Vote Ali!

The spoils system. Riding in on the coattails of the president. A corrupt election process. Polarization.

It doesn't really sound like something that you would want to be involved with, does it? And yet, I think that I am going to be running for the ASUU Assembly this coming Spring. The Assembly is the student government's equivalent to the House of Representatives and deals largely with appropriations for various student groups. Yesterday I was waiting for the Hinckley Forum (about "The Mormon Question" and the Presidency - fascinating) with my TA for my US Gov class and the Vice President for ASUU's Government Relations Board (which I am on). The VP for Government Relations, Andrew, turned to the TA, Molly, and asked whether she was planning to run for reelection for the Senate. I asked them what they were discussing and after a few explanation (very few, I hardly know what I am getting myself into) I had made it onto Andrew's excel spreadsheet of potential candidates for the "Voice" party.

Later I ran into a girl that I have met several times at the Government Relations Board and at service projects who turns out will be running for ASUU president. After answering a few of my questions about the Assembly she informed me that I needed to find a campaign manager a soon as possible. Someone that I trust and would work hard to help me get elected. I easily recruited for this position my friends Brittany and Marissa.

I really don't know everything about what I am getting into but it seems exciting and a great opportunity to find out first hand what politics is like - for better and for worse.

A few things that I do know is that as an Assembly member I would represent a college (I could pick to run for the college of Humanities or Social and Behavioral Sciences), we campaign in March and April, Assembly candidates received about $5000 for their campaign (!), a term for an Assembly member is one year, Assembly members get paid about $1200 for their term, the Assembly meets about twice a month and votes on appropriating funds to different colleges and student groups.

Vote Ali!