The Oregon Action Team gave minors fifths of alcohol in exchange for support in the ASUO elections, a grievance filed Monday by someone close to the True Blue campaign alleged.
The grievance, filed by True Blue legal adviser David Griffin, states that Oregon Action Team provided volunteers with alcohol at campaign events and rewarded a 20-year-old volunteer with a bottle each of rum and vodka. The grievance quotes an anonymous source speaking on behalf of a roommate who claims to have attended the party.
It was one of five grievances filed on the first day of the general election. Two others were dismissed and a third resulted in the removal of newly elected junior Geoff Scoones from his position on the Department Finance Committee.
Oregon Action Team presidential candidate Michelle Haley denied furnishing alcohol to minors.
“We have definitely not sponsored any parties,” she said. Photos of bottles of liquor with Oregon Action Team stickers were included in the grievance, but Haley said her slate’s stickers were widely distributed.
“We gave out Oregon Action Team stickers for free for three days. Anybody could have had access to stickers. I personally gave them out on 13th Street for three hours last week. It’s very possible that I gave them out to students on opposing slates, or who support opposing slates and weren’t wearing t-shirts,” Haley said. “Literally, bottles of alcohol could be purchased anywhere and stickers could be affixed to them. We did not in any way authorize or spend campaign dollars or endorse buying alcohol for minors. Or for anyone, for that matter.”
True Blue spokesman Curtis Haley said his campaign was made aware of the allegations last Friday. “We tried to do all we could to get information,” he said. The persons involved were “afraid of being specifically named and facing some kind of consequences for that.”
“We believe the evidence was credible. We believe the person who brought this to us brought this to us because they were concerned about it. So we gave the elections board everything that we had,” he said. “It would have been wrong to hear something this serious, and from a source we thought was credible, and not report it.”
Another grievance filed Monday resulted in the removal of Scoones from the seat he won during last week’s primary election. Scoones was sanctioned for having distributed energy drinks with other Oregon Action Team members who were distributing campaign materials. The distribution of free drinks is considered a bribe under ASUO election rules.
“It’s a shameless move,” Scoones said of the decision and the grievance. “It shows the worst of the ASUO. Shame on you Emma and Getachew and your dirty campaign of yours.”
Two other grievances were dismissed. Michelle Haley filed a grievance against every candidate affiliated with her opponent Emma Kallaway because of two lime green and pink banners found on campus Monday morning. The banners read, “Advocate for sincerity