Four-time Student Government Association campaign manager Nick Hewitt said he has never put together an executive slate; they always come to him.
"Then I look for qualities in them that I think will make good leaders, because I come from a leadership studies background," he said. "I think it is important to have a strong team of leaders who will work together and have passion for student government and for the ideas that they want to accomplish, and passion is the most important part."
What most students see during SGA elections are students who campaign for two weeks, visiting organizations and participating in debates, but anyone who has run for SGA executive board will tell a different story that includes months of planning and two weeks filled with very little sleep.
SGA executive slate Alliance will take office today, something that couldn't have been accomplished without its campaign team.
Campaign staffs generally do behind the scenes work, such as scheduling meetings with their slate and other organizations and prepare them for debates and presenting their platform points to students. They also make sure everything is ready on time.
Austin Hostetter, Alliance campaign manager for this year's election, said the most stressful part of the campaign came before Alliance was nominated.
"It really came down to about a week before the nomination convention, and the platform still wasn't entirely completed," he said. "We were still sort of looking at points, pulling some points, revising some points, combining some points. It was getting to the point where it was like, 'We're going to be nominated in a week. We still aren't 100 percent sure what we're going to be running on.'"
KEEPING THE SECRET
Each slate is made up of four members, but they also come with a campaign staff. Campaign staffs vary from being about five people to 13 official members.
Slates often decide to run anywhere from a couple of months before nomination to an entire year, even though they can't tell anyone they're running before the Nomination Convention because it would be considered campaigning.
Hewitt, who managed Velocity's campaign this year, challenged the candidates to not let anyone know they were running, Chad Griewank, Velocity presidential candidate said.
"It sucks, but you have to lie to them," he said. "Somebody's going to tell somebody, and then that person is going to tell their friends, and then within a week it could be out."
Hewitt expected people to talk about Velocity members running before Winter Break, but Griewank said they didn't hear people chattering about it until a few days before the Nomination Convention.
Kevin Thurman, Campus Voice presidential candidate in the 2011 election, said he also found the most difficulty was before his slate was actually nominated. The slates meet in secrecy before being nominated to plan. Thurman said he began being questioned by other senators about if he was running in August, about six months before the election began. He said he hadn't even decided yet.
"Everyone understood that if word got out about what we were doing, we could be fined," he said. "It's kind of a Catch 22 in my opinion because you have to meet and plan. You can't just show up a Nomination Convention and be good to run. You have to meet and plan ahead of time and get things taken care of."
The way slates run their campaign also depends on how many slates are nominated. Candidates have said they tend to have a feeling about who else is running before the convention, but that is when they know for sure.
In 2010, only one slate was nominated at the convention. Matt Whitlock, presidential candidate of Student Connection, said they still campaigned even though they didn't have competition. Student Connection members visited organizations promoting SGA rather than asking for a vote.
BEHIND THE SCENES
Campaign staffs usually have people who work with slates before debates. They ask questions that have been asked in previous debates and make sure they have secure answers when replying to questions about their platforms.
Danielle Minton, a campaign staff member on four slates, said she works with the slate members to make sure they are ready for debates. Slates tend to spend hours preparing for debates.
Minton said she has literally bound candidates to help break their habits while publicly speaking. Velocity treasurer candidate Sean Ratkus moved his shoulders a lot while speaking, so Minton made him stand with his shoulders against a wall. She tied a scarf or tie around Catalyst vice president candidate Chris Buck's hands because of his constant hand motions while speaking.
Campaign staffs try to prepare for anything that can happen, Hewitt said. This year, staffs were notified about 23 hours before the all slate debate that a rebuttal section would be added to the debate for the first time.
Hostetter said the rebuttal section came as a surprise, and it changed the way the candidates prepared.
"We were sort of thrown through a loop there," he said. "We just weren't quite sure how to handle the rebuttal section because we didn't want to be malicious in any way, and we know that sometimes rebutting can be a tad malicious."
Some slate members refer to campaigning as a really fun experience. Kayla Stanton, outgoing SGA president, said Catalyst was presenting at Lambda Chi Alpha. A member presented them with a Furby. While they were answering questions, the Furby kept talking. Stanton said she and the other Catalyst members tried to stay professional, but they all burst out laughing before too long.
Even following his loss, Thurman said the campaign season was the best two weeks of his life.
"I have never lived two weeks better than those two weeks no matter what the outcome of the election from the Nomination Convention to even when the results of the election were made public," he said. "I would give anything to relive that and have it again."
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