By Kate Augusto

The Student Government Association (SGA) nominated two of their executive board members to be candidates for the next SGA president, setting the stage for a closely watched race.

The candidates are Rob Ranley, current vice president for financial affairs, who has been a senator since his freshman year, and Marines Piney, current vice president for student affairs, who has been a senator for almost two years. The two will compete to show who has more experience and who would make the better president.

“The determining factor will be whoever makes themselves look like the better candidate. I honestly think they’d both do a good job,” said current SGA President Joey Fiore.

Ranley said they both have the advantage of demonstrating not only that they each have good ideas, but also that they’re both capable of carrying those ideas through. “We definitely both have experience behind this,” Ranley said.

Piney said her outside leadership experiences will give her an advantage while Ranley said his familiarity with financial aspects of the university gives him an edge.

“I think it’s going to be difficult,” Piney said. “It’s going to be different from last year’s [elections].”

After the candidates were cleared for eligibility Tuesday, they were officially allowed to begin campaigning, which will go until April 1, the day voting begins on the myNEU portal. Voting will end April 6 and the winner will be announced April 10. This year marks the second year of direct elections.

Despite similar track records, Ranley said the two will practice friendly campaigning. “We’re really good friends and we’ll be getting along throughout the whole thing,” Ranley said. “I don’t have any intention of doing any dirty campaigning.