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There are still two months left until the election season begins for next year’s undergraduate student government, and some presidential hopefuls are already beginning to form their campaigns and strategies.

This year’s campaign for the presidency of the Undergraduate Students Association Council is expected to be a three-way race with two candidates running under different slates and an independent.

The competition is expected to take form between General Representative Josh Lawson, a Students First! candidate and outsider Doug Ludlow, president of Bruin Democrats. Members of the SF! slate say they have not yet discussed who their candidate will be.

Lawson announced his candidacy for the presidency last week, while also announcing the creation of a new slate under which he will run.

Lawson said the slate, dubbed the Equal Access Coalition, will focus on increasing accessibility to the student government and its resources. Lawson was formerly a member of the Students United for Reform and Equality slate, but left citing ideological differences with the slate and its leadership.

The new slate will meet its challenge when it runs against the dominant SF! slate, which currently holds a majority of council seats. A powerhouse within campus politics, SF! is supported by several large student organizations such as the Asian Pacific Coalition, African Student Union and MEChA.

Still, Lawson remains optimistic about winning the presidency and said the strong support of large organizations for SF! will not hinder his chances.

“Those groups do not themselves represent the UCLA community,” Lawson said, referring to the groups that support SF!. “The numbers are not in favor of Students First! as they would like them to be.”

Members of SF! have remained silent about their choice for next year’s presidential candidate, saying no talks have yet taken place about a potential candidate. 

The possibility of a current SF! councilmember running for the presidency is unlikely. Internal Vice President Allende Palma/Saracho, who some expected to run, said he will graduate this year.

External Vice President Matt Kaczmarek said he will also not run for the presidency and will graduate at the end of this year.

Some SF! members, such as Facilities Commissioner Tutram Nguyen and General Representative Linda Lam, have not had much productivity out of their offices this year, making their presidential candidacies unlikely.

Anica McKesey, USAC president and SF! member, said the slate will evaluate itself to determine whether it will continue next year under the same platform and same name. Over the past several years, the slate has transformed itself under different names such as Student Empowerment! and Praxis.

Traditionally, a SF! candidate has been a leader from one of their supporting base groups. McKesey herself was the chairwoman of the African Student Union.

Another prominent slate in the past, SURE, will not be running a candidate for the presidency after dissolving when Lawson left the slate.

Jewish Student Union President Gideon Baum, who lost his bid for internal vice president under the SURE ticket last year, said SURE members will be rebuilding the slate this year and will focus on the 2005 election.

This year’s election will also bring a new slate-less face to the presidential race.

Ludlow, president of the Bruin Democrats and a former Daily Bruin Viewpoint columnist, rounds out the list of candidates.

Ludlow said he is running as an independent because he believes slates have become a problem for USAC.

“When one group comes into power, they run everything in a block and fund the people they want,” Ludlow said. “When you join a slate, you instantly create friends as well as enemies and it helps you get elected but adds gridlock once council is in session.”

But Lawson argued that because the president has little direct power over council, a slate is needed to support the president if council has a block of seats opposing the president.

Slate politics has been apparent throughout this year and has divided council on several occasions.

One such dividing issue was a Judicial Board case between the Jewish Student Union and USAC over funding allocations. Lawson dissented against the majority of council when he released a document alleging unfair funding for student groups, saying that funding was decided along slate lines.

Though running without the support of a slate, Ludlow said he is confident about winning, maintaining that many students are disinterested in USAC and hopes to draw those students into this year’s election process.

“I would like to target the 20,000 students who didn’t vote last year,” Ludlow said.