The College Republicans elected a new chairman last night after a controversy-filled week in which their former chairman resigned and the group dealt with arguments over money, e-mail and access to their office.

Behind closed doors, the group heard speeches and asked questions of the two candidates running for the position, eventually electing Todd Taylor (senior-international politics) as their new chairman. Taylor has been a member of the organization since he was a sophomore, and served as their vice chairman from March to November 2005.

"We're gonna lead this club back to where it should be," an elated Taylor said after the election results were announced. "Republicans may be down, but we're not out."

Taylor ran against Tiffany Iriana, College Republicans executive director, who declined to comment after the results were announced.

The group's officers had been in a dispute with their former chairman, Seth Bender, who resigned at the beginning of last week's meeting. After resigning, Bender temporarily gave himself exclusive access to the group's funds in their Associated Student Activities (ASA) account, allegedly did not return the keys to the club's office and deleted their e-mail lists.

The group's adviser, Charles Gable, resigned immediately after Bender. Gable sent a letter to several Republicans on state and local committees, encouraging them to "sever all ties to this chapter of the College Republicans."

Nick Miccarelli, state chairman of the Pennsylvania College Republicans, said that he had received Gable's letter, but insisted he was too busy promoting Republican candidates in November's election to think about the letter.

"We can't give it the due attention because of the very important elections that everyone is focusing on," he said.

Scott Migli, executive director of the Republican State Committee of Pennsylvania, also received the letter but declined to comment.

"That's an internal issue," he said.

Before last night's elections, College Republicans secretary Amanda Sponsler read a letter that she said she would send to all the people who had received Gable's letter.

"We hope that you can rest assured that no major changes will occur within this organization," Sponsler read from the letter.

Taylor said his first order of business as the new chairman would be to prepare for the November election by having the organization meet to make phone calls and mailings in an effort to help Republican candidates' campaigns.

He was unsure about his plans to replace Gable with another adviser.

"According to our constitution, we don't need to have an adviser," Taylor said. "A lot of people feel betrayed by what [Gable] did. That is something the club has to decide on."