It’s officially Cocco vs. PS4RS.

Penn Staters For Responsible Stewardship announced Friday that it was endorsing the three alumni trustee incumbents Ted Brown, Barbara Doran, Bill Oldsey in the upcoming election. The selection comes after the vote of its membership and a somewhat tension-filled process between fellow trustees and PS4RS members alike. The three incumbents edged out Robert Bowsher (who dropped out before the results of the vote were announced) and Larry Schultz to be on the PS4RS slate in the April election.

“It has definitely been a spirited few weeks, and we look forward to continuing this momentum and alumni engagement into the general election which opens April 10,” PS4RS wrote in the announcement post.

PS4RS, a group formed following the controversial 2011 Board decisions aiming to reform Penn State governance and honor Joe Paterno, has proven to be the kingmaker for recent alumni trustee elections. The group has swept the previous three elections by wide margins (last year’s election was unopposed). Never before has the organization had to defeat only a single candidate, however, which it will need to do against former THON Overall Dan Cocco, the only other candidate on the ballot, to maintain its stronghold this year (it is expected that Schultz will drop out from the election and support the PS4RS slate although nothing is official yet).

Doran and Oldsey took to Facebook to thank PS4RS for the endorsement:

“Your alumni-elected trustees have accomplished much, but there is even more to do — and this is the year to do it. With three years of hard-earned experience and having gained an intimate knowledge of the institution, I hope to be part of the team that finally gets it done,” Doran wrote.

“I’m very proud to have again won the endorsement of PS4RS in their primary election held this week. I received this important endorsement in 2013 when I was initially elected to the Board of Trustees, and I am gratified to have the support of the membership again this year. I would like to congratulate all five candidates for their commitment to the process, and ESPECIALLY thank the thousands of members of PS4RS for their steadfast support and loyalty to Penn State,” Oldsey wrote.

While Brown hasn’t posted since the announcement, he did write about his lunch: “BOT 409 I had lunch at a Chinese buffet today. My fortune cookie said: “The odds of hitting your target go up dramatically when you aim at it.” So with your help I aim to get the PS4RS endorsement. Thanks, Ted”.

The PS4RS endorsement was somewhat more heated than usual this year. Alumni trustee leader Anthony Lubrano announced his support for Schultz over Doran (and then publicly/gently sparred with Doran on a BWI message board thread) while most of the other alumni trustees endorsed the incumbents.

The election opens April 10, and alumni can request a ballot on the Board’s website.