Candidates in the upcoming ASUO elections rejected a spending cap proposed by the ASUO elections board at a March 16 meeting with presidential and vice presidential candidates, leaving the tickets free to spend as much as they choose on the upcoming election.
The board proposed a $1,500 cap on spending and imposed several new measures to bring the University in line with other Pacific-10 Conference schools and combat what elections officials saw as the excesses of previous campaigns. However, representatives of four of the five campaigns said the limit would have prevented them from promoting their messages sufficiently and announced plans to spend in excess of it.
A substantial increase in spending marked the 2008 election, in which ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz’s Oregon Action Team slate alone spent nearly $10,000.
Dotters-Katz’s expenditures included a $919 Web site, a rented trailer that parked outside the EMU and almost $2,500 worth of pizza, which his campaign sold for 25 cents a slice. His slate won 15 of the 20 races it contested.
Dotters-Katz’s campaign in particular spurred the elections board to reconsider its rules to prevent candidates from selling items other than T-shirts and propose the spending limit.
Despite their rejection of the limit, candidates predicted less would be spent on the 2009 elections than in 2008, in part because of the rejection of practices like pizza sales.
“One thing all the candidates agreed on at the meeting was that this election will be about the issues,” said ASUO Sen. Nick Schultz, who is running for ASUO president. “I don’t believe that this campaign is going to be bought.”
Schultz said his True Blue Student Coalition slate had set a $2,009 spending limit. EMU Board Chairperson Michelle Haley’s campaign manager Marcus Krieg said her campaign will set a cap in “mid-week.” Representatives for the campaigns of ASUO Sens. Carina Miller and Emma Kallaway said their campaigns would not cap their spending. Junior Ryan McCarrel, who is running independently for ASUO president, said he does not plan to spend money on his campaign, saying that candidates who spend large amounts on their campaigns are running to enhance their resumes.
“Emma and Getachew went into the candidates’ meeting fully in support of the limit,” Kallaway’s campaign manager Alison Fox said. “But they also said that it doesn’t work unless all candidates follow it.”
Schultz and McCarrel said heavy campaign spending excludes students from government and bespeaks financial irresponsibility. “My personal belief is that if you’re running on any kind of campaign of being responsible with finances … your campaign practices should mirror practices you follow when you get into government,” Schultz said.
Miller’s campaign manager, Andrew Crampton, who said Miller’s slate would spend “as much as we can raise,” rejected the link between adhering to a spending limit during a campaign and spending responsibly as an executive.
“The way that you want to distribute money with the ASUO, which is a budget of $12 million, is not really the same as with a campaign of a couple thousand dollars,” Crampton said.
Representatives for the candidates said most of the money will be spent on T-shirts and fliers.
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