"It upsets me. John was the treasurer before. He knows how important it is to go to FiCom," he said.

Kyle D. Hawkins '02, FiCom chair and Darling supporter, said he felt Burton's frequent absences called into question his competency to serve as vice president.

"If he's not committed enough that he missed six FiCom meetings in addition to four council meetings, how can he be committed enough to be vice president?" asked Hawkins, who is also a Crimson editor.

Burton wrote in an e-mail message that he had a section that conflicted unavoidably with FiCom meetings, and said his truancy should not affect his bid for the vice presidency.

"UC reps should attend meetings and when they can't there is a system that evaluates their performance," said Burton, who emphasized that he has surpassed the requirements of a FiCom member. "The UC would be at a serious loss if it let a conflict with section prevent me from working for students."

Neither Frank X. Leonard '01, Todd E. Plants '01 nor Benjamin W. Dreyfus '01, all presidential candidates, received any endorsements from those in official council leadership positions. They downplayed the significance of the endorsements, saying it demonstrated only their lack of appeal to entrenched council cliques.

"People who have been here for three years are going to endorse someone who has done the same," Leonard said. "I think it shows they're afraid an outsider might win."

Plants echoes concerns expressed by Redmond two weeks ago. Redmond described a council "cabal" consisting of council executive board members Michael D. Shumsky '00, John Paul Rollert '00 and Noah Z. Seton '00.

"I'm not close friends with the executive board," Plants said. "Noah and Sterling and Mike and [John Paul] are all friends."

Driskell noted that although she only received two endorsements from the executive board, nine of 13 delegation chairs--council members with the most votes from their respective Houses--have endorsed her.

"It speaks volumes that people elected to the top positions by students have put their support full force behind our ticket," she said.

But Hawkins questioned the importance of these endorsements.

"The people who are delegation chairs do not carry special authority on the council," he said.

According to a Crimson straw poll of 200 students yesterday, 34 percent of students said they were undecided about their picks for president and vice-president, while 37 percent said they were unlikely to vote at all.