By
Dan Cassino
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Nearly 90 percent of women elected to Senate
With the bang of a gavel Wednesday night, ASUA declared its elections officially over. The results from the most recent race, a special election that gave Tricia Williams a spot as the 2001-2002 administrative vice-president, were entered into the record, with six yeas, zero nays and no abstentions.
Williams is one of 28 women who have been elected to office during the last six years.
Since 1995, nearly 90 percent of women running for office won an ASUA senate seat. Men running during the same period had about a 50 percent chance of winning a seat.
ASUA Sen. Rebecca Broky attributed the success of female candidates to the support of women in the campus electorate.
"Women really want to see other women in power," Broky said.
Williams, a current senator, agrees - she admits that during her freshman year, she only knew one candidate on the ballot, Dwight Maloney. On election day, she voted for him and then filled the rest of the ballot with female candidates.
ASUA Sen. Geoff Spencer voiced the possibility that women are outstripping men in the ASUA elections because they are simply more capable candidates.
"Women are more involved," he said. "They just have better networks."
However, the idea that students may be making their choices without considering candidate issues is not foreign to Spencer.
"There's a lot of apathy and ignorance," Spencer said. "People can't make decisions based on things they don't know."
Williams isn't upset by the idea that females have an advantage in ASUA elections. "I guess if I were a male, it would bother me," she said.
Moreover, she didn't even consider that her gender might have given her an advantage in her bids for ASUA offices.
"It didn't even come into my mind as I was a candidate," Williams said.
Spencer said that he would like to see voters focus more on candidates' issues. However, he'll take votes however he can get them.
"You would like to think that most people voted for you for a good reason, but you have to be realistic during campaigning - you're not going to turn down any votes," Spencer said.
Williams argued that gender is just one of the extraneous factors that can help a candidate.
"If you came up with a catch phrase that appeals to people, you're in," Williams said.
She went on to argue that candidates with recognizable names also seem to enjoy increased success that other candidates - through no fault of their own - do not.
Broky agrees that ASUA elections aren't always based on issues. "I think most of it is just recognition - it's having your name around," she said.
However, Williams refuses to apologize for the advantage her gender may give her in an election. "It's not my fault as a candidate," she said.
Also, Williams doesn't believe that gender offers an excuse for candidates who finish last.
"The people at the end are the people who didn't campaign," she said.
However, at least one of the senators found a bright side to the results.
"I think it's an encouraging sign that there's more female participation," Spencer said.
In the end, understanding what goes on in the minds of students as they cast their ballots may be impossible.
"A lot of the things that go on with the elections are absurd," Broky said.
