“The people have spoken, and they have told us to buy a small animal,” Jones said.
Early Thursday, the two headed for Alewife, where they purchased a Cuban Tree Frog—for the people. The frog, which they named Harvard, will reside in a newly-purchased terrarium, dubbed “the 21st century.”
A THREAT TO THE ‘UC BELTWAY’
With a strong band of devotees and a notoriety that is growing day by day, Jones-Davis may present a threat to the more traditional UC platforms on display. As of yesterday, their campaign’s Facebook page had 137 likes, running behind Ebrahim-Cao’s with 259 but ahead of Coe-Li’s 48.
And even though the two are rejecting offers of endorsement from campus organizations out of their refusal to run a “traditional” campaign, Jones-Davis is hoping to score big-time with a show of support from basketball star Shaquille O’Neal himself. The two appealed to Shaq for an endorsement last week via his Twitter page.
However, while Shaq has yet to respond, other voices from outside the student body have chimed in to show their approval.
“To me, the UC is a largely decorative organization that sends you emails once or twice a year,” said Alexandra A. Petri ’10, a former UC VP candidate who ran with Roger G. Waite ’10 on a platform that advocated replacing the UC with Hapsburg rule.
“There’s no one who’s more largely decorative, or from whom I’d like to receive emails from once or twice a year than Pete Davis,” Petri said.
Petri, now a Washington Post editorial contributor, said that to do well as a nontraditional ticket, the candidates must define themselves well and pander. One of the most difficult hurdles a nontraditional campaign must pass, she said, is “getting your friends to vote for you.”
A SERIOUS SIDE
Underneath the campaign stunts and tongue-in-cheek YouTube videos, however, Jones-Davis campaign proposes some less humorous suggestions.
For example, even though Jones and Davis don’t have explicit UC credentials, neither lacks leadership experience. Jones is a ‘Hahvahd Tour’ Guide and spent his summer working in an orphanage in the Dominican Republic through Harvard’s Rockefeller Grant initiative, while Davis is a co-founder of “Harvard Thinks Big,” a contributor to the fake news show On Harvard Time, and a co-president of the Harvard College Stand-Up Comic Society.
Professor Andrew Berry, who spoke at Harvard Thinks Big, called Davis a “logistical genius” for being able to gather so many big-name professors in one place at the event, and Quincy House Resident Dean Judith F. Chapman said that Jones has integrity and “does the things he says he’s going to do.”
In addition to strong resumes and recommendations, the two have also highlighted several important issues about student life in their various videos and interviews.
When asked about social life at Harvard, for instance, the pair cited the Harvard-Yale Game in the fall and Housing Day in the spring as “sufficient” for community-building—“once a semester is enough,” Davis said.
In the meantime, however, the team stands behind its campaign slogan:
“...Until we Run Out of Money, or Get Removed from Office.”