USAC Election Board releases campaign spending totals
By Rupan Bharanidaran
May 3, 2016 9:30 a.m.
The post was updated at 10:06 p.m. Tuesday to reflect the most recent expenditure report released by the Election Board Tuesday afternoon.
Candidates and referenda in this year’s undergraduate student government election spent a total of $19,000 on campaigns, about $7,000 more than last year.
Campaign funding documents released by the USAC Election Board on Monday show most candidates paid for their own campaigns. Some received donations from students, alumni and other individuals. The Social Justice Referendum is the only election entity that has yet to disclose all of its funding sources.
According to documents, slates, candidates and referenda spent money on flyers, signboards and T-shirts. Bruins United candidates also paid to film campaign videos featuring celebrities such as Sean Flynn from the Nickelodeon show “Zoey 101.”
On Sunday night, the election board sanctioned the Social Justice Referendum for neglecting to disclose all funding sources and spending $7,400 on its campaign, almost 10 times the spending limit of $750 for referenda. The board also sanctioned Bruins United for failing to disclose the source of more than $7,000 in expenses. Bruins United submitted its funding sources early Monday morning.
The Daily Bruin and Bruinwalk.com Referendum spent the maximum amount of $750, and the remaining two referenda did not spend money on their campaigns.
The Bruins United slate, which is running 11 candidates, spent about $7,600 on its campaign. Bruins United candidates, current USAC External Vice President Zach Helder and another UCLA student funded the entire donation.
Executive candidates, or those running for president, external vice president and internal vice president positions, have a spending cap of $850. The remaining candidates have a spending cap of $750. Slates can also fundraise an additional $200 per candidate for up to 10 candidates, so some nonexecutive Bruins United candidates were able to contribute more than $750.
The slate Waves of Change spent about $2,000 for its three candidates, funded through Venmo or GoFundMe donations. Shubham Goel, the only candidate running under the slate MakeUCLAGreatAgain, spent $370, all of which was funded by Goel and a friend.
Inan Chowdhury, an independent candidate for general representative, spent $1,015 on his campaign. Independent candidates like Chowdhury can spend an additional $400. No other independent candidates spent money to campaign.
Students can vote on MyUCLA until 3 p.m. on Friday. The election board will announce results at 9 p.m. Friday.
