USAC hopefuls pay for race by themselves

By Robert Salonga
DAILY BRUIN STAFF
[email protected]

With the constant debate over issues and stances this past week,
one political victim of the Undergraduate Students Association
Council elections has been overlooked ““ candidates’
wallets.

Since they cannot solicit student groups for money and must
report all campaign expenses to the Elections Board, both slate
members and independent council hopefuls have emptied their own
pockets to promote themselves.

Students United for Reform and Equality, headed by presidential
candidate David Dahle, spent a total $1,083 in reported campaign
expenses.

“We didn’t have much spending money, and spent it
mostly on flyers and t-shirts,” Dahle said, adding that most
of the shirts went to candidates or campaign volunteers.

Student Empowerment! nearly doubled the amount spent by SURE,
reporting $1,934 in expenses.

Most of Student Empowerment!’s funds came out-of-pocket
and through t-shirt sales, said slate member and general
representative candidate Allende Palma-Saracho.

He admitted that they received a few donations from
individuals.

Independent candidate for internal vice president Avneet Kaur
also said her $36.53 in campaign expenses came out of personal
funds.

Student groups cannot fund USAC campaigns nor can candidates who
are current council members use their office’s budget,
according to E-Board chair Matt Kaczmarek.

In response, candidates pooled their money together within their
slates to help alleviate individual budget crunch.

“We were just restricted by budgets. That’s one of
the reasons we formed a slate,” Dahle said.

Even with the pooling, the financial hit was still
substantial.

“We were all moaning and groaning about it,” said
SURE member and internal vice president candidate Justin Levi.

Dahle said the chance at winning justifies being broke for a
while.

Student Empowerment! slate head and presidential candidate
Bryant Tan shared the sentiment.

“It’s all in the effort to get our message across
and win,” he said.