With the city council primaries less than a month away, student groups on campus are struggling to get involved.
The only contested primary is the Democratic candidate for Ward 1 city council between BGSU students Gordy Heminger and Nathan Nickens.
“We are going to be focusing on helping Ashley Hartwell’s campaign,” said College Republican chairperson Monika Winkler.
Hartwell, who is also running for the Ward 1 seat, has already secured the Republican candidacy because she is running unopposed. Winkler added that the College Republicans don’t have plans to register voters currently because of the extensive work they did in preparation for the national and state elections last November.
The College Democrats, on the other hand, are going into a contested election, but are not endorsing a candidate before the primary.
“Both are active in College Democrats,” said College Democrats Kathleen Hartwell of Nickens and Heminger. “Within College Democrats many are active in either campaign.”
Hartwell does want to encourage students to change their voter registration to the Bowling Green area as opposed to student’s hometowns, where many voted in person or by absentee ballot.
“We live here nine months out of the year,” Hartwell said.
Other student groups are not unified in their ranks towards a political end. Sharonda Glover, president of Black Student Union, wants to move her organization towards political participation.
“It should always be our goal to get students motivated,” Glover said.
Though Gordy Heminger has met with Latino Student Union to ask for support, members of LSU will be making choices, not as an organization, but as private citizens according to LSU political chair Jeff Nolish.
“Individuals will be doing different things for candidates they want to support,” Nolish said.
VISION has voter registration materials it provides to its members. However, because VISION is not affiliated with any political party, they are not actively mobilizing student voters for the primary.
All groups, whether participating in action before the primary or not, recognize the importance of having a classmate representing the student body on the city council.
“Students don’t really have a voice. This is our opportunity to voice our opinions,” Hartwell said.
