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Friday, March 29, 2024
The Observer

Losing tickets disappointed with outcome; decline to endorse remaining candidates

While disappointed in the outcome of Monday's primary presidential elections and failing to advance to Thursday's runoff, tickets Brede-Ramanan, White-Powers, Healy-Costa and Harig-Marra expressed satisfaction with their campaign efforts.Of the non-advancing tickets, Brede-Ramanan came in third with 610 votes,White-Powers took fourth with 505 votes, Healy-Costa finished fifth with 419 votes and Harig-Marra brought up the rear with 122 votes.Dorm loyalty proved to be a factor, demonstrated by the fact that Brede-Ramanan won Alumni, White-Powers won Sorin and Healy-Costa won Zahm. Brede-Ramanan also won Carroll and Fisher and White-Powers won Knott. "We're obviously disappointed not to make the runoff, but we're both happy with the issues we put on the table and the campaign we ran," said Vijay Ramanan, former vice-presidential candidate, speaking for himself and running mate Craig Brede.Ramanan said that neither he nor Brede had thought much about their future in student government, but noted that he had "a lot to finish up this term in Senate" and that Brede will serve as Alumni Hall president for the rest of the semester.Alec White and Erik Powers also expressed disappointment with the outcome, but remained upbeat about the situation."I guess this proves that student government is not a popularity contest," Powers said. He said that the election could be described in three words: "Dewey defeats Truman."To this statement, White added one word: "Recount." He later exclaimed that the pair did better than Ross Perot.When asked about his plans for the future, Powers said, "I'm thinking of making myself available for more SYRs. My e-mail address is on [our campaign] Web site. I really like wildflowers, and I have pastel shirts to match every occasion."Mark Healy and Bob Costa said that their experience had been very positive."I'm thankful to and appreciative of everyone who supported our campaign," Costa said.Healy, who plans to continue "to support SUB in every capacity," encouraged voters to get involved in student government.Pete Harig and Will Marra said that they felt "great" despite their last place finish."It was always our goal to beat 'abstain,'" said Marra, who added the pair would continue to stay involved in student government.None of the former candidates chose to support either the Baron-Shappell or Leito-Bongiovanni tickets in this Thursday's runoff."I think we're going to stay out of that one," Ramanan said.Healy and Costa agreed, encouraging students to make a "good, honest decision."Staying with the neutral theme, Marra said that he and Harig were throwing 50 percent of their support to each candidate.After deliberation, White and Powers concluded, "We are going to support abstinence, unless Lizzi or Jordan don't want us to."