John Koenig

If you’ve ever found yourself watching Eau Claire City Council meetings on public access TV (either by choice or by accident), you’ve seen him sitting in perfect view of the camera.

If you read any of the campaign material that seemed to permeate the campus and the city at large, from brochures to signs, you’ve seen his name.

And if you drove past campus on the afternoon of Tuesday, April 4, the day of the Eau Claire City Council election, you saw him, waving at cars as a reminder to vote, preferably for him.

However you encountered December 2005 UW-Eau Claire graduate Brandon Buchanan in recent weeks, reminders of his candidacy for Eau Claire City Council were everywhere. And last week, Eau Claire voters selected him as one of their five at-large representatives on the council.

The consequences of his victory are yet to be seen, but Buchanan’s term as one of the city’s 10 council members will undoubtedly establish an interesting dynamic – creating the possibility for tension but also for opportunity, if students and other young people in the community make his victory theirs as well.

There are two prevailing forces that will direct Buchanan’s record as a city council member. The first is his apparent approach to pushing his views, and the second is his perspective as a 23- year-old recent college graduate. Though Buchanan didn’t seem to focus his whole campaign around his age, that’s what makes him distinctive, with the next youngest council member being 31-year-old Toby Biegel, according to city records.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Buchanan’s political history, I have to say that at the very least, it has been interesting.

As a member of the Progressive Student Association, a frequent contributor to The Flip Side and a student senator, Buchanan’s political views and penchant for expressing them has always been apparent.

Buchanan frequently gained mention in the pages of The Spectator at times for his involvement in campus controversy. Take, for instance, the time he and fellow senator Andrew Werthmann circulated a petition that called for the allocation of student segregated fees for Hurricane Katrina relief. Aside from the fact that the petition ran contrary to university policy, many students seemed to be unaware of what they were signing.

Buchanan’s tactics within Student Senate chambers also caused tension from time to time, such as when he raised the ire of numerous senators while debating a resolution concerning the university’s former policy regulating RA activity.

Senators repeatedly complained that Buchanan was employing sarcasm and bending parliamentary procedure to bolster his argument, according to Spectator reporting.

I can’t speak for the whole campus, but it has always been my view that Buchanan, as an outspoken progressive student, holds views that fall on the idealistic end of the campus political spectrum. That’s not to say his views are flawed or foolish, but it seems that, at times, his actions have been driven by his own agenda -something that could affect his ability to represent the views of his constituents.

And while I do believe his intentions have always been genuine, it seems there are times when his desire to persuade others and affect change can cause turbulence.

But whatever you think of Buchanan’s views or his tactics for implementing them, there is no denying that he will be an active member of the council, unafraid to speak out boldly on issues he believes in.

And as a recent graduate and the youngest council member by far, Buchanan could be a useful voice on the council. Granted, other council members may also have an intimate understanding of the campus, including Ray Hughes, a lecturer of accounting and finance at the university.

But Buchanan’s age means he understands not only the needs of the campus but also the current struggles of young people in general, at least compared to other council members.

The way I see it, there are two keys to ensuring that Buchanan fulfills this potential. The first is that students and other young people in the community capitalize on the fact that the council finally features a member from their own demographic. The second is that Buchanan strives to represent citizens’ views and not just his own, working with fellow council members for the best outcome.

Buchanan does seem confident about being able to do so.

“There are some people on City Council who politically I don’t agree with all the time,” he said in a brief interview. “But I don’t think there’s going to be much of a problem.”

As for representing students’ views, he does seem to recognize his distinct perspective and the responsibility that goes with it.

“People do things a little differently from older generations to older generations,” he said. “I think my younger perspective will help me understand why certain things are problems for people.”

Whether he succeeds in working with the council and representing that younger perspective or not, one thing is for sure: Buchanan stands to leave a mark that most council members could never even fathom.

Brian Reisinger is a junior print journalism major and editorial editor of The Spectator. Reising Issues is a weekly column that appears every Thursday.