Northwestern elects new ASG president

By NNN Staff
Monday, April 20, 2009
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It only took about 25 minutes after polls closed Friday for Mike McGee to receive that anticipated phone call.

“We won with 60 percent of the vote,” he told the crowd of supporters.

The communication junior will be the next ASG president.

"We're really happy that the results turned out in our favor,” McGee said.

McGee and his running mate, Tommy Smithburg, faced Bill Pulte and Pat Dawson in a runoff after neither received a majority vote in Wednesday's election.

Pulte was ahead by 33 votes after the first vote.

"It's definitely curious that you're leading one day and then the next day you get definitely beat,” he said.

The candidates had two extra days to rally more votes. But campaigning went anything but smoothly. Thursday night, an e-mail smearing Bill Pulte circulated campus.

The message addressed campaign members of Muhammad or Mo Safdari. The newly elected academic director accused the Pulte campaign of using illegal methods to get votes.

"I was venting,” Safdari said. “Okay, people vent. I shouldn’t have done it and this was the first time in my entire life that I’d ever written something like that. And it’s really unfortunate that it ever got out of a couple friends”

The elections commission filed a violation against the McGee/Smithburg ticket because Safdari worked for their campaign. They withheld voting for 15 minutes and posted a statement on the ballot saying the e-mail had issues of slander, libel and defamation.

“We decided to make that formal announcement that would be viewed by all the students voting.

Shrader says the incident had an effect on the results. But he doesn't know which way it swung voters.

McGee disagrees.

He and Smithburg say they look forward to starting their term after some rest and celebration.