Popular gets you elected. Fair gets you trusted the whole year.

Being liked can get you the position, which is why the position tells you less than people assume. What holds a group together over a year is the sense that the same rules apply to everyone, including your friends and including you. Fairness is slower to earn and it does not wear off.

Look for the place where you have been going easy on somebody close to you. Apply the standard you would use anywhere else, and say plainly that you are doing it. Expect it to cost a little, then watch what it buys.