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Cornelius announces candidacy for Dane County Board

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by Heather Quitos

Sunday, January 15, 2006

A fourth University of Wisconsin student announced his candidacy for Dane County supervisor for District 5. UW junior Sean Cornelius will enter the race, joining fellow students David Lapidus, Adam Korn and Ashok Kumar.

"My gripe with office holders in general is that they're not getting enough done," Cornelius said. "The reason I'm choosing to run is because if you want to get anything done right, you have to get it done yourself."

Cornelius elaborated on the importance of a student representative on the county board, saying students have interest in many countywide topics.

"People tend to believe that students care only about Halloween and keg registration, but I know students are concerned with issues more than that," he said.

Although opposing Cornelius, Kumar said he is pleased with the number of students interested in the race.

"I think that Sean's a great guy," Kumar said. "Though I think that we have different political views, I'm glad he's running in the race."

Cornelius said his lack of experience in the political world should not hinder his abilities if elected.

"The idea is in America, we have citizens representing citizens," he said.

In running for the District 5 seat, Cornelius said he is concerned with issues such as lake maintenance, raising the minimum wage, employment health care and raising student activism in the local government.

With lake maintenance, Cornelius said his previous job experience in the UW limnology department allowed him to see the problems within the city's phosphorus ban. The ban aims to control the flow of phosphorus-based fertilizers into lakes.

"The phosphorus ban is good on paper," he said. "But it's actually not very effective because there are a lot of loopholes."

Cornelius said he promises to immediately take action with proposals dealing with lake maintenance and water pollution to sustain Dane County's natural beauty.

If elected, Cornelius said he vows to hold student townhall meetings, to run a clean and honest campaign, and to take immediate action on water pollution. Cornelius also wants to implement student quarterly listening sessions, where UW students can express new ideas.

"I think that students often have the best ideas," he said. "If we're in a roundtable discussion we can create a hybrid of ideas into one solution."

But Kumar said before voting, students should do their research on each candidate.

"People can make promises about things the board has no jurisdiction over just because it riles students up," he said. "One of the key things [students] should look at is what individuals have done and do a little research."

With four students running for the District 5 seat, Kumar said the seat is now one of the most hotly contested races in the county.

"It may be one of the few, if not the only, county race with a primary," he said. "To say the least, it's kind of unprecedented."

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Anonymous (January 16, 2006 @ 9:33pm):

Interesting that the article covers the candidacy of Sean Cornelius but the content has an equal amount to do with Ashok Kumar. Since when has Kumar been the end-all-be-all political expert on Dane County politics? I smell conspiracy. Are Kumar and Cornelius working together to monopolize the race?

Anonymous (January 18, 2006 @ 1:33am):

dude, whoever wrote the last comment is an idiot. Yes everything is a conspiracy, and thats the badger herald decided to interview Kumar, because the herald, Cornelius, Kumar are all working together.....yeah thats it...conspiracy. wow