The University Daily
University of Kansas Lawrence, Kansas
KANSAN
Friday, November 19, 1982 Vol. 93, No.65 USPS 650-640
Consensus sweeps student elections
Strong voter turnout elects Ashner, Cramer to top seats
By DON KNOX Staff Reporter
The Consensus Coalition team of Lisa Ashner and Jim Cramer handsily defeated the Momentum Coalition yesterday in a student body presidential campaign that Consensus supporters proclaimed as a decisive vote to "stay the course."
Ashler and Cramer defeated Momentum Coalition candidates Kevin Walker and David Teopteon by 523 votes to step into the Student Senate's highest offices.
The final vote was 1.903 to 1.380.
"We had anticipated a close race," said Cramer, Prairie Village junior, as he was cheered by more than 100 Consensus supporters at the Sigma Nu fraternity house. "But the students were looking at two candidates that I didn't know about and say that I admire the taste of the students."
FOR ASHNER, the campaign was doubly sweet. Consensus candidates won 18 of the 22 seats that had been tabulated by 1:30 a.m. today, following a two-day Senate election that saw the largest voter turnout at KU in the past five years.
"We're just so happy and we're so proud of you," said Ashner, Mission junior, standing in front of a wall of blue-and-white Consensus posters. "It's so wonderful."
Momentum and two independent candidates took the other four Senate seats.
Champagne flowed freely among the Consensus winners, who chanted "Ashner-Cramer,
In their push for office, which began in early June, Ashner and Cramer had campaigned primarily on their Senate experience.
FOR THE PAST year, Ashner served as chairman of the Student Senate Executive Committee and Cramer was chairman of the Committee on Rights, Privileges and Responsibilities.
Momentum candidates repeatedly criticized the Consensus Coalition for being "a rebirth of the Perspective Coalition." That coalition, led by the year-old leader of the group, David Yearling, swore in office last November.
But Consensus supporters last night prepared Adkins' term as student body president and said: "I have no idea what the plan is."
Ashner and Cramer ran on the Perspective ticket last year as senatorial candidates.
"I felt at times that the campaign strayed from the real issues," said Cramer, who strongly advocated a Senate that would address the University's recent financial problems. "Bee in the stadium was just not an issue in this election."
WALKER PRIMARILY campaigned on his support of stadium beer sales. Momentum also proposed a sharp cut in financing for the team, which he says, a student lobbing group based in Toeckne
Many praised Walker for running a grassroots campaign that even Consensus supporters said was unique.
Walker, who spent part of the evening watching campaign results in a Lawrence bar, also praised Ashner and Cramer in a late-night visit to the Sigma Nu fraternity house.
"You guys ran a good campaign," Walker told Ashner. "And the students of the University of Kansas are the winners. Nearly 3,500 people voted."
TEPOORTEN, however, said he was amazed at the margin of vicinity, because he had figured it out.
"We knew it was going to be a big turnout, and even today, we thought that turnout was going to
See vote totals and related story, page 5
10:30 p.m. Ashner and Cramer celebrated Consensus Coalition victories with other candidates and supporters at the Sigma Nu house.
Student Body President-elect Lisa Ashner clasped hands in triumph last night with her vice presidential running mate, Jim Cramer, after learning that they had an insurmountable lead at
be in our favor," he said. "But I think we will have to examine some of these close races for Senate seats and the incredibly huge margin in the presidential race."
Walker agreed, saying that someone might have tampered with the election ballots. He declined, however, to say whether he would file a complaint.
In one of the closest races in the election, Robert Walker of the Consensus Coalition defeated Steve Chapman of the Momentum League 477/474 for the Senate's off-campus seat.
"Let me think about this for a day or two," he said.
CHAPMAN, however, immediately demanded a recount.
Robert Walker, who said he saw the vote for the off-campus seat as an indicator of the presidential race, said he was relieved after his victory by a scant three votes — was announced.
"We were very worried about this race," he said, attributing his victory to campaigning in laundromats, apartment complexes and off-campus fraternity houses.
The announcement of the off-campus victory by the Consensus Coalition — one of the first — was followed by repeated Consensus victories in the schools of Engineering, Business, Architecture, Education and Social Welfare. Consensus also won the top seat in the graduate school race.
"CONSENSUS was able to form a true coalition," Adkins said of the sweeping victories "They targeted voters in the traditional living
gected voters in the traditional living
See CONSENSUS page 5
Turnout highest since 1977, hits 14 percent
By DAN PARELMAN Staff Renorter
The turnout for yesterday's Student Senate election was the largest in five years.
The 3.283 students who voted for student body president and vice president this year amounted to 14.7 percent of the student body, compared with last year's turnout of 11 percent.
Lisa Ashner, the victorious Consensus presi-
dential candidate and Kevin Walker, Momentum
presidential candidate, both said that the issues
are more complex and larger numbers of
students to the ballot boxes.
The highest turnout on a percentage basis in the past seven years was 16 percent in 1977. Turnout had decreased from 1977 until last year, and increased one percent over 1800's 10 percent turnover
"PEOPLE BECAME very interested because
"PEOPLE BECAME very interested because they had several choices to make." Ashner said. She said issues such as student financial aid drew students to the election.
Walker said hot campaign issues and the differences between the coalitions had contributed to the election.
However, Walker was not pleased with the way the election was run.
