Russell Graves’ voice was muffled as he spoke through the intercom to passengers aboard the Moonlight Express Saturday.

“I’m Russ,” said Graves, senior in computer engineering. “As you may have heard, I’m running for Government of Student Body president.”

More than a week has passed since candidates for GSB President and Vice President were announced, and Graves has been personally collecting most of his 1,500 signatures, which are due at noon Tuesday.

By Monday, he said, he will have collected enough and will move onto the heart of his campaign — meeting as many students as possible. This sort of interpersonal communication will be the focus of his presidency, he said.

“I can honestly say that I’ve never met a GSB president, any of them, during my time here,” he said. “It’s something where you have to go track them down. And my travels never take me to the basement of the [Memorial Union, where GSB offices are located].”

Graves said he and running mate David Stout would bring the GSB administration to the students.

The next step for the candidates is the actual campaign. By Tuesday, students should begin seeing posters appearing on bulletin boards all over campus. There are some groups with larger events in store, but Graves said his campaign will involve little more than distributing buttons and posters and speaking to students.

Bigger goals

Candidates Drew Miller and Jenn Riggs met with members of their campaign team Sunday and discussed plans for the next month. Among the activities on the Miller/Riggs wish list are a concert, a date auction and appearances at the meetings of as many student organizations as possible.

Miller, senior in computer science, unveiled new logos his campaign will be using to promote his candidacy. One, a copy of the logo for the beer that shares Miller’s name, says proclaims “students deserve the High Life.” Another notes, “Drew Miller — The Champagne of Candidates.”

The first posters and signs will be approved and distributed Tuesday. Miller’s team views the date with a sense of urgency and knows the other candidates are likely to do so as well.

But the candidates know they must also show restraint while searching for the public eye.

“I don’t think we want to start too heavy, because students might get sick of it, get burned out,” Miller said.

Miller and Riggs are not the only ones working on their campaign. Friends like Nick Leitheiser, senior in political science, scoured campus two hours before the meeting collecting signatures. He was one of four or five Miller supporters spreading the word and gathering support that day, but there had been more around during the signature-collection part of the campaign, he said.

“I support them because I know they’re not all talk, which is more than I can say for some other candidates,” Leitheiser said.

Army of support

Sophia Magill doesn’t have much time to talk about the first day of campaigning.

Magill, junior in political science, just returned home from Regents Day at the Capitol, where she and other GSB members had worked at convincing the Iowa legislature to provide relief from the double-digit budget cuts Iowa State has suffered the last three years.

If Miller has friends, Magill has an army. She estimates more than 50 people are currently working on her campaign, in areas from fund-raising to design of flyers and sandwich boards that will begin appearing around campus Tuesday.

The 50 are people from the greek system, people from student government organizations and students not affiliated with any organization. A long history in student leadership has left her with no short list of allies, she said.

For the Magill/Rock ticket, there will be no early lull — the way to win the campaign will be to hit students hard, and hit them early, she said.

“I think that with such a short amount of time, to have an efficient PR campaign, it’s important to get out and make students aware as soon as possible,” she said.

The details of the next week’s campaign have not yet been completely ironed out, but by Tuesday, Magill said, she hopes to have a clear battle plan — one involving fund-raisers, public appearances and meetings with student leaders.