So, I wrote this great column bashing Josh Mandel. I felt, however, that many of my views were one sided.After calling his office three times and sending an e-mail to him, he finally got back to me the next day with the question, “You e-mailed me?” Before our meeting, like a good planner, I wrote out a list of questions that I would like to know about Josh. They included issues concerning his views on student government and his presidential goals. Unfortunately, though I wasted much of my afternoon talking to him, few of my questions were answered. I waited around for a few minutes and finally he rushed in late. Almost as soon as we met, he began shoving his campaign goals down my throat. He made it abundantly clear that he is in this campaign for us, the students. It takes away from his personal life, but like Bill Clinton, how much of a personal life can you have when you’re in a high office position?So why run again? I’m sure it’s taxing and stressful, so why do something that’s not in your best interest? Maybe it’s the A parking pass or the future career leads. Maybe it’s the fame. Maybe he is genuinely interested in helping students. I don’t know. One reason Josh wants to run again is because he “began a lot of projects, and he wants to see them finished.” Well, why aren’t they finished already?His campaign certainly isn’t interested in helping his competitors. A widely distributed e-mail bearing the name of his running mate, Michelle Gullett, instructs the campaign team to cover up the fliers of other contesters and to “go to work” on the chalkings of others.Not only that, a banner hung on an opponent’s friends’ house has been repeatedly torn down. This violates rules guiding the election process of USG. According to Mandel, all suggestions that his campaign is involved in these kinds of actions are completely made up. He is in control of his campaign team, as he said, “When people are negatively campaigning, it just shows they have nothing to say.” Does that also apply to Josh Mandel or just his competitors?Just as he can’t keep his campaign team together, he allegedly has not kept his cabinet and senate together. One Mandel-appointed member even posted a letter on an OSU list server stating that “she cannot support Josh for anything” because of a “conflict of ideals” with someone “whose ethics are so different from” hers. Apparently, a few others feel the same way as her, because according to her, only around 30 percent show up for meetings. Why such dissidence? Rumor has it that the senate and cabinet have not gotten along all year. Isn’t it the president’s job to gather opinions from the students of campus and take these concerns to the higher-ups? Who gathers these opinions from us? Well, supposedly the people who represent us from our colleges and our living areas. I didn’t even know who my representative was until she was involved in a debate over the constitutionality of her running for vice president with Mandel. Maybe they were too busy fighting for power between themselves that they forgot what their job actually is: representing us.In all honesty, I have heard that Josh is a hard worker. He spends about 60 hours a week working for USG, but doing what I’m not exactly sure. One of his biggest plans from last year’s campaign was additional emergency blue lights, the first of which went up within the last month.Why so long on the completion of this goal? Well, it’s not Josh’s fault – actually the Evans Scholars fraternity did most of the work on the blue lights, and Mandel is “fortunate to have the lights ready now.” Just in time for re-election. What about help with financial aid, something which was again stated on this year’s list of goals?Josh has said that if he “were only in this for the money, he’d be better off working at McDonald’s.” Well, maybe if he did, he’d be able to collect his coupons. Because it’s obvious that he felt it necessary to get area businesses to bribe students into voting for him. When asked why he felt it was necessary to involve businesses in a student election, he basically said that he got there first, and if the businesses want to help him, then more power to him.This is what I think: More power to us, the students. More power in representation. More power in voting. More power by not voting Mandel/Gullett.
Kendra Davitt is a sophomore philosophy/international studies major from Coshocton, Ohio.