The national presidential election is more than eight months away, but less than two weeks from today the undergraduate student body will already have selected its leadership for next academic year.
Duke Student Government announced Tuesday the names of the candidates on the certified ballot for the March 30 executive elections.
"The election commission met, and we went over all of the packets, checking all of the signatures and the numbers," Attorney General Dave Kahne said. "We approved all 18 candidates."
The candidates will be allowed to begin campaigning March 20. Five of the offices are contested, with only sophomore senator Jesse Longoria running unopposed for the vice president of facilities and athletics position.
This year's presidential race is unusual because none of the candidates--juniors Aaron Dinin, Pasha Majdi and Anthony Vitarelli--are currently affiliated with the student government. Meanwhile, the race for the executive vice president spot has the potential for a heated showdown between four upperclassmen with strong DSG ties.
Russ Ferguson, Elizabeth Ladner, Priscilla Mpasi and Andrew Wisnewski are all contenders for the position and each has previous experience with the student group. Ferguson, a sophomore, is currently serving his second term as a senator. Juniors Ladner and Wisnewski both currently serve in the cabinet, as president pro tempore and vice president of community interaction, respectively. Mpasi, who matriculated with the Class of 2004 but will stay at Duke an extra year, served as director of student services last year.
The executive vice president is responsible for leading DSG's weekly meetings, and Kahne said the office requires a first-hand understanding of the group that all four candidates share.
"Those candidates do have a lot of knowledge of the inner workings of the organization," he said.
The race for the vice president of student affairs position consists of three male students: sophomore Brandon Goodwin, junior Adam Katz and sophomore Mark Middaugh. Kahne said that the weak showing by female candidates--only four of the 18 are women--was not unusual.
"In general there are fewer female candidates than male," Kahne said. "But everyone is given an equal opportunity to apply to the commission, and we can only hope for as diverse candidate pool as possible."
Sophomore Christopher Chin, freshman David Fiedler, junior Chase Johnson and freshman Megan Smith will compete for the vice president of academic affairs position, creating the only race to include members of all three rising classes. The contest for vice president of community interaction is also marked by class variety, with junior Kirstin Hopkins and freshman Anthony Collins and freshman Joel Kliksberg vying for the spot.
Kahne said no complaints had been filed nor candidacies disputed as of late Tuesday night. He said the road toward election day seemed clear.
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