Having a third party ticket is a rare occurrence at the University of Central Florida’s Student Government Association Elections. This year, candidates Stein and Barhamje challenged the norm with intentions to break the SGA continuance in office.
SGA hosted a presidential debate on Thursday, March 26. Presidential candidates Richard Stein and Mo Barhamje said the way the debate carried out was terrible.
The candidates argued that the debate was far too boring and that the answers given by the other candidates were essentially the same.
“We think that it’s extremely hard to foster democracy on this campus when debates don’t really serve the purpose of a conflict between candidates. There wasn’t really any conflict, none of the answers added spice to the mix and it’s really sad that everyone attending there was SGA instead of a really good demographic of the actual university,” said Stein.
Barhamje agreed with Stein and told KnightNews that it is now clear to them why there is rarely a third party candidate.
“It just goes to show that essentially, SGA votes in SGA,” Barhamje said. “It upsets me in the regard that an average student is just not set up for any success when running. I mean, everything is working against us; we’re climbing a mountain whereas the other candidates who were a part of SGA go right through it,” said Barhamje.
The Stein and Barhamje ticket, known to not hold back their thoughts in this election, pride themselves in being the outside ticket.
“My ticket comes down to perspective. This is the first time in a long time that there’s been a third party candidate and what we bring to the table is just outside experience,” said Stein.
Stein even compared the presidential elections to a cross country race. “We’re just sprinting for the finish line and every time we step there’s a political landmine on the ground, and we step on it and it just blows off our legs.”
One of the major points in their platform is transparency in SGA. Stein said that his financial background makes him passionate about this issue.
To prove his point, Stein mentioned that if elected president, he will require his cabinet members to sign a waiver that will allow the release of their names on all public information records. He also said he’d push the legislature so that all of SGA signs the waiver as well.
“I feel time and time again we have presidents who bring up flash bang issues, you know it’s a land bridge or it’s cutting tuition… A few months into the election, a few months into their term, those issues are to go quiet. So I think the only way that you can actually lock their word is to look at their record,” Stein said.
The presidential candidate also spoke about the issue of RSO funding in SGA. He stated that the most important issue in the legislature was the funding process, saying that, “if there’s a problem for funding for RSO’s, maybe that’s a problem with the legislation.”
Something Barhamje wanted to make clear was that all the platform points for their campaign are able to become a reality within the next year.
“Why do we agree with the status quo? Why do we continue to implement the same things over and over again? You know, we keep electing the same cookie cutter SGA candidates and we keep getting the same results. Last year, the issue was safety. The year before last the issue was safety and communication, the year before last was safety and communication. So like, we have the same problems over and over and over again because we’re electing the same people over and over and over again. It’s time for a change; it’s finally time that we stand up and say, ‘Hey, this is the year we’re going to do something for the students.’ This is the year that we’re finally going to stand, and that’s what Mo and I are about,” said Stein.
For more information on the Stein and Barhamje campaign, visit their website, Facebook, or Twitter.
Check back on KnightNews.com for more SGA election coverage.
