First Year Shocked to Lose 2019 Class Council Race After Convincing Chalk Drawings

By Chase Harrison

Oct. 21, 2015

As the fourth and final winner of the 2019 Class Council Race was announced, an audible gasp was heard throughout Ida Noyes Hall. Matt Newson had not been elected.

“I am in shock right now,” Mattx sputtered through tears. “I undoubtedly had the best sidewalk chalk drawings of any of the candidates!” Indeed, Matt’s chalk drawings had been the talk of the freshmen class. Multicolored and astoundingly large, the phrase “Matt’s Where It’s At: Vote Matt Newson for Class Council” had coated the Quad for the week up to election. Matt had even drawn on the wall of Reg, a bold strategy he thought would clinch in the election.

We found campaign manager Sarah Ramirez pacing outside Ida on the phone with key constituents. “We are trying to figure out what went wrong,” she stated. “Maybe Matt just needed to post one more time in the 2019 Facebook group. Maybe he should have placed more flyers with pun slogans along the Midway. Or maybe the chalk just need to be bigger and more colorful.”

Director of the Institute of Politics David Axelrod discussed the 2019 Class Council Race on his podcast, The Axe Files. “I just don’t get it,” Axelrod said. “Chalk drawings are a fool proof campaign technique. In fact, had Obama’s chalk drawings been smaller than McCain’s, we probably would have lost in 2008.”