UCO prepares for student government elections

Elections for student body president are taking place March 21, and students planning on running are already getting a head start on preparing their campaigns.

Few students see the planning that goes into creating an entire campaign for candidacy, even if it’s just for college. The “Barry and Berry” duo offer a peek into what they are doing to prepare for the upcoming election.

Izabel (Izzi) Barry is a junior majoring in political science on the pre-law track and minors in leadership and women’s, gender and sexuality studies. She is involved in Leaders of Tomorrow, founder and president of the Historical Film Club, and a part of several other organizations on campus.

“As a commuter student, I really understand the struggles associated with finding ‘place’ on a college campus, and non-traditional student involvement is an area that Lauren Berry and myself would really like to see more opportunities for on our campus,” Barry said. “Furthermore, international students are an integral part of our campus community and we will prioritize engagement and collaboration in creating the best campus for our international students.”

Lauren Berry is a senior majoring in psychology who is also involved with Leaders of Tomorrow and has served in UCOSA for multiple terms.

“As the upcoming election approaches, Izzi and I are programming a few ways to get our names and platform out across campus,” Berry said. “As we want to reach as many communities at UCO as possible, we plan on tabling, attending meetings, and fostering a close relationship with the student body so as to uphold our standards of transparency, teamwork, and trust.”

The team has worked with senior strategic communication major Meg Davis to create a marketing campaign.

With Interim President Andrew Benton joining the UCO community at the beginning of the month, Barry and Berry see their candidacy as a great opportunity to work closely with Benton to strengthen the campus as a whole.

“Transparency, teamwork, and trust are the keys to developing a successful community that thrives on diversity and inclusion,” Barry said.

Emails will be sent to all eligible UCO student voters detailing how voting will take place.

Oklahoma City’s Wards 2, 6, and 8 each reelected its incumbent Oklahoma City Council members while Ward 5 will participate in the April 4 general election.

Ward 2’s James Cooper won with ease, securing 76.9% of the vote in his bid for re-election. During his re-election campaign, Cooper promised to make Ward 2 more walkable, connect neighborhoods with reliable public transportation, and link city services to the people.

Mark Stonecipher will serve his third term as Ward 8’s councilman after winning 53.1% of votes. Stonecipher promised to finish the MAPS 4 projects, increase neighborhood patrols by police, maintain the city’s AAA bond rating, and bolster infrastructure.

Republican Maressa Treat and Democrat Derrick Scobey will face off in the general election for Oklahoma County Clerk after winning their respective primaries. Treat received endorsements from U.S. Senators James Lankford and Markwayne Mullin in January and served in both Lankford’s most recent re-election campaign and in his personal office.

JoBeth Hamon of Ward 6 won re-election against challenger Marek Cornett, tallying 54.4% of the votes. Hamon drew attention in the runup to election day during a Feb. 8 debate against opponent Marek Cornett when she referred to the Fraternal Order of the Police as “one of the most extreme groups in our country.”

“They have some of the most power to wield in this country, and the things they do with it are to protect bad actors that abuse their power and hurt people in our community,” she said during the debate hosted by NonDoc. “It’s hard for me to imagine finding common ground with folks that say something like, ‘Public safety

On her Facebook, Hamon said she was grateful to the hard work of volunteers and the generous contributions of donors. Hamon said her campaign received $11,500 total in donations.

“We put so much work into this campaign and the negative ads and text messages added an additional layer of exhaustion (especially emotionally),” she said about the campaign process on her Facebook. “Particularly as someone who is pretty shy and introverted, it’s been hard to process my image and words plastered on screens across the city, with my words taken out of context and used to spread fear and frustration instead of to spark hope and conversation.”

Hamon was the target of a series of digital advertisements labeling her politics as “anti-military” and “anti-jobs”. The ads were produced by Catalyst Oklahoma, a nonprofit in the state about which very little is known. Because of its nonprofit status, under the Citizens United ruling, Catalyst Oklahoma does not reveal its donors. Catalyst and organizations like it are becoming an increasingly common fixture of the Oklahoman political landscape, more frequently using their capital, referred to as “dark money,” on attack ads, canvassing, and political marketing.

A Dec 6 article from the Frontier revealed that $33.6 million was pumped into the Oklahoma election cycle during 2022 from outside groups. It was determined from data from the Oklahoma Ethics Commission that political nonprofit groups with hidden donors (dark money groups), spent more than triple the amount that was spent in 2018. Voters may recall Governor Kevin Stitt claiming dark money entities spent $50 million in ad buys.