Slate

Slates are UC Davis school government candidates' version of political parties on Campus. While some view them as cliques, many in ASUCD recognize their purpose in providing support and assistance to candidates and senators.

Currently active ASUCD slates include:

• L.E.A.D.
  

• ACT

Previous slates are discussed in ASUCD Senate History

Generally speaking, slates are coalitions of candidates who team up to campaign for an office during a single election. Political parties differ in that they have members who are not candidates for office, they field candidates in multiple elections, and they tend to vote as blocks. Clearly what we have on campus at least in ACT and Lead are political parties and not slates. Why the wrong terminology then? Perhaps its to combat cynicism towards national political parties, or perhaps its the identification of lead and slate both being types of rock, while go is a game played with rocks.

Slates offer a lot of benefits that running as an independent could never offer. Independents may have street cred, but slates already have an open door into many organizations. Co-op people clearly supported the Friends during their brief existence. Much of LEAD's support comes from ethnic/cultural organizations. ACT seems to garner support largely from environmentalist groups and communities.

Slates also have a past history. This can be a disadvantage, but people are more likely to support your cause if you helped them or appealed to them in the past. Brand name recognition is key, and many slates wear clothing to show slate affiliation. LEAD wears catsup red, ACT wears recycle bin blue, GO wore kelly green, Focus wore mustard yellow, and Friends Urging Campus Kindness wore punk-rockish spray-painted stencil art on shirts.

Slates are able to pool their campaign funds to purchase campaign materials such as shirts, hats, flyers, and facebook ads. Also, they often have the support of veteran campaign managers, treasurers, and volunteers.

And on a slate, one person does not have to go to every group. Fellow candidates can pick up the slack. And, just for note: sometimes, the less a slate expects your vote, the less people they send to your club meeting. This tactic of allowing an ambush of the poor candidate assigned to go to Davis College Republicans isn't very effective at getting votes, but that person has the least status in the clique and thus deserves to be sent. (In the Fall 2005 Senate Elections all 13 candidates visited the DCR. DCR was generally hostile towards the entire LEAD slate and Spencer Higgins of Student Focus while endorsing Jimmy Moresco and Joe Harney.)

Of course, the most important benefit of being on a slate is below:

It doesn't matter too much if you lose, as long as some of your friends get elected — your friends on Senate or the ASUCD President will get you a nice job on a commission. Independents who lose sometimes end up getting nice jobs, too. See Jon Leathers, Kris Fricke, Arie Van Gemeren, and Joe Harney.

In addition, the President gets a $20,000 budget, part of which is discretionary. It has a good chance of shoring up the support of a key constituency, though it has been used for other reasons as well. The Vice President also has a budget. It's like Senator Gabe Bang said at a Senate meeting, "It would be really hard for my fraternity to have raised that much money; it's a lot better to raise student fees by a dollar or two." Slates back you up, and protect you from unnecessary press.

• "Breaking Down the Slates" (11/12/2004)
  

• Tom Richards' opinion of LEAD and Student Focus (11/19/2003)