Becoming ASUO president cost Emma Kallaway $3,119.96, making hers the least expensive successful bid for the position since 2006.
Kallaway spent marginally more than her general election rival EMU Board Chair Michelle Haley, whose campaign spent $3,068.72. For both campaigns, the major expenditure was t-shirts. Kallaway spent $2,020 on 505 red shirts emblazoned with her face and that of running mate Getachew Kassa. Haley’s 500 shirts cost $1,900.
Kallaway’s campaign manager Alison Fox said most of the money came from contributions from family and friends – Kallaway received money from more than 100 people, but most were contributions lower than $5 from students who received t-shirts in exchange. In total, the Senate vice president raised $3,876.
Haley drew much of her money from candidates on her Oregon Action Team slate, all of whom donated at least $50 to the campaign. Her contributions totaled $5,738. Personal contributions played a large part in Oregon Action Team’s fundraising.
Haley contributed $800, her running mate Ted Sebastian donated $1,100, and her roommate and ex-husband, Programs Finance Committee member Andy Cox gave $500. By contrast, Kallaway spent $260 on her campaign and Kassa spent $20.
The rest of Kallaway’s money went to printing, balloons, supplies and food for the candidates.
Haley, meanwhile, spent $930 on three weeks worth of parking for Sebastian’s trailer, which became her campaign headquarters in front of the EMU. Her other expenditures included photo storage for her Web site, $175 worth of pizza, water, chips and granola bars for candidates, and printing for fliers and letters, which cost a total of $43.72.
Each of the campaigns had help from outside its ranks. Kallaway received $255.96 worth of advertisements from the Students First Slate, while the third party group Students For a Lower Incidental Fee bought campaign ads for Haley in the Emerald.
The two campaigns’ spending contributed to the most expensive ASUO election in history. Combined, candidates raised $17,164.97 and spent $13,353.50, up from more than $13,000 reportedly raised and $12,718 spent in 2008.
The campaign that spent the most didn’t even have an executive candidate on the general election ballot. Students First executive candidates Carina Miller and Nick Gower finished fourth in the primary election, but their slate still raised $5,643.75 and spent $5,018. The spending was not in vain, however, as its candidates captured seven seats in Senate races, more than any other slate.
A large chunk of that money came from one Senate candidate, incumbent Deborah Bloom, who contributed $1,000 to the slate even though only three other candidates made financial contributions. Stephen Bloom, the candidate’s father, gave Students First an additional $300. But in the end, Bloom was the only Students First candidate who reached the general election and did not win her race. Bloom said, however, that she wasn’t bitter, calling the race an educational experience. But she was less philosophical about the sums required to win election.
“(Campaigns are) definitely a lot flashier and whoever said this is making the elections better and more sophisticated is wrong,” she said.
Students First was one of two slates to endorse Kallaway and Kassa after the primary. The other was the True Blue Student Coalition, which spent the least of any of the slates. At the beginning of the election, the slate set a $2,009 spending cap, but finished below even that. In total, True Blue spent $1,737,61, including less than $100 in the last two weeks of the campaign.
Candidates not on slates spent a total of $427.17, which included zero dollars raised or spent by Ryan McCarrel and Ian Baldwin, who finished last in the presidential primary.
“It would be better if we didn’t raise a ton of money,” Fox said. “That way, students could focus more on the issues.”
[email protected]