Progress Party (Spring 2009)

From Gatorpedia

Progress Party

Progress Party

Party President	Dave Schneider
Senate Leader	Emily Hunt
Senate seats	7 out of 100
Dates in existence	Spring 2009 - present
Party type	Third Way, Breakaway Independent

This article is about the current Student Government political party. For other political parties named Progress, see Progress Party (disambiguation).

The Progress Party is a current Student Government political party. The party was founded in Spring 2009 as a result of the Orange and Blue-Progress split. The party currently has seven seats in the Student Senate. The current Party President is Dave Schneider.

The party serves as a third way party in the Senate, usually siding with the Independents. The current Party Leader is Emily Hunt.

[edit] Spring 2009

Coming out of the Orange and Blue-Progress split, the Progress Party was focused behind Benjamin Dictor's run for Student Body President, bringing on Joshua Simmons as Party President. Former Gator Party member and Graduate Senator Heshan "Grasshopper" Illangkoon ran for Student Body Vice President, and former Gator Party Accounting Senator Jose Ortega ran for Student Body Treasurer.

The party primarily worked to emphasize its differences with the Orange and Blue Party, adopting the Unite Party's narrative that Orange and Blue served as obstructionists in the Senate. This allowed Progress to benefit as being the "third way" in what they asserted was a failed two-party system, taking many voters from the former Orange and Blue base. The party's ability to work with many of the leftist organizations on campus, such as Students for a Democratic Society and the International Socialist Organization also pulled in a large base of support that formerly sided with Orange and Blue.

The party also focused extensively on graduate student issues, something that other political parties had neglected to do in the past. This is best exemplified with their running Illangkoon, a graduate student, for Student Body Vice President. Combined with the endorsement of the Independent Florida Alligator, the Progress Party was marginally successful, but still weakened dramatically due to the split with Orange and Blue. The party swept the seven seat graduate slate, and also won the fine arts seat. The executive candidates lost, capturing 23 percent of the vote.

Over the summer, members of the Orange and Blue Party and some Progress members began conversations of a merger, but a majority of the Progress Party leadership rejected any possibility of a merger before the fall election. In the summer, the party's Senate caucus was relatively inactive, submitting only one piece of legislation in the combined summer semester.

[edit] Fall 2009

Still within a three-party environment, the Progress Party elected then Party Leader Dave Schneider to the party's presidency after Simmons graduated. The party continued with the same message from the previous election, continuing to attack both Unite and Orange and Blue for taking overly-partisan stances. They also continued to focus on graduate issues, and also adopted many of the Orange and Blue Party's policies regarding the Student Government budget.

Despite once again gaining the Alligator endorsement, the Progress Party won the least seats of any party, only winning one of the two Family Housing seats.

With Schneider not being reelected after his move to the off campus District C, Emily Hunt (Nursing) became the party's leader in Senate.