LiveBlog: 2008 Student Government Election Runoff Results

5:48 p.m. - We’re a mere 12 minutes away from the announcement of the runoff results between The Foundation’s Colorado Robertson and Shannon Bates vs. Vision 2008’s Dixon McMakin and Kristen Oaks. Eric W. Freeman, Jr., here to live blog the week-long anticipated results. Apologies for my legion (read: six) fans who missed out last night. I had papers to write, and as my editor told me, “School always comes first.” I got my papers done while I missed what Sen. Drew Prestridge described on my Facebook.com wall as “The best Senate meeting of the semester.”

Sumo

5:51 p.m. - I just sumo-wrestled SG Director of Communications and newly-elected Mass Communication Senator Parker Wishik. My “friend” Ifti took a picture of it, and I forced him to delete it. By forced, I mean talking to him without a smile on my face, as he threatened to publish it with unnecessary gossip. I gotta cover my bases.

Lynch Dearmon is back, with the same old same old

5:52 p.m. - Apparently, Secretary Emily Chambers came in to Lockett 2, the location of me, with a Lynch Dearmon “Contract LSU” sticker. For those of you not familiar with last year’s election results, the Lynch-Dearmon ticket, while the most unintentionally funny ticket name ever, lost before the runoff against Change’s Paul Dietzel and Tanesha Craig, and the eventual winners, Moving Forward’s Cassie Alsfeld and Josh King.

Why she’s wearing this losing sticker, I have no idea, but I’m willing to bet it relates to Anna Dearmon’s removal of Whitney Breaux last night for her misconduct. She wears this sticker as well as her supportive Vision 2008 sticker, leading me to believe Vision 2008 is proud of removing people from having a voice, no matter how disruptive. Granted, I wasn’t there last night, but it wouldn’t surprise me. So much for freedom of speech.

Filing in

5:58 p.m. - I’m now surrounded by a sea of vanilla, as more sorority girls than I’d care to look at. Looking at the majority of people in this room who care to look at the results, I can see the massive value of hair bleach and fake tans. It feels like a giant sunflower seed just exploded in Lockett.

Honestly, it’s creepy in here. I’ve honestly seen 10 girls in here that I recognize from Tiger Weekly’s Party Pix. I’ve been scared before, and I’m man enough to admit that.

Interview

6:02 p.m. - “So who won?”

Parker Wishik: “I did.”

Enough said.

The benefits of Red Bull

6:03 p.m. - Kristen Oaks just walked in, inspiring applause and aneurysm-inducing screams. A chant of “DIXON-OAKS! DIXON-OAKS!” fires up, leading me to wonder why I decided to blog. Anyone have any aspirin???

It’s way too preppy in here.

I'm supporting who?

6:04 p.m. - I’ve been told that, with my black shirt, I’m “supporting” Dixon-Oaks. I take my shirt off to reveal a white undershirt, but they say white is in their platform too. I threaten to remove that as I say, “Anyone got brown in their campaign??”

Mass Communication

6:05 p.m. - Treasurer runoff goes to Kat Ingram of Vision. Thunderous applause.

Mass Communication again

6:06 p.m. - In the runoff for President, the winner is Joe Coussan of The Foundation.

University Court Justice

6:07 p.m. - Curtis White of Vision wins it. The ovation is seriously migraine-inducing. These girls are loud.

Student Body President

6:08 p.m. - We’re told the margin of victory was 13 votes. The percentage of the winner was 50.098.

And the winner is:

Get out your record books:

6:09 p.m. - It’s Robertson/Bates! The crowd on The Foundation side is deafening, while the Vision campaign sees so many tears. This was the closest race probably in LSU history.
6:10 p.m. - Colorado’s victory speech is moving. He congratulates every campaign worker and looks happier than ever. Tears of joy are on one side, while bitter tears of defeat are being shown on the other. But the Student Government President next year will be James Colorado Robertson, with Shannon Bates as his Vice President.

What a race. But it’s finally over. No more push cards! Freeman out.

Read the original blog posts at The Daily Reveille...