Public speaking plays a huge role in political campaigns at all levels, from local races to national affairs (in the recent Florida Republican primary, two-thirds of voters described candidate debate performances as “very important”). The way a candidate talks reflects, in the eyes of voters, his competency. Charismatic speeches convey a candidate’s coherence and electability, while missteps can make a candidate appear weak and derail his campaign (just ask Governor Perry).
On Wednesday, February 8, Jesuit’s student council let its presidential and vice presidential candidates show off their speaking skills in video addresses. Two tandems, one made up of juniors Basil Seif and Jeff Ackels and the other comprised of sophomores Matt Mazzini and Patrick Campbell, gave prepared remarks and took questions from The Roundup’s Clark Durham in Hughes Hall.
The video addresses are intended to provide voters an intimate look at the potential student leaders and to let candidates make a personal appeal to their electorate. “[Having video addresses] was a collective student council idea,” said student council moderator C. F. Hanley, an English teacher. “We wanted to do something else to let candidates distinguish themselves.”
This year’s student council members have complained that name recognition is hard to get in student council elections. “The [campaign] posters really aren’t enough,” said Hanley. “We hope that video debates will prevent voters from going in to the polls blind.”
During interviews, three of the four executive candidates acknowledged cross-cutting differences between the candidates. Both tickets spent their speech time pointing out the differences between the candidates and highlighting their own positive attributes.
The ticket of juniors Basil Seif and Jeff Ackels represent tradition and establishment. Like every student body president in recent memory, Seif brings to the table years of student council experience. Seif’s running mate Jeff Ackels, himself a one-time class president, shares a gene pool with Chris Ackels ’09, a much loved former student body president at Jesuit.
Seif and Ackels hoped to drive the experience point home in their remarks. “When you’re picking a student body president, one of the biggest issues is a sense of reliability,” said Seif. “Considering I’ve been on council for two years and worked with two student body presidents…I think that I’m the right man for the job.”
While the Seif-Ackels ticket seems traditional, the candidate tandem of sophomores Matt Mazzini and Patrick Campbell is clearly the ticket of change. Mazzini, the sophomore class president, matches the executive experience of Seif in all ways but one: he is an underclassman. His partner, Patrick Campbell, also a sophomore, hasn’t served on Jesuit’s student council, but he brings a committed attitude to the race.
Mazzini and Campbell hope that voters aren’t scared off by their relative youth and understand their impressive leadership attributes. “We’re both on a bunch of leadership committees; we know how to lead well,” said Mazzini. “I wouldn’t say the ‘underclassman’ status shows how much commitment and leadership a candidate brings,” added Campbell. “I hope voters see who we are and what we’ve already done.”
Despite their optimism, it is clear that this race will be an uphill battle for the ambitious sophomores. Their opponents have passed through the traditional channel for student body executives, and a senior has won the presidency every year in recent memory. What’s more, two of the past three student body presidents rose from the rank of junior class president, the office Seif currently holds.
But the race is far from over. Anything can happen between now and election day, as past races have shown. If they can mobilize their underclassman base, Mazzini and Campbell may well break the status quo and become the first junior student body executives in recent memory. After watching mind-numbing hours of Republican primary coverage this year, this reporter knows that only one rule holds true for modern elections: we don’t know what we don’t know.
See the video attachments for the full taping of each ticket’s address.
