While voters nationwide kept their eyes on election results between presidential candidates George W. Bush and Al Gore, most in St. Louis kept an even closer eye on the race between the late governor Mel Carnahan and Republican John Ashcroft.

Another race, though, had a closer connection to Saint Louis University.

Former Student Government Association President Joe Hodes (’99) ran for state representative for the 68th District of St. Louis against incumbent James O’Toole. The 68th district encompasses the far southern crescent of St. Louis City and parts of Shrewsbury.

Hodes, a Republican, lost to O’Toole by a vote of 8,536 to 5,373. O’Toole, a Democrat, had completed his eighth year as state representative.

Hodes considered those 5,373 votes in his favor a positive sign, though the results were surprising. “We’ve never run a campaign before. I didn’t know how to interpret those [numbers],” Hodes said. “As far as I know, my opponent never advanced a platform.”

Hodes announced and filed his intention to run in March this year and officially began campaigning on Aug. 8. His platform included:

 protecting taxpayers from paying for a new downtown stadium;

 ensuring a high-quality education for all children;

 creating a full state tax credit for the city earnings tax;

 fighting for St. Louis’ fair share of state funds; and

 helping seniors remain independent by expanding call-a-ride funding, creating a statewide prescription drug benefit and reforming property taxes leveled on seniors.

Despite having no prior experience in politics, Hodes said that because he had no major commitments, such as family, the time was right to run. “I don’t know how normal people run for office,” he said. “So much needs to be done. You should be talking to voters, but at the same time, you need to do research and get volunteers.”

Hodes and his core staff of six to eight workers, along with numerous volunteers, spent the fall months campaigning door-to-door, mailing out informational flyers and distributing leaflets. Fund-raising proved particularly difficult, since Hodes did not accept any money from political action committees, lobbyists or large corporations.

“The importance of organization in this kind of race is so vital,” he said. “I was impressed with the voters-some may be exhausted and annoyed, but they’re not stupid.”

Hodes is not sure whether or not he will run for state representative again.

SLU senior Brian Suda designed Hodes’ Website and helped campaign by working the packing stations and talking to residents in the 68th District.

“Personally, I was quite impressed.that Joe still got a sizable amount of votes, being an underdog, 24-years-old, having no previous experience and running against an incumbent,” Suda said.

“I think Joe did extremely well,” said SGA President Jay Perry. “You had a case where a young and intense Republican candidate went up against, essentially, the Democratic machine. The results show that he won the majority in the county but lost the vote in the city. So I think he represented himself and all young, potential candidates well.”