When I arived home from Sunday's Signal meeting, a daisy that looked as if it had been plucked right out of one of the many cracks in the campus sidewalks was stuck onto my door handle.
It was plastered there with a little label saying "No matter how you pick 'em, a vote for Laura goes with any bunch."
My first thought was "how old are we now? Am I back in high school?" I was reminded of how I once lost a student government position in my middle school to a candidate who had given out cupfulls of gummy worms in exchange for votes.
Then, I remembered how much of this campus doesn't actually pay attention to SGA. I thought of how many people I knew that were informed about SGA, and for the most part, it was only SGA members and their closest friends who knew anything about the elections.
It was in this that I found justification for cheesy slogans, corny graphics and even the little daisies. If not for these gimmicks, I don't think students would notice their peers' electoral platforms.
Which would catch your attention more? A flier with facts about what the candidate hopes to accomplish, or one with a goofy picture of them?
Of course, the picture ad will draw more eyes to it. This is especially true if the candidate posts a fairly goofy picture that they think they look good in.
This "vote for me, I'm pretty" philosophy will get more votes from students than George Bush would get from Texas.
I think that the biggest campaign that I've noticed is the Nadia-Christina-Annelise trio that's plastered in every room of every building on campus. The girls each took a graphic with a claim to represent peace, love and happiness.
I didn't know we formed coalitions for SGA elections, but if you're promising that the three of you together will return us to the 70's-era ideals of peace, love and happiness, you have my vote.
I have no idea about what their plans are once they get into office, but hey, they're hippies, they've got to be cool.
Jesse Place's campaign is up there, too. Making a top 10 list about why he should be elected and posting each number separately makes for quite a stir.
If you see reason number eight and reason number three, don't you want to know all the reasons in between?
He gets his name out there and he sends you on a scavenger hunt. Very clever, Jesse.
Then there's the typical candidates, who give out labels or stickers for you to wear to support them.
Some of them even spend lots of money making t-shirts that they'll probably wear for about a day.
These are great ideas and all, but you're not going to get noticed unless you add some cheese to your routine.
I'm not saying I want Mike Cillia to hand out cup fulls of gummy worms. I honestly believe that as college students, we need to run more mature, professional campaigns.
But I don't see that working on this campus.
For the time being, I'm all for corny logos and cute, little daisies - do what you have to do to get noticed.
In the big picture, candidates are just trying to make this campus care, and I am impressed with anyone who can do that.
