With elections just a week away, Georgetown’s three student candidates are shifting into high gear in their campaign for spots on the Advisory Neighborhood Commission. The ANC represents residents of seven districts in the Georgetown area, including Georgetown’s Main Campus. Eric Lashner (COL ’05), Mike Griffin (COL ’05) and Mike Glick (COL ’05) have been campaigning for almost two months for the commissioner positions of Districts 2E02, 2E03 and 2E04 respectively. Lashner and Griffin are facing non-student opponents, whom they claim are trying to use their status as homeowners as an advantage in the campaign.

Lashner is running against non-students Bo Blair and Jason Hurdle in District 2E02. The District includes the Cloisters and the area of West Georgetown, between Volta Place and R Street and East Georgetown between Q Street and Reservoir Road, Henle Village and Darnall Hall. “I’m starting to contact everyone registered to vote and get them excited to vote,” he said. “The most important thing is making sure all Georgetown students registered to vote will actually vote on Tuesday . it’s important so they can protect their rights.”

Lashner added that his opponents had been emphasizing that they are homeowners in campaign signs and campaign literature in order to win votes in the non-student community. “They’re basically saying, `I’m a homeowner and that makes me special,'” Lashner said. “It’s gotten people upset . We [students] do pay sales taxes and income taxes when we work here, we do community service . we contribute to the community, too.”

Griffin, who is facing opposition from non-student candidate Bill Skelsey in District 2E03, said his opponent put up campaign signs with the slogan “Neighbor, Homeowner, Taxpayer.” District 2E03 encompasses West Georgetown between N Street and Volta Place as well as the Copley and Harbin residence halls; it thus includes about 1,000 Georgetown students, Griffin said. “He’s alienating at least half his District,” he added. “[Skelsey’s campaign implies] that issues that galvanize students are fundamentally different than [those] of homeowners . He wants more homeowners than students on the ANC.”

Skelsey said he was trying to reach out equally to student and non-student residents. “I’m very interested in issues that are important to students,” he said. “I’d like to find ways for students and non-students to work together.” Regarding his campaign signs, he noted, “We all fall into categories. Labels in of themselves aren’t necessarily harmful . they help clarify who people are on a basic level.”

Lashner and Griffin also said that their opponents have made comments maintaining that three students out of seven on the ANC would be too high a proportion. “[They] want more homeowners than students on the ANC,” Griffin said. “What [they] fail to realize is that three students holding three seats is proportional to the number of students living in Georgetown.” He noted that of the approximately 15,000 residents in the seven districts, Georgetown students comprise about 6,400.

“If we can find seven members of the community that have the right stuff, that’s fine,” Skelsey said. “It doesn’t really matter what group they’re in.”

The proportion issue came up in a recent editorial in the community newspaper The Georgetowner on Oct. 24. Although the newspaper endorsed Skelsey, it noted his “unfortunate campaign emphasizing that three of seven ANC members will be GU students if his opponent is elected.” Lashner was endorsed for his experience working with university and community organizations and his “active interest in improving transportation and public safety.”

Glick is running unopposed as a write-in candidate in District 2E04, which is comprised entirely of Georgetown students. “The campaign’s been going very well,” he said. “I’ve registered over 200 voters in my District. Right now I’m just trying to convince people that getting out the vote is important.” Glick needs a simple majority of write-in votes to win on Nov. 5.

Campaign Georgetown is planning to push its pro-voting message intensively in the days before the campaign. “If we do our job right, no Georgetown student should wake up on Election Day and not see a sign saying, `Go and vote,'” Lashner said. They are also planning to hang banners and chalk Red Square, he said.

Lashner added that he was planning a get-out-the-vote event the Sunday before Election Day in Darnall lobby with doughnuts and hot chocolate to encourage students to vote. “I plan to go out and keep meeting people up until the last day,” he said.

Griffin said he also is planning casual special events in the week before Election Day to drum up excitement. “I’m also going door-to-door and meeting residents . encouraging students to get out and vote,” Griffin said.

Glick said he is working to “create some noise” about voting on Nov. 5. “Hopefully that noise will help the other guys, too,” he said.

Griffin said Campaign Georgetown had registered approximately 600 students to vote in the District of Columbia. Campaign Georgetown will run vans from Healy Gates every 10 minutes between 9 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. on Election Day.