The Daily's Endorsements

Today, the UW Daily put out its endorsements for the ASUW elections.

Pres: Madeleine McKenna
Vice Pres: Eric Shellan
FAA: Jed Bradley
Ops: Sarah Round
Community Relations: NO ENDORSEMENT
Org Relations: Jonathan Yan
Diversity Efforts: Ben Lealofi
Programming: Jocelyn McCurtain

Six out of eight races, the endorsement went to the One Campus candidate. Let's break down their reasoning for their endorsements.

President:

• Madeleine has experience with ASUW and student related issues. Other candidates lack that experience. This point makes sense and is a fairly strong one.
• Madeleine has budgetary experience which the other ASUW "insider-ish" candidates lack. I don't think I agree with this point, and certainly don't think this was supported by what the candidates said at the forum. This is a weak point based on weak facts. Both Kyle and Beto have significant budgeting experience; Kyle from her time in RHSA and on the ASUW BoD, and Beto from his time in La Raza.
  

1/2 of the Daily's points are solid, which means I think this endorsement comes from very weak logic.

Vice President:

• Eric's experience in the Office of Government Relations organizing students to come to Olympia means he will be able to ensure volunteers are dedicated to their duties for ASUW. I think this is a weak point because there is significant difference between working with another staff member to coordinate 200 volunteers for a one day event and working to interview, appoint, and oversee hundreds of volunteers over nine months. Eric's job in OGR was not focused on Higher Education Advocacy Day. The logistics, the planning, and recruiting were primarily the duties of Alex Soldano, OGR's Legislative Planning Coordinator. Now, because I was in Olympia, I'm not sure how the two of them worked out the details, but it seems that Eric is claiming Alex's work and reaping the benefit of it.
• Eric has more direct experience working with volunteers than Shauna Stadnik. Again, I think this is a weak point. Eric did directly manage several volunteer office managers this year, so he does have direct experience working with volunteers, but Shauna was chair of a committee of volunteers last year and was President of her Community College student association.

In their introduction to the VP endorsement, the Daily says that it took multiple rounds of voting to select a VP to endorse, and that fact is obvious from the weakness of their two primary reasons for endorsing. Having sat on multiple committees that had to select one candidate over another for a position, these reasons look to be very small reasons to pick one over the other.

FAA and Ops:

• Both have a lot of current experience.
• Both have detailed goals and plans for next year.
• Both are running unopposed.

Solid reasoning, nothing to complain about.

Community Relations:

The Daily chose note to endorse anyone for some very solid reasoning.

• Pasha did not physically make it to two opportunities to express himself and his vision to the Daily.
• Tunny has not lived up to what the Daily is looking for in CR, so why give him a second chance?
• Yong did not demonstrate to the Daily that he is qualified for the position.

It's a very harsh place to be for the three candidates. Pasha lost the endorsement simply by not being there; Tunny, apparently, lost it for the same reason, just over the course of the year instead of missing two opportunities; and Yong was called out rather bluntly.

Organizational Relations:

• Jonathan has a clear vision for the four entities and enterprises. Extremely weak point. As I've pointed out before, Yan's "clear vision" is anything but clear, or visionary. He does not understand the roles of the entities he seeks to work with. He does not understand the role of the Director of Organizational Relations. He does not understand what efforts the entities are currently putting out.

As I said in the comments section of the Daily's endorsements online, I think they missed the mark by a very wide margin with this endorsement, and I would have preferred they simply not endorse anyone rather than endorsing a bad candidate.

Diversity Efforts:

• Ben has a strong presence and personality, both on campus and personally. This is a strong point. Diversity Efforts needs to be able to be seen to be on campus, and they need to have enough personality to speak up and be heard.
• Ben has a thorough knowledge of the communities and diversity issues on campus. Another strong point. That knowledge is key to fulfilling the duties of Diversity Efforts. It is knowledge, so it can be learned... but having it at the start is a very big advantage.
• The Daily feels Ty Huynh and Kyle Rapinan have been either too close into ASUW or too far away from UW, respectively. It seems the Daily chose Ben as a middle of the road candidate, by the last point.

All in all, this endorsement makes sense by the logic the Daily put out. Sure, the points can be debated, but as it stands, it holds up I feel.

Programming:

• Jocelyn has proven her programming ability in CORE. Strong reasoning here, because she has put on a wide range of programs and shown that she can draw people in.
• Jocelyn has plans and ambitions for programs for next year, including methods to work with and around the limitations Condon hall will put on ASUW's efforts. Another strong reason.

The Daily did say that this was a hard decision, and I agree with them entirely on this position. All three show a thorough understanding of the position and what the Director will need to be. This endorsement also makes sense, and holds up.

Totals...

All in all, I think 5 of their 8 endorsements make sense. The top two (Pres and VP) were poorly worded and almost came across as damning the candidates with faint praise. The endorsements themselves should have been better. There are plenty of reasons to endorse either Madeleine or Eric, but the reasons the Daily chose just don't hold water.

Their endorsement of Jonathan Yan is, frankly, insulting. I almost feel as if the endorsement committee and I were sitting in a different forum listening to him speak.