Campaign finance examined
■ The ASUO presidential
candidates explain their
spending during their
executive race campaigns
By Emily Gust
Oregon Daily Emerald
If the ASUO Executive election
result is any indication, money
may not necessarily equal power.
Despite a highly visible cam
paign including posters, volun
teers with fliers, a Web page and a
giant balloon rainbow hung over
13th Avenue, candidates C.J.
Gabbe and Peter Larson were un
able to grasp hold of the presiden
cy this year after winning the pri
mary election.
Gabbe and Larson spent rough
ly $1,500 of the $2,136 they
raised through donations; Jay
Breslow and Holly Magner spent
only $530. Large amounts of
money are not entirely unique to
this year’s campaign, however;
years past have seen candidates
with similar spending habits,
ASUO Elections Coordinator
Ken Best said.
“There is no cap on how much
you can spend,” he said. “The
only money value we say is that
you can’t get more than $500 from
one source.”
The issue of campaign spend
ing came to light at the beginning
of the election when primary
presidential candidates Autumn
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Expenditures
Total amount spent by ASUO Exec
utive candidates in the general
election:
jay Bresiow and Holly Magner:
$530*
C.J. Gabbe and Peter Larson:
$1,500*
*Amounts are rounded to the
nearest 10
SOURCE: ASUO Elections Board
De Poe and Caitlin Upshaw
pledged to spend no more than
$20 on their campaign. In the end,
the two candidates spent only an
estimated $5.02 on their cam
paign.
“A student who has a thousand
dollars to spend on a campaign
probably isn’t in financial need,”
De Poe said. “I don’t feel they
could possibly represent me as a
student who has to struggle to pay
rent.”
Bresiow and Magner said that
while they spent a lot of money on
their campaign, they kept their
posters and fliers from becoming
excessive.
“I talked to a lot of people who
said they didn’t want to be ha
rassed,” Magner said. “We didn’t
over-campaign.”
Bresiow agreed.
“We spent a lot... but it takes
integrity, honesty and a good
campaign,” he said. Larson
would not comment whether he
thought he and Gabbe’s cam
paign spending backfired on
them. However, in an earlier in
terview with the Emerald, he de
fended the amount of money he
and Gabbe spent and said it was
done according to realistic stan
dards. Talking to every person on
the street was simply too time
consuming, he said; placing visi
ble materials on campus was the
next best thing.
“We wanted to reach out to as
many voters as we possibly
could,” Larson said.
Election
continued from page 1
son to lose the election with less
votes than they received in the
primary.
“I thought it would be much
closer,” Nisser said.
Breslow said he believes
many of the people who voted
for other candidates in the pri
maries chose him and Magner in
the generals and that helped turn
the election to their favor.
“It wasn’t a huge amount of
votes, but it was enough to make
a difference,” he said.
Breslow and Magner also said
they think the controversy sur
rounding the Gabbe and Larson
campaign turned voters to their
side as well.
Gabbe and Larson were
kicked off the primary ballot af
ter they bought refreshments for
a Feb. 4 International Student
Coffee Hour. While the court
agreed with the elections board’s
decision thafethe pair broke elec
tions rules by offering a “thing of
value” along with campaign
posters and information, the
court also put them back on the
ballot based on a technicality.
Similar grievances and ap
peals followed throughout the
election, and the court decided
to withhold the result until they
resolved all of them.
Wednesday night, the court
decided the final grievance ap
peal, which kept the result
sealed through winter term and
spring break. Former presiden
tial candidate Autumn DePoe
filed a grievance against Gabbe
and Larson, which added more
allegations to one filed by Stu
dent Sen. Jennifer Greenough.
While the elections board agreed
with Greenough’s, they rejected
DePoe’s, and the court agreed.
“The smell of impropriety fills
the air whenever this case, in all
its parts, is mentioned,” Justice
Ahsan Awan wrote in the court’s
opinion. “However, the will of
the ASUO must not be set aside
any longer. An election took
place, ballots were cast, and the
people had their say. ”
Breslow said he thinks voters
realized that what Gabbe and
Larson did wasn’t right and vot
ed accordingly.
This proved “you can’t buy
an election, you can’t cheat and
win and you can’t get off on
technicalities,” Breslow said.
The result “is good for the Uni
versity and for student govern
ment.”
Gabbe could not be reached
for comment, and Larson, after
being reached by phone, de
clined to comment on any part
of the election or the result.
Breslow said his campaign re
sponded well to the Gabbe/Lar
son controversy by generally
staying out of it.
“In the end, we did make the
‘Got Ethics?’ ads and wrote an
[opinion-editorial] in the Emer
ald, but I stand behind those de
cisions,” Breslow said. “I don’t
think it was dirty politics. We
could have really gotten dirty if
we wanted to.”
Magner said their staff also
helped students know what
they stood for.
“They are an amazing staff.
They were willing to take all
that time,” she said.
Breslow and Magner will tran
sition into their new jobs imme
diately. They will spend the next
few months working with cur
rent ASUO Executive Wylie
Chen and Mitra Anoushiravani
and take office at the end of
spring term.
“This is so overwhelming to
me,” Magner said. “I’m just go
ing to get myself as ready as I
can. I’m just glad the waiting is
over.”
Breslow said they will start
working with new student sen
ators and student programs,
training them how to lead and
where to go when they need re
sources.
“We want everyone to know
who Jay and Holly are and what
the ASUO can do for them,”
Breslow said.
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