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Wednesday night was a good night for the “Believe for ASUNM” slate.
Undergraduates elected 11 of Believe’s 12 candidates to represent them next year.
Nine new senators, the new vice president and the new president of the undergraduate student government are from the slate. In all, 1,521 students voted in the elections, which means only about 7.8 percent of undergraduates voted.
Isaac Romero snagged the presidency after garnering 757 votes.
Holly Marquez, part of the “Unite for ASUNM” slate, came in second place for the position with 402 votes, and Matthew Skeets, part of “Shout for ASUNM” slate, came in third with 265 votes.
Brandon Meyers won the vice presidency with 715 votes. Nancy Martinez from “Shout,” came next with 449 votes, and David Saucier from “Unite” trailed behind with 238 votes.
Two senators-elect, Erik Nava and Jason Fuller, ran with “Shout.” No candidates from “Unite” were elected.
Romero said he expected his win because of the amount of effort his slate put in during its months-long campaign. He said his experience as an ASUNM senator helped the slate during the elections.
“This is something that I have been working hard on for quite a while,” he said. “It just came down to the votes and having a great strategy. A lot of experience helped.”
Romero said he plans to focus on the solvency issue of the Lottery Scholarship during his presidency.
“What I’m going to have for that will be similar to what President Muraida and Regent Wellman did,” he said. “We plan to pick up where they left off.”
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Current ASUNM President Caroline Muraida and former Student Regent Jacob Wellman worked on House Bill 586 last year. The bill aimed to turn the Lottery Scholarship into a need-based award. The Legislature decided to table the bill during this legislative session.
Romero also said he plans to encourage student involvement in University affairs.
Meyers said that although he did not expect his slate’s overwhelming win, he is thrilled that he won the seat. He said his slate’s victory depended on its hard work.
“I never stopped. I was always on my feet and I know everyone else in my slate was,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s paying off for most of us. It’s amazing. I’m excited to finally have the capacity to do all the things that we have been planning to do.”
Meyers said he would work closely with Romero to address Lottery Scholarship solvency, because the scholarship is supposed to run out of funding for full-time awards for students in fiscal year 2014. But he said he is confident that Romero will find a way to save the scholarship.
“Really, in Isaac’s term is where we are going to see the Lottery Scholarship fully addressed,” Meyers said. “He needs to be persistent with this. But if anyone can, I’ll put my money on Isaac. He’s a finance guy like no other.”
Eleven senators were elected in Wednesday’s elections, after one additional Senate seat opened because Meyers, who is serving his yearlong term as an ASUNM senator, was elected vice president.
Believe candidate Costa Logothetis came in 11th among votes for senators. He will take Meyers’ remaining half term and will serve until the end of the upcoming fall semester.
Jenna Hagengruber, a candidate from “Believe” who ran for the Senate, received 537 votes, the most of any elected senator.
Hagengruber said that because she did not expect her win, she was overwhelmed.
“It definitely wasn’t just me,” she said. “All of the candidates that worked with me were just such good sports. I want to learn from the other senators. I want to start working right away, but I don’t think I can just come in there and change the world.”
Saucier said he congratulates “Believe” on its victory and that members of “Unite” will take this election as a learning experience.
“I’m not sure what could be said about that,” he said. “Maybe in the future, we could just learn to spread out our campaign area more. We should think on these lessons and improve upon them.”
Saucier said that he cannot run for a seat again because he is graduating this semester. But he said he urges the rest of his slate to file an election bid again.
Romero thanked students for turning out to vote.
“It was a tough race but I think the students made the right choice,” he said.
