Want to run for Student Senate? Here is a quick and dirty guide to winning your first election.
First, a disclaimer: I ran for Senate president last year on the F.U.S.S. ticket and lost pretty significantly. This is by no means an endorsement of campaign tactics, but a sobering reality based on observations of strategies used by more successful Senate campaigns.
To begin, you needed to start planning your campaign seven months ago. A Student Senate executive ticket for the 2014 elections has already been formed — under the name of ONE, made up of Jordan Ballinger, Alex George and Carter Phillips — and you can almost guarantee they have been planning for at least a few months now.
To catch up, you should build your executive ticket, which means you need to find a president, vice president and treasurer. In recent history, the Senate presidency has been reserved for the most ambitious man (no woman has been elected president since 2006), though if you are feeling bold or anti-sexist you could have a hard working female student leader run for president.
Next, you’ll want to start recruiting people for the rest of your ticket as soon as possible. In addition to the three executive spots on Senate, there are 31 elected-senator positions you will need to fill the ballot.
Keep in mind that the establishment ticket will usually assemble close to 50 people on their ticket, with around 15 of these being “supporters.” Generally, these supporters are promised appointed positions in Senate. This may sound like cronyism, but that is only because it is.
The most important positions to fill are the at-large senators, because everyone on campus can vote for them. Senate is essentially a popularity contest, so establishment tickets in the past have typically filled these positions with athletes, people from Greek Life, the Marching 110, the Black Student Cultural Programming Board, the University Programming Council and the International Student Union.
You’ll also probably want to write a platform. One option is to find a platform from a previous year, move some items around and maybe throw in the promise of a smoothie bar or two. Regardless, your platform is not too important, as long it is vague and unlikely to cause controversy.
To run an effective campaign, money is a necessity. There are campaign fundraising limits, but they are practically meaningless. You are allowed to raise $1,950, plus $200 per non-executive candidate member, or $8,050 in total if you have a full ticket. One effective technique that previous Senate campaigns have employed is sending out letters to their friends and families asking for donations.
Personally, I think it is ridiculous to spend such numbers running for an organization that has no institutional power, but to each their own.
Matt Farmer is a senior studying education and political science. What would your campaign strategy be if you would run for Senate? Email him at mf291209@ohiou.edu
