In Mello’s campaign, experience hurt
MELLO from page 1
people saw or cared to see, Mello said Just
because they fit a pattern doesn’t mean he
and his party wouldn’t do a good job, he said
Experience was key in his mind
But Mello wouldn’t get away from the
tag. The A-Team, who in the end would be
his toughest opponent, openly attacked
Empower and Impact, another so-called tra
ditional party. The two parties didn’t deserve
another chance, A-Team candidate Joel
Schafer, who targeted the uninvolved and
non-voters, said in debates.
Mello also heard it from the Daily
Nebraskan on its opinion pages. And slowly,
other students caught on.
Toward the end of his two-month cam
paign, it was like Mello was swimming
upstream. It didn’t matter whether he had
experience. It didn’t matter whether his party
had good or even bad ideas. And it didn’t
matter what its strategy - which included an
action plan typed up on orange paper - for
winning was.
Because, in the end, Mello lost.
***
It perturbs me that someone is labeling
not only myself, but people who I’m associ
ated with in this campaign as being the
establishment, and it just irks me that they
use that, that he (Schafer) uses that word.
That he doesn’t give me credit for the things
that I’ve done on this campus or things that
I’ve helped improve on our campus.
He’s not giving me any credibility. That
it’s simply, "I’m a person who hasn’t done
jack” And it’s like I can’t be happy or try to
put it off in a funny way because I can’t do
that. Because it pisses me off
***
Mello’s might be considered the ideal
student’s resume.
Before college, he was involved.
Football. Basketball. Baseball. Academic
Decathlon. Drama. Speech. Choir. “I love to
sing.
“Actually, if I lose this election, I’m
going to try out for Scarlet and Cream
(Singers),” he said. The idea was reiterated
after he lost in a run-off between Empower
andA-Team.
In college, he’s studying education and
political science.
Mello was a member of the Student
Impact Team his freshman year. He was also
appointed by ASUN to sit on the
Publications Board.
He was elected to the Arts and Sciences
advisory board for his sophomore year. He
sat on the senate as recording secretary dur
ing his sophomore year and was elected as
senator for his junior year.
I can X I was on a high that I accomplished
that goal. And I have no idea, honestly, I have
no idea really 'til things started shaping up in
the middle of first semester that I actually,
you know, if I wanted to run for president, I
would have just as good a shot as anybody
else did as running for president...
He was the second candidate to enter
into a campaign for the presidency. He start
ed his run for AS UN as a potential senatorial
candidate for Impact.
Mello said he met John Conley, that
party’s presidential candidate, when they
both worked on Schuerman’s campaign last
year, but Mello doesn’t remember seeing
Conley often at the meetings. He got to know
Conley through friends more than anything.
Mello said Conley approached him and
told him he was running for president in
early November. Mello was also considering
a run for office.
“I told him I was contemplating it, and
then we contemplated running together,”
Mello said. “He wanted me to run for senate
with him.”
Mello attended at least one Impact meet
ing. After that, he decided two things: that he
wasn’t confident in Conley’s ability to lead
ASUN and that he wanted to do more than
run for senate.
“I told him I can’t,” Mello said. “This
would not fall into anything I want to do - to
run for senate again - because I want to pro
vide leadership in tins organization, and I’ve
already done it already as a senator.”
So, Mello decided to form his own party.
But it created some tension between him and
Conley.
Later, Mello was accused oi stealing
ideas he heard about in an Impact meeting.
Conley even said Mello took his party’s col
ors - navy and orange, Empower’s eventual
colors.
Mello denied the charge. “Butterfield
came up with our colors, not me,” he said.
When Mello left that meeting and the
party, Mello said, he warned Conley that he
would be using some of those ideas simply
because he “had them before.” Mello said
most of the issues Impact was addressing
had been looked at in past elections.
This friction became most clear to Mello
after Impact lost in the first election, and
Empower was pushed into the run-off elec
tion. It helped determine Empower’s fate.
Mello said he realized Impact supporters
may not vote for Empower.
“I know Impact hates me,” he said the
Friday after the general election. “They don’t
trust me because of that first meeting.”
After leaving the Impact party, Mello
had to find running mates.
Many candidates who he would have
liked to have, had already committed to
M e 1 1 o
worked on cur
rent ASUN pres
ident Andy
Schuerman’s
campaign and
helped with a
campaign the
year before that
He’s a New
Student
Enrollment
leader. He works
in the office of
Admissions.
He’s a member
i want to provide
leadership in this
organization, and I’ve
already done it
already as a senator.
Heath Mello
Empower presidential candidate
lrnpavi, saiu. uvcu
some of his friends went
to that party.
Mello started brain
storming people for his
first and second vice
presidential candidates.
Butterfield was one of his
first choices for second
vice president.
“I picked Mike
because he fit the posi
tion,” Mello said.
