Wagner, Peele win general election by

26 votes, look forward to fulfilling

platform issues

By: Joanna Rubick, Kansas State Collegian, 3/8/07

A triumphant "Yeah" rang out from Matt Wagner, Lydia Peele and campaign supporters Wednesday night at Rusty's Next Door in Aggieville.

More indistinct cheers continued to fill the bar as Wagner and Peele jumped up and down and hugged each other several times.

About 70 supporters clad in black campaign shirts hugged and offered congratulations. Some even shed a few tears.

"There's so many people here," vice president-elect Peele said to the crowd after the results. "Thank you so much."

Wagner, president-elect, said he appreciated the help the pair received on its campaign.

"Wow, good job," he said. "For those of you that called all day yesterday and today, thank you so much."

After speaking to supporters, the pair left for interviews.

During the interviews, those who had not already done so signed picture boards for the pair. The boards contained pictures of the candidates' reaction when they heard they won the primary elections.

Before the results were announced, Peele, junior in secondary education, said she was more nervous than she had been last week for the primary elections.

Wagner, senior in management information systems, said he benefited from previous experience, so he wasn't nervous. He ran for vice president in 2005 with Tyson Moore and came in second.

"It wasn't that I knew we were going to win," Wagner said. "I didn't know. I knew what it was like to be in the other position."

Wagner and Peele announced they were running for student body president and vice president February 2.

The pair spent $3,195.17 on its campaign, including nearly $600 they donated to the K-State PROUD campaign.

Both said they will be able to accomplish their platform issues, which include creating a financial planning center, establishing a policy for dead week, starting an online textbook list and eliminating the $50 study abroad fee.

Wagner said he and Peele did the research needed to ensure the platform's success.

"I think all of those are goals we can get accomplished in our term," he said.

Peele said she was excited she and Wagner won but would have been satisfied with their work even if they had not.

"It's a huge relief," she said. "Even

before we knew the results I was very happy with how we ran our campaign. That just made everything worth it."

Now that the campaign is over, Wagner and Peele said they plan to get some needed rest. They said they will continue to listen to students' concerns during the next month and their entire term as president and vice president.

"I'm really excited to get to know people and hear what they have to say," Peele said.

Wagner and Peele said they owe their success in the elections entirely to their campaign supporters, especially with how close the elections were. They won by 26 votes with 50.2 percent of the vote.

"It just proved that every person who called their friends, e-mailed their friends and talked to their classmates made a huge difference," Peele said. "I think they influenced the vote definitely more than we could have on our own."

Wagner said volunteers worked well into Wednesday morning helping out the campaign.

"We have people staying up 'til four in the morning," he said. "That's the best part about our volunteers. We don't know what they've done behind the scenes to help us out. They've been very influential."

Matt and Lydia react to the election results