The campaign money flowing to and from this year’s student government candidates appears to have avoided the expenditure and contribution errors that marred last year’s election.
Last year, ASUO President Maddy Melton and Vice President Eddy Morales’ campaign failed to account for $173.31 in expenses, a discrepancy that still has not been explained. Christa Shively and Greg Bae, who were beaten by the Melton/Morales ticket, failed to turn in all expenditure and contribution forms.
This year, all but one executive candidate has turned in the necessary campaign finance forms to the elections board, a process required by ASUO elections rules. Forms also showed that surpluses were minor, and both tickets that had leftover campaign funds totaled less than $200.
ASUO President-elect Adam Petkun and Vice President-elect Mena Ravassipour’s final tally left them with an extra $67.86 this year, surplus money that ASUO Elections Coordinator Stephanie Day said must be returned to the donors.
Petkun said he and Ravassipour will either distribute the money evenly to their donors or split it between Ravassipour’s mother, Linda, and Petkun, the two largest donors of the campaign. Petkun said he doesn’t know if the rules allow him to keep any of the money, even though he is a donor to his own campaign. He plans to make a decision on the funds next week, he said.
“It’s actually still sitting in the account,” Petkun said. “We just haven’t gotten around to having a conversation about it.”
Petkun and Ravassipour spent $1,894.86 on their campaign and received approximately $168.61 in material contributions, making them the highest election spenders. Most of their expenditures went to Kinko’s and Webfoot Printing, among other places.
Contributions for their campaign came from many sources, but primarily from family members. Petkun’s family donated about $900 in monetary contributions, and he spent about $500 of his own money. Ravassipour’s family gave $500 in monetary contributions.
Executive candidates Nick Popenuk and Joe Giannetti, who came in fourth out of seven executive tickets, spent the second most out of all the executive candidates. They spent $1,580 of their own money at Cambria Sportswear and Kinko’s and collected no material or monetary contributions.
Executive candidates Ben Strawn and Diana Aguilar came away with $123.94 in surplus funds, the largest amount of all executive candidates.
Strawn said $100 will be returned to his campaign manager, who loaned him the money. Also, Strawn still owes $12 to the Department of Public Safety for a parking space that wasn’t recorded in the expenditure forms, he said.
Strawn and Aguilar, who took second in the race, also spent the third largest amount, $1,401.41, and collected $1,491.35 in material contributions. They spent most of their money at Cheap-T-Shirts.com and Kinko’s.
Adrian Gilmore, who took third in the race for the presidency, spent only $50 of his own money for printer toner and paper.
Nikia Gutman, Tyler “The Crusher” Graf and Ben Brown spent no money on their campaigns.
ASUO Elections spokesman Nathan Strauss said all candidates this year have turned in their forms except for two third-quarter forms by Gilmore and ASUO Programs Finance Committee candidate Koushi Sunder.
Gilmore said he didn’t turn in his form because he spent no money and was busy with law school finals. He was asked to turn in the form, but he said it was pointless.
“If I was still in the election or still a candidate, I would have turned in the form,” Gilmore said, adding the rule is to prevent election winners from taking the contest by cheating. “I see no reason for people who lose to turn in the form.”
Sunder said she didn’t turn in her form because she lost in the primary election and, consequently, spent no money during that period.