Following the 2005-06 Associated Students of Madison elections, new representation brings concerns to some members of the student governing body. Recently appointed ASM chair Eric Varney said he plans to refurbish the group’s image at the University of Wisconsin in the upcoming year.

Varney, a self-proclaimed conservative who says he has no personal agenda, was controversially elected after defeating ASM representatives Eyal Halamish and Jennifer Knox for the position of chair Monday.

Initial voting between Halamish and Varney failed to elect either of the candidates, and Halamish later resigned due to issues considered unfavorable by Varney’s supporters.

To offset the stalemate between the candidates, ASM re-opened nominations and selected Knox as a third candidate.

While some Varney supporters objected to the selection, another vote was taken and Varney emerged as chair, gaining 17 out of 30 votes.

Varney’s election has spurred controversy, namely regarding his qualifications as chair, and some members have also questioned his political agenda.

But Varney said he is confident he will be successful and will be able to unite ASM as chair.

“I think we are all looking for the same goals, we just have different methods,” Varney said. “I think if we can get past our partisan politics we are going to be a very efficient council.”

Varney added he is more middle-ground conservative, saying he was “raised that way” and is more “moderate” than anything.

However, fellow council member Ashok Kumar said Varney’s election as chair was a direct result of right-wing influence within ASM.

“I don’t know what qualifies him as a uniter or to make ASM look better,” Kumar said. “The only people that really hate ASM are the right-wing hacks like Eric Varney.”

Despite Varney’s political stance, UW freshman Reese Pozgay said he is indifferent to Varney’s selection as chair even though Pozgay is more liberal in nature.

“I don’t mind it … I really don’t care,” Pozgay said, adding many students may not feel affected by this either.

But Kumar said Varney’s qualifications are of concern because Halamish, his former competition, had interned, served on a council and chaired a committee while Varney has only “sat” on council and finance committee.

“He’s never worked on any student issues [or] garnered any respect from ASM,” Kumar said. “I don’t think people are going to listen to someone who doesn’t even know what the issues are.”

But Varney said he has a number of issues to work on for the next year. One such issue will be a special focus on textbook costs to attempt to make them more affordable for students.

“I think we need to find a very strong issue that’s going to unite and be a victory for all students,” Varney said.

In objection to Varney and his plans for textbooks, Kumar questioned his qualifications to remedy the issue and unite ASM.

“He’s never worked on textbooks,” Kumar said. “I’ve worked on textbooks for years — that’s a blatant outright lie — [but] I wish him success in that.”

Despite questions to his authority, Varney said he remains confident he is capable of bringing a more positive aura to ASM.

“[We’re going to] work together to make sure everyone is having a good time, being efficient, representing all the students on this campus and overall just making a great impact — we’re going to have a great year,” he said.