In a solid victory over runners-up Matt Wagner (SFS ’11) and Emmanuel Hampton (COL ’11) and two other tickets, Georgetown University Student Association President Calen Angert (MSB ’11) and Vice President Jason Kluger (MSB ’11) have won reelection to the GUSA executive, student Election Commissioners report.

Angert and Kluger won in the first round, but since votes were close, Election Commissioners said, results were run to round two.

Here is the tally of votes from round one:

• Angert and Kluger – 1,547 votes
• Wagner and Hampton – 1,108 votes
• Arman Ismail (COL ‘11) and Tucker Stafford (COL ‘12) – 251 votes
• Hillary Dang (SFS ’12) and Katie Balloch (COL ’12) – 147 votes

Angert and Kluger won in an election that likely involved the highest number voters in a presidential election since GUSA’s establishment, and an atypically high percentage of the student body. It is unclear what contributed to the high turnout. This election was unusually fraught with intercampaign bickering and tensions, however, and the top two tickets were divided on the hotly contested issue of GUSA’s recent club funding reforms.

In a separate victory, this year’s GUSA Election does not appear to have involved the kind of catastrophes that have marred several previous elections, including trouble with instant run-off voting in 2008, and the adamantly protested, last-minute disqualification of two tickets in last year’s election.

Angert and Kluger were endorsed by the Hoya editorial board before their reelection. More to come shortly.

Arman Ismail (COL ‘11) and Tucker Stafford’s (COL ‘12) aren’t the only GUSA candidates with a seriously entertaining campaign video—candidates Matt Wagner (SFS ’11) and Emmanuel Hampton (COL ’11) have been busy too. And yeah, theirs is a rap.

Complete with backup dancers, abrupt cutaways around campus, and an awkwardly jiving Wagner, “Damn it Feels Good to be a Hoya” video pretty much made our day. We’re not going to say much else—just that we’re pleasantly surprised by the video quality.

If we learned anything about the GUSA Senate this Monday night it’s that they have a USPS-like devotion to braving the elements.  As the rest of the school buckled down for our second-consecutive snow day, the Senate reaffirmed that neither snow nor gloom of night would interfere with its commitment to legislating.

And legislate it did, slogging through a two-hour discussion before passing the controversial Act to Modify the By-laws to Improve Student Activities Funding by a vote of 19 to four.  The bill will strip advisory boards of their votes on allocating the Student Activities Fee, giving control of the process to GUSA’s Finance and Appropriations Committee.

The meeting opened with a period of public comment on the bill.  The three student who spoke all expressed opposition to the changes.  Nick Calta (COL ’10), Chair of the Advisory Board for Club Sports, cautioned that the bill would create “the potential for really wide fluctuations in funding”; a representative from the Center for Social Justice decried the adversarial tone of the debate and urged senators to think about “what kind of leadership this legislation is promoting”; and former GUSA Senator and current GUSA Presidential Candidate Matt Wagner (SFS ’11) warned that it would be “a huge mistake” to pass the bill.

After a quick executive briefing—in which GUSA President Calen Angert (MSB ’11), when asked by a Senator about his stance, said he “fully endorsed” the bill—the act’s co-sponsors, Senators Nick Troiano (COL ’11, Village A: A-D) and Colton Malkerson (COL ’13, Harbin 2-5), gave their spiel about bill, explaining what exactly it would change and why they believe it is necessary.

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Update February 9, 1:31 p.m.: Brian Roscitt has told the Voice that he and William McGeehin are dropping out of the race.

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Below is the list of Presidential and Vice Presidential candidates for the Georgetown University Student Association, as provided to Vox by student Election Commissioner Ryan Gavigan. This list appears in the order the candidate pairs will appear on the ballot, Gavigan said:

1. Hillary Dang is running for President with Katie Balloch as her running mate
2. Current President Calen Angert is running for reelection with current Vice President Jason Kluger as his running mate. Angert and Kluger announced their intentions to seek reelection last week.
3. Former GUSA Senator and FinApp Chair Matt Wagner is running for President with Emmanuel Hampton as his running mate. Hampton was one of four student senators who resigned from the GUSA Senate under pressure for having excessive absences.
4. Brian Roscitt is running for President with William McGeehin as his running mate
5. GUSA Senator Arman Ismail is running for President with Tucker Stafford as a running mate

Campaigning will begin at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, February 9, and the election will take place on Tuesday, February 23.

Vox has included details about the candidates we’re familiar with, but we will continue to update this post as we get relevant information about other candidates.

A preview of this evening’s GUSA meeting

We’ve heard the SAC side of the great GUSA Battle of the Budget, so we thought it was about time to check in with the opposition. What does Senator Tim Swenson (SFS ’11)—Matt Wagner’s (SFS ’11) main opposition on the Finances and Appropriations committee and briefly a member of President Calen Angert’s (MSB ’11) executive staff—have to say about it?

“It’s an interesting nightmare.”

According to Swenson, the issue is a three-way dogfight between Angert, who’s trying to fulfill his campaign promises; Wagner and Senator Johnny Solis (SFS ’11), who have aspirations of unseating Calen next year [RETRACTED at Tim Swenson's request as he did not verify this claim with Solis]* and; the other funding boards, specifically SAC, who are unwilling to spend down their reserve funds.

Swenson says SAC is being unnecessarily alarmist about the situation, insisting that they would be able to supply full-funding to clubs even if the budget isn’t passed. Any assertions to contrary, he writes, are just attempts at scaring club leaders into submission. He also accuses Wagner of refusing to hold a second session on the budget, the step he says is necessary for the process to move forward.

At the heart of the issue, though, is how much the boards really have in their reserve and how much they should have:

I am tired of paying $50 for it to go in SACs rainy day account.

We’ve asked SAC to give us the numbers to justify their account. That email was the first I’d seen but until I see a more formalized plan I’m still skeptical, especially after what current and former SAC members have told me about how their excuses don’t quite pan out.

Clearly, there are a lot of competing claims and a quite a few personal skirmishes going on here. Which, of course, is the recipe for the most exciting GUSA meetings. Should be a pretty epic one this evening.

Full e-mail from Swenson after the jump.

*Solis says he hasn’t thought about running next year yet. Wagner couldn’t be reached for comment.

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How is GUSA doing on this year’s approval of the budget? I’m glad you asked. Here’s how Matt Wagner (SFS ’11) broke it down to the Senate yesterday.

“We have a budget the Senate voted ‘no’ on, and no new budget from the Funding Board, [the group of seven Senators and six heads of other student groups that creates the budget every year]. We either approve a budget on Wednesday, or we don’t.

What happens if the year ends and the Senate does not approve a budget? I talked to Erika Cohen-Derr, and she said there are two possibilities. A) clubs simply don’t get a budget from us, period, and that money is saved and rolled over into next year. That means a third of the funding for some of these groups is gone. B) administrators, namely Erika and her second-in-command Bill McCoy, give these student groups whatever budget they deem appropriate because the student government they over see failed to do that.

(Emphasis and paragraphing mine.)

You’d think that, seeing as the budget for next year was hashed out roughly two months ago, GUSA would have approved it by now. Instead, they’ve rejected it twice and are pushing hard to get it approved before the last day of classes.

What’s gotten our favorite student bureaucrats into this mess? It’s a “huge conspiracy,” according to Senator Johnny Solis (SFS ’11). Check out the full story after the jump.

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