Shouts and cheers filled a reserved room in Annie’s Parlour in Dinkytown on Wednesday night when Minnesota Student Association presidential candidate Joshua Colburn answered a cell phone call from the All Campus Elections Committee announcing his victory.
Upon hearing the news Eric Dyer, Colburn’s running mate, yelled and circled the room, giving hugs and receiving congratulations from friends and supporters.
“If I had the money, I’d go to Disneyland,” he said.
“It’s terrific,” said Colburn, amid cheers of friends in the
background.
Election results, immediately totaled by ACEC online, showed a close vote.
Colburn and Dyer secured their win with 768 votes, 33 percent of the total student votes.
The mood was somber at current MSA President Dan Kelly’s house, where candidates Jake Jagdfeld and Rick Norton were assembled.
There, they learned they had finished second, with 638 votes, or 28 percent.
“We ran a great campaign here,” said presidential candidate Jagdfeld. “We made a mark and got a lot of great issues out.”
He said he would continue his work with the Minnesota Public Interest Research Group.
“We knew if we didn’t win we’d still feel good about what we did,” Jagdfeld said.
When Emie Eshmawy and Anna Rusch found out they had lost the election, Eshmawy screamed and jumped up and down. The outburst owed not to anger or frustration but to joy.
She said she was cheering because Colburn and Dyer won.
“If we couldn’t win, I couldn’t think of anyone better to have in office than Eric and Josh,” Eshmawy said.
Rusch said she agreed.
“We told people when we were campaigning that if they couldn’t vote for us, they should vote for Colburn and Dyer,” she said.
Tyler Richter, another MSA presidential candidate, walked into the Big 10 Restaurant and Bar in Stadium Village and pulled out a cigar.
“We won,” he said. “We won the most number of votes per dollar spent on campaigning.”
Jeremy Jordan, Richter’s running mate, said he expected to lose, considering the pair spent no money campaigning.
Although they lost, garnering only 123 votes, or 5 percent, both candidates said they plan to run again next year.
“You haven’t seen the last of the Richter/Jordan ticket,” Richter said.
Britta Swenson, ACEC
chairwoman, said she was disappointed in the election turnout.
Overall, 2,363 students voted this year, a decline from the 3,435 last year.
“We didn’t have as many votes as last year,” she said, “which is surprising to me, because there was so much campaigning done.”
Network, the Daily’s back-page reader forum, was the highest-rated write-in entry, amassing 113 votes, enough for 4 percent.
Swenson said she thought the turnout for Network was interesting.
Swenson said the results of the election will be available to the public in the next few days on the ACEC Web site.
Colburn and Dyer said they are eager to get started in their new positions.
“We have so many plans. We want to get as much done as possible,” Colburn said.
Travis Mlodzik, architecture sophomore and a Colburn and Dyer supporter, said he backed the pair because they value student input.
“They come around and talk to students and want to know what’s going on,” he said.
– Amy Hackbarth, Maggie Hessel-Mial and Elizabeth Putnam contributed to this report.
Robyn Repya welcomes comments at [email protected]