Miorelli Must Organize THE United Front

Ken Kerns Letter To The Alligator

Duque Makes The Alligator, But Not TheRadikal.com...

There needs to be dialogue with members of the Gator Party, perhaps even in the vein of approaching a viable Gator Party Senator (e.g. a Budget or Allocations Committee Chairman - or - perhaps even a key cabinet director) and recruiting that person to a Drayton-Ouster-Plan. The end result would not be to divide Gator to turn on Drayton to replace him with an O&B interim -- that's just not going to happen. We must concede that Gator won the majority in both branches of government, with the courts being impartial...

Still, the O&B Party could reap benefits; they could recruit the right person and give him/her a good amount of initial backing and support. Additionally, even with a Gator replacement to Drayton, the majority party will surely suffer at the polls in Fall and possibly well into Spring, however, Drayton can't go without members of his party voting him out and THAT will win incredible student-recognition.

Finding the right person, the guy the party may well have overlooked for Drayton and getting that person on a ballot in an emergency election could also pave the way for this overlooked, cast-aside rising star's presidential ambitions with the System Party. Interestingly, the System candidate for '09 could owe his stripes to the Opposition Party fielding his/her competition.

But more practically speaking, everyone would benefit here. Gator would retain power, O&B would gain leverage in selecting Drayton's replacement, and the students would have a chief fiscal officer. More importantly, just think what kind of internal revolution would play out within the ruling party and even as deep as Florida Blue Key, 2008 could see a whole different group of people, a faction per se, usurp another. It could start Gator and end Gator, yet the whole playing field could be revamped by one faction trading places with another.

At this point, the bar is set real low, all we need is body with a pulse in the Student Body Treasurer's office.

Right now, above & beyond strategy plays that might and probably will go wrong, the Minority should hold a caucus meeting with its party brass and scour the senate and/or cabinet for replacement options. There should only be 1-3 prospects. These student leaders should then be contacted by Miorelli as representing the Orange & Blue Party and an informal interview should be called, preferably at the private residence of a party member. At the interview, all O&B Senators should be present, in addition to the Party's Executive Committee, as well as a reporter from the Independent Florida Alligator - on condition that the paper only report once a prospective candidate is formally selected.

While this idea will surely get laughs from the Establishment, remember that laughter is almost more a knee-jerk reaction to nerves than to actual humor. Defeating an enemy 7:1 is money in the bank...but add just one of their own to the mix and then a couple of his/her friendly colleagues rush to his side and then two or three of the two or three that jumped ship start to feel a little uneasy about the majority taking potshots at the kids they got elected with and then others that know these start to get a bit offended and before you know it, Glenda is wishing she could go home, the Reitz Union staff is threatening to shut the power off in chambers, the blogs are lit up, the Alligator is re-updating by the hour, the students start to get word throughout the night, hours later SG is being mentioned in average-joe and plain-jane conversations on the Set, at the Plaza, at the Row, at La Casita, in the IBC, and all over the Reitz Union 3rd floor. Once the word is out, the Machine is forced to submit to the student will, it has never been able to damage-control it's way out of a mess like this could be.

Miorelli Must Organize the UNITED Front (Gator & O&B).