As an active member of the ASU Young Democrats and as former Undergraduate Student Government vice president, I would like to address the issue of former President Goad's line-item veto of funding for the United Republicans.
Brandon Goad is not an active member of the Young Democrats. He has perhaps attended four meetings during his tenure at ASU, one of which was when he and I addressed the organization when we ran for office last year, and another was when he accompanied Sophie O'Keefe-Zelman and Julie Johnson when they addressed the organization in their campaign.
The Young Democrats do not support any actions that prevent organizations from receiving the funding that they deserve. In the past we have had a friendly relationship with the Republican organizations on campus and have often engaged in social activities with them, such as playing softball. The Young Democrats do not support President Goad's veto, and a number of members contacted President Goad asking him to rescind it without success.
President Goad's vetoes were not made because of political partisanship, but because of childish rivalries he has been collecting since becoming involved in ASASU. His first reason for vetoing the United Republicans' funding was that they supported Zachary Gingg and Ryan Owens for USG executives as opposed to Goad's desired successors Sophie O'Keefe-Zelman and Julie Johnson.
Goad's veto of the bill creating a liaison to the Tempe City Council was made mostly because I had authored it, and it was an issue I openly advocated. He vetoed these bills because of his with-us-or-against-us mentality. He vetoed funding to the United Republicans because they did not support his candidates, and he vetoed my Tempe Liaison bill because of his rivalry with me. It is easier for him to argue that I have not done anything all year when he is able to veto the improvements I attempt to make to ASASU.
I hope that the United Republicans and the students of ASU understand that President Goad's actions were not taken as a Democrat, but as a politician with an ego.
Bringing the new mayor of Tempe would have been a great event, regardless of the mayor's political party. Student government should not be about national party lines, though I fear it is the legacy that Goad may have left for us. Political organizations on campus will run candidates for executive office on a platform of being liberal or conservative and no longer for how they can serve ASU students.
It now seems that they have to in order to ensure that their organizations will not be barred from funding. This should no longer be a Democrat/Republican issue but should be a student/USG president issue.
Let us put this all past us with the hope that Goad's chosen successors do not think that their roles are as much of a joke as their predecessor did.
-- Kevin Bondelli
Former USG Vice President
Vice President of Finance - Young Democrats of Arizona
