THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
---
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2011
LAWRENCE
PAGE 3
A visit with Mayor Aron Cromwell
DAVID SCOTT
dscott@kansan.com
Q: What are the Lawrence City Commissioners working on now that affects students?
A: Everything we work on impacts KU students, because KU students live in Lawrence. There are a variety of things that are more of an issue: the Oread neighborhood plan. We're talking about boarding house issues and funding for a lighted pathway from KU down the hill for safety issues.
Q: What are some things students should know about the commission?
A: In general, KU students are politically apathetic and always have been. The folks most likely to make a difference on KU students' lives are the city commissioners. There's only five total.
**Q:** What is the most effective way to lobby a commissioner?
A: The easiest way is just to email, but that makes less of an impact than someone who takes the time
to show up to a meeting and talks about what they're interested in.
Q: What's your primary focus as mayor?
A: My primary focus is to get curb-side recycling throughout Lawrence and increasing our overall range of recycling. That's something we're trying to do and we're working in that direction. By the end of the year, we should dramatically improve recycling.
Q: Why did you become mayor?
A: I've always been interested in politics and service. In a way, I wanted to fulfill my civic responsibility. I didn't come into office for this particular job. I didn't have one particular agenda item in the forefront of my mind. It was more like "I think I can do this; I think I would be a good leader."
Q: What are your plans to bring more business downtown?
A: The level of vacancies we're seeing right now are really not that unusual. We always have a certain amount of turnover. We're keeping an eye on it, but it's at a point
where we're horribly concerned
... There's not a lot that needs to be done right now. We need to be careful that we don't do anything that does more harm than good.
Q: What's the best part of being mayor?
A: The best part is having the opportunity to get something done: getting something done that needs to be done, like curb-side recycling. Right now, I'm in a position where I get that accomplished. That's a pretty neat thing about being mayor.
Q: Anything students should know?
A: I'm a KU grad, and I understand how students are really involved in classes and a social life and life on the hill. But there's a whole city that surrounds KU. I think it's important to be aware of it, to be active in it and to offer some volunteer hours — to get involved in your community. If I could ask anything I would ask students to pay attention to the issues and weigh in when there's an issue that's important to them.
STUDENT SENATE
Five freshmen elected to senate in close race
Student Senate welcomes five new members after the freshman senatorial elections concluded Sept. 7.
The 27 candidates split 1,564 votes in a race so close many of the candidates were only separated by one or two votes.
Helm, 99 votes; and Adam Lower, 148 votes.
The new senators are: Mackenzie Oatman, 87 votes; Elizabeth Erker, 87 votes; Kate Watson, 96 votes; Grant
Eker attributes her success to partnering with fellow candidates Helm and Oatman in their campaign strategies. She believes the extra manpower to promote their campaigns along with assistance from their sororities and fraternities was essential in garnering votes.
"Whenever one of us campaigned, we campaigned for the other two as well," Erker said. "It feels good to know
everything paid off."
Kris Velasco, the development director for Student Senate, supports Erker, Helm and Oatman's approach.
"It's so smart," Velasco said. "They tripped their voting base by partnering together."
All of the new senators will be officially recognized during the first full senate meeting on Sept. 14.
POLITICS
By Jessie Blakeborough
GOP presidential candidates debate job creation, economy
ASSOCIATED PRESS
"As a matter of fact, George Bush and his predecessors created jobs at a faster rate than you did." Romney shot back at Perry, the 10-year incumbent Texas governor.
Quick to tangle, Republican presidential rivals Rick Perry and Mitt Romney sparred vigorously over job creation and Social Security Wednesday night in a feisty campaign debate that marked a contentious new turn in the race to pick a 2012 challenger to President Barack Obama.
Far more than in earlier GOP debates this summer, the candidates mixed it up in their first faceoff since Perry entered the race and almost instantly overtook Romney as front-runner in opinion polls. Those two — as well as other contenders on stage — sniped at one another, contradicted allegations and interrupted media questioners to demand opportunities to take each other on.
The debate was the first of three in as many weeks, at a time when
"Michael Dukakis created jobs three times faster than you did, Mitt." Perry jabbed in the debate's opening moments, referring to one of Romney's Democratic predecessors as governor of Massachusetts.
the economy is struggling. unemployment is seemingly stuck at 9.1 percent and Obama's popularity is sinking in the polls — all events that could make the GOP nomination worth more than it appeared only a few months ago.
Perry and Romney stood next to each other on the debate stage at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library, a setting that invoked the memory of the conservative Republican who swept to two terms as president. And for much of the evening, the two men were at the center of the action, largely reducing their rivals to the roles of spectators looking for a way into
the action.
Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman sided with Perry when he turned to Romney and said, "47th just isn't going to cut it, my friend," a reference to the rank Massachusetts had among the 50 states in creating jobs during Romney's term.
But he also sought to rebut Perry's claim to be chief executive of the country's top job-producing state.
"I hate to rain on the parade of the great Lone Star State governor, but as governor of Utah, we were the No. 1 job creator during my years in service," Huntsman said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Republican presidential candidates, from left, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former House Speaker Nigel Gingrich, Rep. Michaela Bachman, R-Minn., former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, businessman Herman Cain and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman stand at the podium to answer questions during a debate at the Resign Library yesterday in Simi Valley, Calif.