USG debates 'invisible primaries' that lead to unopposed elections

The USG discussed the high number of unopposed races in the recent elections at the Senate meeting last night. Senior USG members had previously suggested that the prevalence of unopposed races indicated the USG’s failure to adequately publicize the elections.

In this year’s election, seven candidates ran unopposed and all four committee chair positions went uncontested for the first time in recent history.

Elections manager Julian Dean ’13 reported the winners of the election — who include president-elect Shawon Jackson ’15 and vice president-elect Carmina Mancenon ’14, among others — before opening a debate regarding the number of unopposed candidates. Dean is a former operations manager for The Daily Princetonian.

“I really don’t think that we did anything wrong this year," Class of 2014 senator Dillon Sharp said. "I think it’s a fluke.”

Social chair Benedict Wagstaff ’14, who lost to Jackson, noted that there were many discussions within the social committee over the past year regarding who would be able to best fulfill the duties of social chair this year.

“The issue for me there was that the outsiders didn’t get to participate,” he said.

Many USG members discussed this concept of what they called the "invisible primary," in which potential candidates made deals with each other rather than leaving the decision up to a vote by the student body.

USG treasurer Lillie Cartwright ’14, who did not run for reelection after two years in the position, said that the invisible primary was harmful because it would lead potential candidates to believe they can only run if they have experience in the USG.

U-Councilor Elan Kugelmass ’14, who lost the race to Mancenon, did not believe that the invisible primary was a problem because USG members have the necessary experience to perform well in the position for which they are running. Outgoing University Life Committee chair Adi Rajagopalan ’13 added, "You can't force USG members to run against each other. That’s just silly.”

In response to the debate, Dean told the USG that he surveyed students who attended elections open houses, and found two common reasons why potential candidates chose not to run. He said that students either reported that they found out what the position entailed and decided they didn’t want those responsibilities or they found out who else was running and decided that the other candidate would be a better fit for the position.

Dean announced that he plans to create a separate working group to propose new election rules. He hopes to have the revisions finalized before the end of his term.

Wagstaff then presented the results of the Hoodie Allen concert. 747 tickets were sold, and the event ended up losing $1,805.67, mostly due to the fact that the USG had to pay to repair three chairs that were broken by concert attendees at Richardson Auditorium.

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"It was almost impossible for us to break even on this event," Kugelmass said.

The USG almost made up for this loss with a profit in another area. According to Kugelmass, the USG's project to bus students home for Thanksgiving made a profit of $1,637 by selling 83 tickets to Boston at a price of $76 and 110 tickets to Washington, D.C., at a price of $66. The project was considered a success since it increased its number of participants by close to 30 percent over last year.