Nov. 11, 2012
Samantha Morley
[email protected]
While much focus has been given to the presidential race and amendments, like the one legalizing recreational marijuana use, Colorado voters also decided on who will be the next at-large candidate for CU regent.
The hard-fought battle between Brian Davidson and incumbent Stephen Ludwig for the position of CU regent closely mimicked their 2006 race, where the votes were separated by only 0.91 percent.
This time, Ludwig claimed the regent position again but with a more comfortable lead of 2.4 percent, gaining more than 52,481 votes over his challenger.
Davidson told The Scribe that he expected the race to be neck-and-neck like before. “It’s strikingly similar,” he said.
“Obviously, we would like to have a win, but I think both times the environments that we ended up running in, and looking at the numbers … the reality is that we were swimming upstream.” Still, he said that he wouldn’t have done anything differently.
Ludwig is the first UCCS alumnus to serve on the Board of Regents. “It’s awesome,” he said. “Now this is my second term, so I’m really excited to able to continue to serve the university as well as UCCS in southern Colorado.”
Before UCCS, Ludwig attended Pikes Peak Community College and then a community college in California, providing him with insight as to how much school can cost.
“I worked part-time and went to school full-time and part-time, like a lot of students still do at UCCS. So I know the challenges,” he said.
Ludwig hopes to accomplish specific goals in his second term.
“There are two major things to look for in the short term,” he said. “Colorado is going to run out of money for public education in five to 11 years. That will have a major impact on students and the school. So we have to work on that – number one. Number two is how we take the appropriate steps to where we increase revenue without increasing tuition.”
The issue of concealed weapons was debated among CU regents in early October. Ludwig responded to the topic by saying, “That’s up to the legislature. … One lawmaker in particular is looking at revising the concealed carry law that would either allow the Board to decide [if concealed carry] should be allowed on campuses or if they should just exclude concealed carry on college campuses like they do with K-12 now.”
If allowed to vote, Ludwig said that he would vote to exclude concealed carry on campus.
Concerning Amendment 64 and legalizing marijuana for recreational use, another contentious issue at the Oct. 8 debate, Ludwig said, “It is not permissible for students, faculty or staff to have alcohol on campus. We take the same stance for marijuana.”
This year’s regent race proved vigorous for all participants. Daniel Ong and Tyler Belmont were not major forerunners of the race but did receive some attention. Ong won 5.2 percent (113,305 votes) and Belmont 2.7 percent (59,930).
“Daniel’s always been a maven of the CU Board of Regents. He has a lot of background and history and a lot of interest in it. I’m sure he’ll keep that up,” Davidson said.
“As far as Tyler goes, I think Tyler is a smart, young guy, and I think he’ll go very far. I don’t think it’ll be the last time we hear the name Tyler Belmont.”
A tiring race, all candidates can look to recoup before moving forward. Ludwig’s response to what he plans to do immediately? “Nap.”