Once or twice each month I'm going to blog about something from my past and how it relates to today. As you know this coming Tuesday is Election Day, so maybe this story from forty-three years ago will get you in the mood to vote.
As a junior in college at Fairleigh Dickinson University, I ran for President of the Student Senate. A year earlier I ran for a Dorm Senator position, but I lost. Six months later, I ran for a Senator-at-Large position and I was elected. The presidential election took place after I had only six months experience on the student senate.
The current President of the Student Senate was going to run for re-election and no one was going to challenge him. I had no problem with him at all, but it bothered me that he was going to run unopposed. I tried to talk several people into running until someone suggested I run. When I announced I was running, a third candidate announced they would run and the President of the Student Senate announced he would not run.
The above picture is from the school paper on March 11, 1981 and I'm on the far left. That is a mustache on my face and not chocolate icing. My opponent had only six more months experience on the senate than I, but my real adversary turned out to be the guy running for Vice-President who was the second from the right. According to this article, that guy, "Began systematically attacking, embarrassing and otherwise outraging his audience." This was 1981 and not 2024.
It would have been a nice debate, but this guy had a different strategy. He, "Accused presidential candidate Hoeing of incompetence in both the written mode of communication and his general lack of ability to run the senate." He probably would not like my blog at all. The amusing line from the article was that after another attack, "These statements brought Hoenig to his feet, visibly shaken from the earlier attacks." I may have just been stretching my legs.
I did win the election with close to 60% of the vote. I would have given you the actual results, but I couldn't find them. I also ran the senate for a year and I did a good job and I got a lot out of the experience.
On Saturday my election blog will be out and I will answer some questions that you might have and make a few predictions too.
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