Haine wins Class of 2008 presidency

Tom Haine '08 narrowly unseated three-year incumbent Grant Gittlin '08 in the runoff election yesterday for next year's senior class president.

Haine earned 54.15 percent or 339 votes, to Gittlin's 287 votes or 45.85 percent. A total of 626 ballots were cast in the 24-hour voting period.

"I'm excited and I'm honored to serve our class next year," Haine said in an interview yesterday. "I look forward to getting started on making our senior year the best it can possibly be."

As a candidate, Haine pledged to bring renewed energy and a sense of shared experience to the senior class.

"Unlike our junior year, class government could (and should) make our senior year great!" Haine said in a mass email sent to the junior class just before voting in the runoff opened.

The runoff election, held yesterday, was marked with controversy as USG election managers shut down Haine's campaign website in response to his publicizing of inaccurate voting numbers. Haine had sent an email to members of the junior class Wednesday morning saying that 58 percent of all juniors had voted against incumbent Gittlin. In reality, 56 percent of the 662 juniors who voted chose either Haine or the third candidate, Aaron Spolin '08.

Haine said that it was "disconcerting" that the website was taken down while the election results were coming in but added that he was convinced it didn't affect the outcome. "[I think] the website had been up long enough for people to talk about what was on it," he said.

USG vice president and elections manager Josh Weinstein '09 said that Haine "brings a fresh perspective to the USG."

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"Hopefully Tom can use his fresh perspective and the dedication he was stressing during the campaign" to implement his ideas, Weinstein said.

Haine attributed most of his success in the election to his friends who he said played a vital part in his campaign. "A lot of my friends — and even people I didn't expect, or I didn't specifically ask — helped me out a lot by sending out emails to people they knew," Haine said, adding that "it was important to just get the word out."

Matt Schmitz '08, a close friend of Haine's, said in an email that he was "immensely excited" when he learned the election results. "We had people active in campus politics tell us that Tom had 'a snowball's chance in hell of winning,' " Schmitz said. "It turns out they were wrong. A lot of people are surprised, but we're just happy."

Gittlin expressed confidence that his successes over the past three years would facilitate Haine's work as president. "We've planned and budgeted for three years to make senior year absolutely amazing and I expect that it will be nothing less," he said.

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The election results bring Gittlin's three-year tenure as class president to a close. In an email to the Class of 2008, USG president Rob Biederman '08 praised Gittlin. "I believe that Grant Gittlin deserves a large ovation from our class," Biederman said. "His enthusiasm, commitment, and inexhaustible dedication have supported us for our first three years of college. We should all be grateful for Grant's years of service."