Talk is cheap, but glossy postcards, condoms, fortune cookies, website domains and customized T-shirts aren’t, at least for candidates in the Student Union election that wraps up at noon today.
Reporting budgets ranging from under $20 to more than $1,200, presidential candidates John Dallas Grant, Jeanne Mansfield and Matt Seidel have used everything from free dance demonstrations to professional marketing in an attempt to bring out more student voters than in past years — and to clinch the corner office.
Union candidates running alone, like Mansfield, a College of Arts and Sciences sophomore, are allowed to spend $500 for campaigning, said Student Elections Commission candidates coordinator Rachel Katz. For students seeking office together, each additional candidate bumps the budget limit up $250, making the largest possible campaign budget $1,250 for a four-person slate, she said.
In addition, candidates will be “charged two violation points for every dollar over the allowed budget,” Katz read from the Elections Code. For every violation point, which candidates can rack up for a variety of offenses, 10 cents is deducted from the offending candidate’s $100 deposit.
Katz, a School of Management sophomore, said the record shows Mansfield spending $13 and Grant’s slate, Team Union, spending $1,096 as of last week. Seidel’s New Deal slate had spent $710 as of yesterday.
“We go by what the candidates gave us,” Katz said. “It’s a lot on them being honest about it. We’re not going to count every flier they put up.”
The campaign budget is a “touchy” topic, Katz said, adding the SEC will “double check” every possible violation of budget regulations.
Seidel, a CAS sophomore, said he thinks Grant’s campaign has spent “a hell of a lot more” than the New Deal slate, but does not know the specific amount.
“Right now, we’re just focused on talking to people at this point,” he said. “It’s really about talking to people.”
“I’ve just seen all the things that he’s been doing and it looks like a lot,” he said.
Grant, a CAS junior, said printing campaign posters takes “a lot of work” and money. Team Union has paid for Facebook advertising, T-shirts, glossy club postcards and give-away fortune cookies and condoms to win over voters.
Grant said while he feels some campaign items have been “a little bit pricey,” the spending has been worth it to market the slate’s name to potential voters. His main campaign goal, however, has been to talk to students “as much as possible.”
Grant, who said he managed the budget for his entire campaign, said his slate has spent $1,128, which is below the budget.
Union Technology Committee Chairman Jonathan Pasquale, a New Deal campaigner, said Seidel’s campaign has relied mainly on 6,000 mini, blue fliers, “a little over 300” decks of cards and regular-sized fliers posted around campus.
Pasquale, an SMG senior, said Seidel has spent most of his time on face-to-face campaigning in the George Sherman Union, claiming the president hopeful spent 10 hours stumping just yesterday.
“Our sort of philosophy on campaigning is just keep going on it be persistent,” he said. “We feel this election’s going to be very close, so we want to be persistent and we want to get our message out there.”
Pasquale said candidates could easily overspend by not turning in accurate receipts for various campaign expenditures.
“How many people are actually watching what’s going on, and if someone’s going to spend $2,000 — who’s going to know?” he said.
Mansfield posted a homemade campaign video spoofing a Barack Obama ad on YouTube, which hosts videos for free. The $500 spending cap has been high enough for her campaign antics, she said.
Soil, cups and grass seed — to advertise her “grassroots campaign” — along with crayons, chalk and markers have contributed to the cost of campaigning for Mansfield.
The dancing Mansfield did in high-profile campus areas, and she pegged the value of “satisfaction of wearing a Clifford suit in public,” at “priceless.”
Mansfield, who said her foray into student politics is meant to raise voter rates, said Grant’s high-profile campaign has been “well organized and respectable in its functionality.” Mansfield said she was impressed by Seidel’s engagement in the campaign and “gusto.”
