Sometimes, even in a political campaign, winning isn't everything -- just ask Marcus Ronaldi.

Ronaldi (senior-marketing) announced Wednesday he will run as a write-in candidate for the State Treasurer's office against incumbent Democrat Catherine Baker Knoll and Republican challenger Lowman Henry.

But he doesn't expect to win.

"I'm not living in a fantasyland where I think I'm going to win," Ronaldi said. His real aim is drawing attention to getting the University's budget opened.

Ronaldi said he thought the open budget issue was important because as a taxpayer and a tuition-paying student, he'd like to know where his money is going. He added that state legislators may be leery of allocating funds to an institution with a closed budget.

But Jen Marsh, College Democrats president, said state legislators trust the University administration.

"The real issue is that taxpayers have a right to know where the money is being spent," Marsh said.

Ronaldi said if the budget were opened, it would be a boring document, which would reveal nothing shocking, but it should be opened anyway.

"I honestly do not understand why the budget is closed," Ronaldi said.

The idea of Ronaldi running for office came from Joseph Schultze, Ronaldi's roommate at Sigma Kappa Nu fraternity, 251 S. Pugh St.

Schultze (junior-agriculture business) said he mentioned that he writes in candidates for races in which he is undecided. Schultze and some of the other members told Ronaldi they wanted to write him in as a candidate, but couldn't decide what for.

While he was in Greensburg campaigning for Bill Clinton, Ronaldi asked people who they were supporting in the treasurer's race. After seeing how many were unsure, he decided to throw his hat into the ring.

Ronaldi asked Chuck Thomas, Undergraduate Student Government secretary, for help getting started.

Thomas agreed Ronaldi has little chance of winning, but his effort could help in getting legislators to deal with student concerns.

"It's good to see students empowering themselves politically," Thomas said, noting the record number of people who have registered to vote in this election.

Ronaldi enlisted his Schultze and their other roomate, James Dixon (sophomore-engineering), as campaign managers. In the handful of days until the election, Schultze said most of their campaigning will be word-of-mouth. Ronaldi's supporters are spreading the word to their friends across the state, hoping to get at least 15,000 people to ask for write-in ballots when they go to the polls, Schultze said.

Looking to the future, Ronaldi said if he doesn't win this race, he would seriously think about running for State College Borough Council.

But he said he if he doesn't pursue a career in politics, he's thinking about going into sales.

"Sales and politics are pretty much the same thing, right?" he said.