SG election results

* Albert Garcia (SP)

* Jeff Irwin (SP)

* Gerard Jenkins (SP)

* Becky Kinney (SP)

* Blake Lynch (SP)

* Amer Naiem (MP)

* Ron Page (SP)

* Seema Pai (MP)

* PJ Shemtoob (SP)

* Karen Zenoff (SP)

Key: MP = Michigan Party, SP = Students' Party

11-26-97