Crying out for a fellow conquerer

The results of the 2014 Santa Monica College Associated Students election were released last Friday, and they came as a big disappointment to me.

I'll admit, during my early days here at SMC, I never really cared much for the AS elections. I didn't even know we had a student government.

But recently, I've taken more of an interest in them.

For the past few elections, I felt as if the majority of the presidential candidates are all cut from the same cloth, with no real substance.

They all follow the same rehashed garbage about getting students involved and learning about the AS as if they're reading off a script.

However, a breath of fresh air swept through election season at SMC in the form of Courtney King.

I first encountered King during an Inter-Club Council meeting during the fall semester. She came to present her new knitting club. She was very enthusiastic and very friendly.

When I heard she was running for AS president, I thought to myself, this is someone I can support, this is someone I can get behind.

Aside from her quirkiness and uniqueness, she was completely brand new and was not a part of the cliquish culture that currently permeates the AS.

I've sat in on many ICC meetings as the delegate for the Creative Writing Club for two semesters, as well as attending Club Olympics meetings and the clique mentality that has surrounded the AS for quite some time was always on full display.

Not only that, but the majority of the AS for the past few semesters has walked around campus carrying a "holier than thou" attitude, constantly bombarding students with all the so called wonderful things the AS does for the student body.

I don't know about other students, but that kind of attitude just turns me off completely. I want to know what the AS plans to do for me as a student, not what happens when I become an AS member.

King did exactly that, she didn't act high and mighty. She put herself on the level of the students and not some pedestal. She did more than hold her own at the debate, and was the only candidate who voluntarily mentioned trying to help campus favorite Manuel Henriquez get back onto the quad.

But instead of true change, we're once again stuck with the same old, same old.

No offense to Pablo Garcia, I don't know him, but he did nothing during the AS debate to convince me that he was ready to do anything significantly different should he be elected president, simply sitting quiet as King and Kai Perez discussed topics for most of the time.

Also having served as primary commissioner to current president Ty Moura, I fear he will be a continuation of the same old clique we have become accustomed to.

Be prepared for a lot more of the "AS is so great!" diatribe and less about the students themselves.

Hopefully they can prove me wrong, but I doubt it. Sometimes organizations need complete overhauls and need to clean house, a dire need for the AS.