ASUA presidential candidates Lubisich and Saltalamacchia advance to general election

February 16, 2017

Courtesy Delaney Green

ASUA presidential candidates Matt Lubisich and Stefano Saltalamacchia will advance to the general election to be held on Feb. 28 and March 1.

Matthew Lubisich and Stefano Saltalamacchia have advanced to the Associated Students for the University of Arizona general elections as presidential candidates, with Emily Hastings and David McGarey, the executive vice president candidates, and Nora Browning and Lorenzo Johnson, administrative vice president candidates, also moving on to the general election.

Lubisich came out on top of the four other presidential candidates with a total of 1936 votes. Stefano followed him with 1027 votes.

“I was super excited by the results, obviously,” Lubisich said. “It just shows how much work we’ve put in.”

But he said his work is not finished. He wants to reach out to more groups on campus for a bigger voter turnout during the general elections.

Hastings tallied 1473 votes for the executive VP position, beating out McGarey by only 21 votes.

“Obviously you always hope that you come out on top,” McGarey said. “At the same time, it is fun to be an underdog. I wouldn’t say it was necessarily exactly what I was expecting, but I can’t act surprised because she is throwing a great campaign and I have to respect it.”

Hastings on the other hand was surprised by the results. She said she could have worked harder during the primaries. Now she plans on going out to talk with more club leaders, sororities and fraternities and just getting students interested in voting.

“David McGarey is tough competition and I’m really glad we both had really competitive scores,” Hastings said.

The top two administrative VP candidate voting also came down to a close race. Browning received 1452 votes and Johnson followed with 1395.

“The first time around I definitely didn’t reach out to as many clubs and organizations as I would have liked,” Johnson said.

Now he plans on seeking more endorsements and reaching out to cultural centers, Greek life and incorporating all corners of campus.

Browning’s next step is to let students know what platforms she is running for.

“I think a lot of ASUA election is just a popularity contest and I’m going to try to make sure people don’t vote for me just because they know me.” Browning said. “I want to get my platforms out more so people understand that I’m running on a really solid ground.”

Both VP debates are on Feb. 22 and the presidential debates are on Feb. 27. The general election will be on Feb. 28 and March 1.

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