Era candidates win elections
Gary Caruso
Capitol Comments
If anyone is an expert on the value of student government or the impact of so-called "era candidates" who run in student government elections, I am. During my junior year, almost exactly 30 years ago, I ran for student body president at Notre Dame. I lost to a candidate who wore a Burger King crown and chose as his running mate, a cat!
The King and his cat's popularity began when the King proclaimed that he was the prime mover, thus he only campaigned from toilet stalls in each dorm. His success was sealed after he spoke from behind a burning bush on one of the balconies at Walsh Hall (a burning trash can substituted for the bush). His appeal swept across campus 30 years ago because all election cycles have an ebb and flow as constituencies change.
Former Speaker of the House Thomas "Tip" O'Neill (D-Mass.) claimed that all politics was local. Indeed that is true in the real world. When applied to campus student government politics, it is even more true. Student government exists to make life more pleasant while matriculating at Notre Dame. And heaven knows that task is virtually impossible.
President-elect Libby Bishop and running mate Trip Foley had the right message and image at the right time to satisfy the current student mood. That political atmosphere was created by the prior year of student representation.
When students feel comfortable, they stick with what seems to be working. If they perceive a slick, outgoing political stuffed shirt in office, they want change. Campus cycles are as inevitable as Democrats following Republicans in office only to be followed again by Republicans followed once more by Democrats. The cycle never breaks; the timeline of the cycle varies.
Early in my junior year, the student body president had a demonstration of more than 3,000 students support him at a Campus Life Council meeting. The huge crowd forced the meeting to move to the engineering auditorium in an effort to accommodate the angry students. Students were jammed into hallways, stairwells and the auditorium protesting a proposed ban of kegs on campus.
The incumbent student body president thanked us for our show of support. Then he told us that he would negotiate with the administration using the turnout as his position of power. The bootlicker then sold out the students so that he could obtain a letter of recommendation to Yale Law School from a very senior University official. The letter began, "If you take anyone from Notre Dame this year, you take (him) first."
As a result, student government became a joke in the minds of the students the following spring during the student body election cycle. We could not impeach the lame duck, although as alumni we defeated him twice for a national alumni board position a few years later. That spring, the mood of the campus begged for a King and his cat to be the successors.
I am proud that I carried my hall while the King carried all the other halls. I had a good campaign about cutting through red tape, improving meal plan options, bringing more concerts to campus and addressing programs that would help students — parking, parietals and bookstore policies to name a few. My campaign made sense when the electorate wanted chaos.
After one of the other candidates challenged the King for not having a student as a running mate, the King made a fake Notre Dame ID for the cat. Students loved it. The King foiled a would-be bureaucrat's attempt at political nonsense. The election was all but certified at that point.
The Observer ridiculed the King for his proposal to abolish student government. However, after the election the King appointed his trusty roommate, "The H Man," as the caretaker of the government. We did not cut through red tape, nor did we add any new services that were long overdue. But student government survived not one year with the King, but two. He was a sophomore when he won and was reelected the following year.
Libby Bishop is riding a wave of gender acceptance, especially as the University approaches the 30th anniversary of coeducation. Her election, making her the second woman student body president at Notre Dame, parallels the King's reelection. The timing and the mood have coincided like the alignment of the Zodiac.
For Brian Moscona who served as a loyal vice president and paid his dues in the campus political system, I suggest that you do not try to analyze why you lost. For five years following my loss I attempted to understand how intelligent students at a premier university like Notre Dame voted for a King and his cat.
It is as explainable as the New England Patriots beating both the Pittsburgh Steelers and St. Louis Rams. Like the sports gods in the sky ordained the Super Bowl, the electorate gods were calling the shots. Moscona probably will make a great politician outside of Catholic Disneyland. Fate teaches you how to run against a cat or a significant campus anniversary. It is a learning experience, not the end of your life. The twists of fate are such that we can expect to see Moscona someday in the nation's capital.
Gary J. Caruso, Notre Dame '73, served in President Clinton's administration as a Congressional and Public Affairs Director. His column appears every other Friday, and his email address is Hottline@aol.com.
The views expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
All Viewpoint Stories for Friday, March 1, 2002
