Experience proved to be the key to success as two-time Chief of Staff Lonny Mallach was elected in a landslide victory in this week’s presidential election.
Mallach won over fellow candidates junior Adam Simmons and sophomore Matt Strabone by nearly 400 votes, an even larger margin than current president John LaBoda’s win last year with a 200 vote margin. “I’m very pleased with my turnout,” Mallach said. “It’s incredible how people supported me.”
Mallach’s campaign centered on attainable results based on some of his previous successes. Chair of the Student Dining Committee and one of the driving forces behind the creation of the on-campus pub the Hive, Mallach plans to continue his commitment to improving food service on campus through the expansion of the Corner Store. Other goals for his administration include addressing the common student problems of parking, security and students’ rights.
Mallach’s fellow candidates congratulated him on his win, and Strabone said he was sure he would do an excellent job. Simmons wished Mallach luck, but also hoped that he carry out some of the policies that Simmons campaigned on. “He’s got a lot of voter support behind him,” Simmons said as he challenged Mallach to end what he viewed as “closed door politics. I think it would solve a lot of problems.”
Total voter turnout was 1,188 students, or 31.3 percent of the student body. Simmons said he was happy about the voter turnout, but Mallach expressed his desire for higher turnout in the future, while acknowledging that it was in line with past turnout levels.
Senate elections were also held this week, and next year’s class and at-large senators were elected. Eric Dubowsky and Jessie Maglietto were elected as senators for the Class of 2003, Lucas McCarthy and Peter Ordal were chosen for Class of 2004 senators and Mubarek Said and Danielle Freidman are to be next year’s Class of 2005 senators. Freshmen Jack Voorhees, Sona Simran Kaur Rai, Ilana Kaplan-Shain and sophomore J.R. Santana Carter were elected to be at-large senators.Ordal characterized Mallach as “very capable,” and expressed his wish that the three current senators who re-ran and were not elected would still take part in student government. He singled out sophomore Ruthie Varkovitzky, saying “I hope Ruthie continues with her diversity work ? it’s been very successful.”
The senate-elect was divided on how the recent SA senate troubles may affect future senate proceedings.
Maglietto described the election process as “rocky” but said since it worked out all right she “hope[d] it doesn’t affect next year.” Carter stated that the recent senate troubles have weakened the student body’s faith in student government. “People have lost confidence, or didn’t even start out with it,” Carter said. “In order to be restored, people must see action.”
Said believed that the changes in election dates and the fact that many freshmen are unfamiliar with telnet impacted the race. “Other than the issues that have come up it went fine, but freshman do not know how to use telnet,” Said said. Mallach said that the problems with this semester’s elections has “definitely forced us to take a closer look at elections. In my three years here [Senate] has been with ACJC three times, and that’s indicative of a problem.”
Said won the At-Large seat without any written platform and no campaign flyers. Said stated that his lack of flyers was due to the changing election dates, and that he had no platform because his platform will be decided by his constituents needs once in office. “It doesn’t matter what I believe in,” Said said. “I am elected by the people, I have to represent the people.”
Said pointed to his activities with the Freshman Class Council as part of his success, despite a lack of advertising. Said, Rai and Voorhees are all members of the Freshman Class Council. “The freshman class saw we did things” and they responded, Said said.