"The whole election process needs to be revamped," he said.
Walker said votes should be tabulated by an independent organization instead of student senators. As of 11 p.m. he declined to say whether he would file an election complaint.
Three Momentum representatives oversaw the vote tabulation and were going to report to White House.
RUSS PTACKE, one of the representatives and a candidate for Nounmaker senator, said that he had filed a complaint because a woman was attempting to vote in a campaign button within 50 feet of a ballot box.
See TURNOUT page 5
Legal profession divided over plea bargaining issue
By CAROL LICHTI
Staff Reporter
In a burst of anger, Penny Hatchell called out to the woman who was being led from the courtroom.
"Hev Lisa, remember me?"
Hatchell's outburst was directed at her cousin who had just been sentenced in connection with the arrest.
Her anger was caused in part by a plea agreement that resulted in a five- to 20-year sentence rather than a life sentence for her cousin, Lisa Bigenwal, 18, Route 4, Lawrence.
vulnerable manslaughter for the June 5's laying of Donald Hatchell, 49, who also lived on Route 4.
Hatchell said she thought Bigenwal should have been tried on charges of first-degree assault.
"It shocked me that they didn't even try for second degree murder," she said. "It was open and shut so fast and quick. It almost seemed she was the one being protected."
PROSECUTORS IN THE Douglas County district attorney's office agreed to amend the charges against Bigwenn if she would enter a plea of guilty to a lesser charge. District Attorney Jerry Harper said the decision to plea guilty could have had no evidence it would have presented in a jury trial.
Plea bargaining reaches when the defendant's attorneys reach an agreement with the prosecutors to plead guilty to a reduced charge or to charges. A guilty plea eliminates the need for a trial.
The prosecutor also can bargain by granting immunity or a reduced sentence in return for cooperation.
Paddock said in a recent interview that about 80 percent of felony and misdemeanor cases in Douglas County assigned for trial were settled by pleas.
ADMINISTRATIVE District Court Judge James Paddock, who accepted Bigenwall's plea, gave her the maximum sentence for the amended charge.
The proper use of a plea agreement is when evidence does not prove the original charges but is sufficient to support lesser charges, Paddock said.
"We didn't think it would have been a wise expenditure of funds to have a trial that would have worked better."
changed his testimony during the preliminary hearing, saying he had committed the murder.
The state's evidence in the Bigenwalt case was weakened. Harer said, when the main witness
HOWEVER, Harper recognized Penny Hatche's frustration at the decision.
"That doesn't lessen the heartbreak or desperation that she felt because it was a burden," he said.
Hatchell was in Lawrence for the sentencing and walked through downtown wearing a sign board that said, "Let's make murder a crime again."
Her fight against the way the case was handled has not ended. Hatchet is considering using her own money to finance an appeal of the case.
Harper said his office had not received any calls about Hatchell's protests or about the handling of the case.
THE PROSECUTOR'S office must prove a defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a trial, Harper said. Although a prosecutor may be allowed to deny evidence or evidence to prove that guilt is not always present.
"Day after we watch people walk out of here that are guilty of serious crimes and that are not."
However, he said that he was unhappy with his office did not communicate better with Penny
"We were happy with the decision. We think it was the right decision"
Harper said she had decided what she thought
Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver J.T. Smith and safety Christopher kept their eyes on the ball as they concentrated on a pass route during yesterday's practice at the Arrowhead practice field. The practice was the first for the Chiefs after the 57-day National Football League strike.
Social Security is first order of business, legislators say
By BRUCE SCHREINER
Staff Reporter
Chances are remote that the lande-cuck Congress can put a revived Social Security system in the Christmas stockings of Americans worrying about the system's fate, two Kansas cities said.
But U.S. Rep. Dan Glickman, D-Kan, and Pat Roberts, R-Kan, said that sometime early next year Congress must shun partisan politics in the House and a package to repair the crumbling system.
"Yes, Social Security has been used as a political football, and yes, we can and should bury partisanship, or we will bury the system," Glickman said.
"I think a decision will be reached sometime during the first six months of the next session. But the crisis is not so acute right now that an answer is needed during the lame-duck session."
FOR THE NEAR future, both representatives said. Congress will take a cautious approach when reviewing the options available to bail out the sinking system.
I don't think anyone will be committed on any
The almost 40 proposals being banded about by the bipartisan commission studying Social Security reform.
option until we see the report by the commission on Social Security," Roberts said. "They won't say what options they are supporting until the commission decides, and then meets with the leadership in Congress."
- Accelerating payroll tax increases now scheduled for 1985, 1986 and 1989. One version calls for all three tax increases to take effect in 1984. Workers now pay 6.7 percent on the first $32,400 of income. By 1990, the rate will be 7.65 percent.
— Linking the yearly cost-of-living increase to wages rather than prices. Proponents of the proposal say this will shave up the system by enhancing benefit increases during times of high inflation.
See SOCIAL page 5
- Borrowing from general tax revenues when the payroll tax does not raise enough money.
- Incorporating new hired federal employees and non-profit institution workers into the Social Security system. This would generate added revenue to chin away at the estimated
CLOUDY
Today will be cloudy with a 20 percent chance of morning showers. The high will be 55 to 60, and there will be southerly winds at 10 to 15 mph.
Tonight will be clear with a low between 35 and 40.
Tomorrow will be sunny and mild with a high in the low 80s.