MSA hopefuls drop out
Nescelle Caberto dropped out of the race in order to focus
Published Oct. 26, 2004
And then there were five.
Johnathan Stone and Nescelle Caberto dropped out of the Missouri Students Association presidential election Monday after Caberto decided she no longer wanted to run for the student government's executive office.
Stone said he received an e-mail from Caberto on Sunday night informing him she wanted to drop out. Caberto said she decided to drop out to focus on her academics.
"This semester will define what I will be doing in my college career," she said. "I have set very high standards on my academics. I knew running would be a risk and at the beginning of the semester I was willing to take that risk, but now I would rather not."
Stone had the option to continue running if he found a new running mate and collected 500 signatures on a new petition. He would have had 48 hours to collect the new signatures.
Stone said he would not have enough time to find a new running mate before the MSA election Nov. 8 to 10.
"There's just not enough time to find another running mate as qualified as she is," he said.
Board of Elections Commissioners Chairwoman Tara Brandenburger said Stone sent members of the BEC an e-mail at 4 p.m. Monday to formally withdraw from the election.
Brandenburger said she hadn't heard any other specifics about why Stone and Caberto dropped out, but she wasn't surprised a slate withdrew.
"I expected at least one more would drop out just because there are so many slates," she said. "People were hesitant because of the large number of slates."
Seven slates filed to run for MSA president, but Andy Fluhart and Jackie Cook-Eberle dropped out last week because Fluhart was diagnosed with a relapse of Ewing's sarcoma, a rare form of cancer.
BEC Vice Chairwoman Taylor McKinney said she was surprised a candidate who started to spend money on the campaign dropped out.
"Anytime a slate spends money, you don't expect them to drop out," she said.
McKinney said she also was surprised that Stone and Caberto dropped out because they both attended the BEC's weekly meeting Sunday afternoon and didn't mention any plans to withdraw.
Caberto said she'd rather drop out now than before it was too late.
"If I had run and potentially had been elected and then resigned, it would not have been fair to those students and my peers who voted," she said. "I apologize to Johnathan for putting him through this."
Stone said he plans to run again next year and will get involved with MSA throughout the year to continue working on issues from his campaign.
The remaining slates are: Brandon Burkhart/Beth Asay, Ben Coen/Craig Kleine, Tony Luetkemeyer/Cheryl Tomes, Paul Pattison/Abby Eden and Matt Sokoloff/Greg Chase.
