Editor’s note: This is the second in a series of three articles profiling the candidates for president of the Government of the Student Body. The GSB elections will be conducted online March 8 and 9.

Sitting in Santa Fe Espresso, Russell Graves talks about being “out there.”

He said he’ll have a table on campus in a place common to most students, like at the Hub. Twice a week he’ll sit there, fielding questions and gauging opinions of students who, he said, have fallen out of touch with the Government of the Student Body.

Graves explained his perception of students’ understanding of GSB in an interview Monday afternoon at Santa Fe Espresso, 116 Welch Ave.

“I’ve had overwhelming responses to my ideas of being out where students can speak to me,” he said. “That’s one of the problems of the GSB right now, there’s no figurehead. We want to be the face of GSB to the students.”

It’s a problem that has affected the ability of GSB to represent the students — or, at least, those who know GSB exists, Graves said. There are very few people truly cognizant of GSB, and Graves said that represents a fault on the part of former presidents — one he intends to fix.

“A lot of students I’ve talked to do not feel represented,” he said. “The common thing I hear is that the GSB takes itself too seriously.”

Graves said he may be the only one with the credentials to bring GSB back to the students, as he and running mate David Stout are the only two in the field of candidates who have not been involved in GSB.

“We’re true outsiders,” he said. “Our exposure to GSB has been just that of what the rest of the student body has been exposed to.”

In Graves’ four years at Iowa State, he has never met a GSB president while out and about, Graves said.

The presidential candidate has promised free cupcakes to students, has unleashed a 20-dart barrage of foam from a Nerf gun at vice presidential contender William Rock and has come to two debates wearing a Hawaiian shirt and comical top hat, which he considers “a visual icon” for his campaign.

“I’ve had [the hat] since my freshman year,” he said. “Part of it is just representing that I like to have fun, and I’m a little bit weird. But that’s part of my strength.”

Graves said he knows little about GSB politics or parliamentary procedure. These things, he said, will come later, and right now he’s too busy talking to students about what needs to be done.

He has no official campaign manager or adviser and has promoted his campaign by making announcements over the intercom of CyRide’s Moonlight Express, which he has driven for two years.

While other slates have invaded house meetings and student organization gatherings, bus-fulls of rowdy students are some of the largest groups Graves has pressed for votes, because he said he prefers more personal communication.

“This is a popularity-run campaign,” he said. “Some students who have been here for awhile have seen some unfulfilled promises from GSB candidates in the past.

“They want something different. And in case it wasn’t evident, we’re very different.”

Graves has made it his mission in the campaign to bring a face to the office of the president, and has done so by speaking face-to-face with potential voters — a policy which he said will continue into his presidency.

“When you talk to someone working on our campaign, you’re talking to Dave [Stout] or myself,” he said. “When I was out collecting signatures, a lot of people were amazed that I was out collecting them myself.”

Graves said his campaign is an experiment. The variables are the voters. Can a non-GSB student, simply by going out and talking to people, find his way into the executive branch? Can a campaign that was designed to be grassroots to its core succeed?

Graves, for one, is confident.

“I think it’s going very well,” he said. “We’re right where we want to be. A lot of people know the name.”

The question, then, is whether or not the constituents Graves has chosen to reach out to — the passengers on the Moonlight Express, the multitudes traversing the path near Parks Library and those disenchanted with GSB — will respond March 8 and 9.

“It’s difficult to say, with a grassroots campaign, how well you’re doing,” he said.

“I’m deliberately running an anti-campaign, and we’ll see how well it works.”