Lakeside grad just misses post as UGA student leader
He may have lost his presidential bid, but a political career is still a possibility, said a Lakeside High School graduate who recently vied for the top dog spot of the University of Georgia Student Government Association.
UGA sophomore Matt Josephson wanted to be SGA president. Already an SGA senator, he began planning his run in August under the banner of his student political party, called The Party.
But he lost by a 10-percent margin Thursday to rival candidates for the SOUL Party in student elections.
"It's kind of a disappointing day for me, but it was still a good experience," Josephson said last week.
The political science-English major, whose running mate was David Scully of Memphis, Tenn., captured 44.3 percent of the vote. Josephson was comforted that nearly half of the almost 4,000 students taking part in the election voted for him.
"There are (more than) 1,700 people who think that I should be president," he said. "That makes me feel good. Also, there's a lot of adversity we had to overcome, and that's a lesson anyone can benefit from."
Mirroring many national elections, Josephson said that mudslinging also became an issue at the student elections.
"The political process isn't perfect, and there's a lot of negativity," he said. "It's unfortunate, but we knew what we were up against. We thought we could pull it out, but we came up a little short."
Despite the narrow loss - only 400 votes kept him from claiming the presidency - Josephson plans to stay involved in politics, just not on a student government level.
"I enjoy running a good campaign," he said. "I'm definitely going to be involved in politics. As far as the student government is concerned, I'd love to help somebody else out next year and, hopefully, they will be more successful."
Although he didn't win, the 2002 Lakeside grad believes he and his supporters had good ideas and hopes the new administration will adopt some of them.
Josephson promoted ideas such as allowing students to drop their two worst grades; holding freshmen elections; creating an athletic affairs committee to promote less popular sports; and establishing student transportation vouchers.