Cordero defeats Levi in IVP runoff

BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Student Empowerment!
candidate T.J. Cordero and his supporters react as
the USAC Election Board announces the results of the runoff
election for internal vice president. Cordero won the race with 57
percent of the vote, edging out SURE candidate Justin Levi.

By Noah Grand
Daily Bruin [email protected]

This week Student Empowerment! had reason to celebrate as their
candidate T.J. Cordero won the internal vice president position in
a runoff election, defeating Justin Levi.

Both Student Empowerment! and Students United for Reform and
Equality will have five representatives on council next year.

But slate representation on council was not Cordero’s
focus.

“I want to talk about how to help students next year, not
party affiliation,” Cordero said.

There was a runoff this week because neither SURE candidate Levi
nor Cordero was able to gain a majority of the vote last week.

In the first election, Cordero got 47.6 percent of the vote,
Levy got 46 percent, and independent candidate Avneet Kaur got 6.3
percent.

The runoff election wasn’t as close, as Cordero received
57.7 percent of the vote.

Fewer than 18 percent of undergraduates voted in the runoff
election, according to the USAC elections board ““ a figure
even lower than the general election’s turnout of 20
percent.

The low turnout shows that many students are disconnected from
USAC, Cordero said. This emphasizes the need to get more students
involved, he added.

Election Board Advisor Mike Cohn said the lower turnout for the
runoff is not surprising, because there was only one race decided
this week and it wasn’t the presidency.

Cordero plans on first finishing his obligation as USAC’s
finance committee chair before working on the transition to
internal vice president.

As IVP, Cordero will be second in command to USAC president
David Dahle. He’s optimistic this relationship will work
well, even though Dahle is SURE’s leader.

The even split between SURE and Student Empowerment! council
members will make it difficult for either slate to control
council.

“It’s not going to be the easiest year,” Dahle
said, “But I plan to work together with everyone.”

Bryant Tan, who lost to Dahle by 37 votes a week ago, is also
confident that the two slates will be able to set aside their
differences and work together.

“They will come together regardless of their slate,
because it’s all about serving the student body,” Tan
said.

Levi agreed that Dahle will be able to work with USAC’s
Student Empowerment! members, because SURE’s planform is
about “representing everyone.”

Levi’s loss will not deter him from working to represent
student interests next year: he said that he will
“definitely” be involved in student politics, although
he is unsure how.

Levi said he does not regret running for office.

“T.J. ran a great race. He won it fair and square,”
Levi said.

But it was a major victory, not only for Cordero, but also
Student Empowerment!, which would have been outnumbered by SURE
next year if Levi had won.

Current USAC president Karren Lane, though, told the other
Student Empowerment! supporters gathered outside that advocating
for student concerns was more important than having the office
itself.

She added that Thursday’s victory was a victory for the
slate as a whole.

“This is your victory. This is not T.J.’s
victory,” Lane said

Those current council members who stayed late last night to
support their candidates will be back at work tomorrow.

A special USAC meeting will be held today at noon to consider
whether to hold a special election for an entertainment referendum
that would raise student union fees to provide more funds for
student programming.

With reports from Robert Salonga, Daily Bruin Staff