With the runoffs for undergraduate student government elections
starting today, the two remaining presidential candidates will
compete to gain the support of the voters who did not find them
most eligible the first time.
Doug Ludlow, an independent presidential candidate, walked away
unsuccessfully from the primary elections with 27.4 percent of the
votes, and those votes will play a vital role in determining the
winner this week.
The race is now between Josh Lawson of the Equal Access
Coalition and Allende Palma/Saracho of Students First!.
Lawson and Palma/Saracho both have plans to encourage students
to vote again, especially those who supported a different candidate
during last week’s elections.
Lawson said he and the Equal Access Coalition will have a
completely new campaign and fliers. He also said he feels good
about this week’s elections since he now has the endorsements
of a number of student groups that were initially endorsing
Ludlow.
Lawson said he will make sure individuals realize that
Ludlow’s message and the message of the EAC are similar and
that voting again is critical.
Finding a common ground with the voters is something that
Palma/Saracho will also focus on.
Palma/Saracho said he will establish personal connections with
voters and share with them how issues addressed by Students First!
affect them.
“It will be a very intense week. … We will be having as
many personal connections as possible,” Palma/Saracho
said.
He added that connections are important because support goes
beyond the elections and is crucial throughout the year to fight
for issues that he believes are important to the campus.
Palma/Saracho said he had a good rapport with Ludlow and planned
on talking to him and his supporters about the upcoming
elections.
Ludlow said he will not be taking sides since he ran for
president to unite students and he will stand by that
principle.
He said students should take the time to understand the issues
before they vote.
“It’s about who students think would be a better
president for UCLA,” Ludlow added.
Aside from Ludlow, Bruin Democrats, the group for which he was
formerly president and a group that had given him their initial
endorsement, is now endorsing Lawson for president.
Though the group chose to endorse Lawson, there will be no group
movement to volunteer for either campaign, said Kristina Doan, who
replaced Ludlow as president of the Bruin Democrats.
She said the decision to endorse Lawson was a very hard one
because the group does not agree with Lawson’s overall
ideologies, but they believe that his plans for the campus are
practical.
Doan added that it is important to realize that her group looked
at the issues from an independent group perspective.
Bruin Republicans used the same standpoint to decide their new
endorsements.
“From the beginning, what was most important to us was
funding,” said Matt Knee, executive director for the
group.
Not all groups supporting Ludlow changed their endorsements to
Lawson.
The Disabled Student Union is now supporting Palma/Saracho and
the On Campus Housing Council has refrained from endorsing another
candidate.
Jessica Wong, the chairwoman for the council, said the decision
was partially due to it not having a medium by which to inform the
residents. The council also believed that the residents would not
benefit from the endorsements if the endorsements were not
communicated to them, she said.
“Our endorsements were made because we thought those were
the best candidates,” Wong said, referring to their initial
endorsements. “We didn’t want to settle for another
candidate in that category.”