Danielle Moore '95 swept yesterday's presidential election because no candidate was able to mobilize and unify Dartmouth's true voting bloc, the Greek system.
Last year's election, which turned into a single-issue race about the existence of single sex houses, was testimony to this power.
Former Assembly President Andrew Beebe '93's call for the mandatory co-education of the College's Greek system scared the Greek community, which comprises nearly 60 percent of the student body.
Last spring, this contingency rallied strongly behind Stewart Shirasu '94, the only candidate in a Greek house, and propelled a conservative, pro-Greek coalition into power to thwart Beebe's threat.
Shirasu resigned before taking office, but Nicole Artzer '94, the strongest remaining pro-Greek candidate, was elected in his place.
With this fear absent in yesterday's election, Greeks lacked the same incentive to organize around one candidate.
"The big difference between this year and last year is that you did not have the Greek issue in this year's Assembly," Assembly Vice President Steve Costalas '94 said. "We successfully removed the feeling of fear among fraternity and sorority members."
As a result, the Greek vote was split between Jim Brennan '96 and Kenji Sugahara '95, whose combined vote totals (711) would have defeated Moore (628).
Moore appealed to liberals, minorities and women. Running with a similar platform but against only one opponent, Rukmini Sichitiu defeated Alex Morgan '95 by 91 votes to claim the vice presidency.
Sugahara had the endorsement of the Interfraternity Council, the governing body of the College's fraternities, but he failed to capture the rest of the Greek support.
"I don't think enough effort was made to make the Greek houses work as a cohesive unit," Sugahara said.
Brennan campaigned hard for the Greek vote, going to several houses to rally their support, and ultimately leading to the split that propelled Moore to victory.
Assembly member Matt Berry '94 said the race was Sugahara's to lose, but a poor campaign cost him dearly because Moore ran an effective campaign .
"There was not the Greek mobilization he needed," Berry said. "There was a failure of turnout and a failure of voter preference."
With the Greek question out, students turned instead to the issues and cast a vote for campaign promises that went beyond simple student services.
While all of this year's candidates promised more student services, only Moore and Sichitiu also pledged to work on more substantial issues such as education and sexual assault and tolerance.
This year's election also was a backlash to last year's election, where 15 out of 21 seats in the Assembly were controlled by the strongly conservative group, Reform SA!, which many believe caused the Assembly's political turmoil this year.
Although The Union for Reasonable Student Government, a conservative group, did win 13 of 24 Assembly seats this year, many of the group's hard-line conservatives failed to win seats.
"Students got sick and tired of listening to Matt Berry and Reform SA! conservatives bitching and moaning," former Assembly Vice President Andrew Smith '94 said. He said he considers last year a "glitch - I think last year the Greeks got scared."
