In a move likely to greatly increase Amelie Rousseau’s chances of becoming the next ASUO president, the Campus Change Coalition slate endorsed the ASUO events coordinator’s bid to be the next head of the ASUO.
Spokespersons for Rousseau and the slate announced the endorsement on Sunday, when six of the University’s sororities and all of its Interfraternity Council-recognized fraternities also announced they would endorse her rival for the presidency, Alex McCafferty.
Candidates on McCafferty’s Reality Check slate finished first in every race involving the slate during the primary election. Voting for that election ended Thursday with McCafferty and Rousseau advancing from a field of five presidential candidates. The general election begins today and runs until 5 p.m. Thursday.
Seven candidates from Campus Change Coalition remain in the general election, all against candidates from Reality Check. Rousseau’s and Campus Change Coalition’s spokespersons said the endorsement would bolster the chances of the candidates who remain in opposition to Reality Check.
The situation has parallels to the 2009 ASUO election, when current ASUO President Emma Kallaway ran without a slate against Oregon Action Team’s Michelle Haley, who was heavily backed by Greek houses.
Haley finished first in the presidential primary, but lost in the general election when two slates that ran against Haley’s Oregon Action Team endorsed Kallaway. All but one of the candidates from slates that endorsed Kallaway also won their races in the general election.
Like Kallaway, both of the slates that endorsed her in 2009 contained many candidates identifying themselves as left-leaning, while Haley was more conservative. This situation is also paralleled in the current race, where Rousseau and Campus Change Coalition both describe themselves as “progressive,” and McCafferty says he will be a “fiscally conservative” president.
Campus Change Coalition manager Zachary Stark-MacMillan said his slate’s primary reason for the endorsement was to ensure its remaining candidates won their races in the general election: “The main reason is that we have candidates running up against Reality Check.”
However, he and Rousseau spokesperson Braden Wolf said they also formed the coalition because their slates had similar platforms, focusing on environmental issues, services aimed at students’ safety and fostering a community atmosphere among students. “There was a lot of overlap in the platforms,” Wolf said.
Stark-MacMillan echoed those statements, saying Rousseau’s ideas were more congruent with what Campus Change Coalition was seeking than McCafferty’s.
“From what I heard, their main issues are parking and football tickets, which are important but not the kind of issues we’re focusing on,” Stark-MacMillan said.
McCafferty spokesperson Demic Tipitino agreed that his slate’s primary interests are a greater number of available football tickets, more student parking and a more financially solvent EMU.
“Those are things the everyday students care about,” he said.
Tipitino added that the endorsement was expected. “We fully understand that we are going into the election as underdogs,” he said.