Butterfield was speaker
of the Residence Hall
Association senate, an
ot Alpha
Gamma Sigma Fraternity.
He’s in the honors program.
He’s always running.
During the campaign, his day started
early, with e-mail and phone calls. He rarely
missed class. He didn’t get home until after
10 p.m. Every time I saw him, he was head
ing to another activity.
But he doesn’t claim to be a career stu
dent politician, working his way 15) a ladder
of activities. He said he never planned on
running for president of the student body.
***
In all actuality, I never imagined I would
be in this position. As a freshman, I came
down, I did set some goals coming out of
high school about... I wanted to be, to play a
significant role in ASUN. And I think I need
ed to be, I wanted to be elected as a senator
to my college...
And after I got elected last year, I was like
yjiyi 1 uiouuu m wmv^ii uit
second vice president works closely.
Mello asked two people before he asked
Rometo. One was a current senator, and the
other was one of Rometo’s good friends.
When both said no for different reasons,
Mello heeded Butterfield’s advice and
sought out Rometo, who Butterfield had
been on die honors advisory board with dur
ing their freshman year.
By that time, it was nearing the end of
Christmas break. Official campaigning
began the first day of second-semester class
es.
Mello hadn’t met Rometo, but he said he
remembered her from advisory board elec
tions his freshman year. He had remembered
beating her. Butterfield had heard of Mello
last year, during Schuerman’s campaign.
Butterfield was working with the more con
servative party Focus, Schuerman’s compe
tition.
“Heath was the bad guy,” Butterfield
said. “He was one of the bad guys. Not a lot
of people in Focus really liked him. He was
very outspoken, and, you know, he pushes
pretty hard.”
But Butterfield never formally met
Mello until last September, and he said he
realized Mello’s drive was one of his best
assets, in terms of being a leader.
“When he sees something that he wants,
he goes after it, and he’s not going to stop
until he gets it,” Butterfield said
***
With (my sister) and my parents, we
talked about this campaign all during
Christmas break. They really didn’t realize,
‘cause I’ve seen it, you know... I know what
goes into this.
I was like ‘I know
decided to start school again at a community
college. Now, he will graduate before Mello
does with a degree in management informa
tion systems, a top computer field
“It’s provided me with a lot of inspira
tion,” Mello said
But he and his father haven’t always seen
eye-to-eye. For example, when Mello joined
a greek house, his father didn’t understand
“He’s never been a fan of the greek sys
tem,” he said Mello’s sister, who is a student
at Doane College in Crete, is Mello’s oppo
site. She is an introvert and doesn’t get as
involved, he said.
But through the campaign, his family
learned more about what Mello does.
“They were amazed. I mean they really
didn’t realize every
thing that went into
i it oe getting UKe
four hours of sleep
per night most of the
week. I’ll, I know I’ll
be missing classes at
times.’I was like 7
know I’m going to
have a tough time
with Cami (his girl
friend).’It was like I
know, I knew all these
things from the get
go. And I try to
explain that to them,
but they ’re like ‘No,
it’s not that hard,’you
know...
(Last year) Heath was
the bad guy. He
was one of the bad
guys. Not a lot of peo
ple in Focus really
liked him. He was very
outspoken, and,
you know, he push
es pretty hard.
this, he said.
***
They said they
saw me grow a lot.
They saw how I
learned how to han
dle a lot of things.
And that was the big,
and that was proba
bly the biggest thing,
was criticism from
other people...
Other people
called me a name, or
Deonle labeled me or
Mello has pretty
Mike Butterfield
Heath Mello’s running mate
people said that I
wasn % my beliefs on
certain issues, I
shouldn’t be elected
mucn lorgeu ms own pain in couege. ne is a
first-generation college student. His father
was a factory worker for nearly 16 years, and
his mother was a janitor in the Gretna public
schools, until she had brain surgery the
weekend before the first ASUN election.
He said his father had been trying to go
back to college for several years. At the same
time, Mello said, his father was working sev
eral jobs just to help keep the family afloat.
His father also had a problem with alcohol,
he said.
Eventually, during Mello’s freshman
year, the two had a “blow-out,” and his father
oecause oj mat or wnainoi. ur my iacK oj
ingenuity or whatnot. He (My father) said it
was interesting to see it didn’t phase me as
much...
I knew that some of that would happen,
you know, with like fetal tissue stuff and
College Republicans, and the Right to Life
group is out to get me ...
I knew kinda from the outset, I knew from
Joel s party announcement that we were, we
were, you know, he was hunting for us...
I don’t know, it was interesting. The best
part about it is that I think the organization
will survive...
/ Heather Glenboski/DN
HEATH MELLO SHARES a moment with his girlfriend, sophomore communications and
psychology major Cami Shreve, at the Meet the Candidates night at Mainstreet Cafe.
Mello said, because of an election’s constraints, he knew campaigning could be
hard on his relationship with Shreve.
