NEWS
3A
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2008
STUDENT SENATE
Senate set to vote on new campaign regulations
Proposed election rules about coalition spending and campaign lengths are part of bill for tonight's meeting
BY HALEY JONES hjones@kansan.com
Student Senate is scheduled to vote tonight on whether to cap
Student Senate vote tonight or the amount of money student coalitions can spend on their campaigns during Senate elections at $6,000. If passed by full Senate, the bill would also shorten the time coalitions
Committee chairman, said condensing the elections cycle would allow those involved in elections to focus on academics while also dedicating time to Senate elec-
"We don't have a cap on the presidential election,why do we need a cap on this one"
BILL WALBERG El Dorado Hills, Calif., senior
would be allowed to campaign to keep the elections from interfering with students' education at the University.
Mason Heilman, Lawrence junior and Student Executive
tions. He said it would decrease the amount of harassment students not involved in campaigns would have to experience on campus. Senate elections have deviated from
serving their purpose to enhance students' education, he said.
"We really tried to strike a balance between making sure candidates can get out their message and students can hear that message
Some student senators who opposed the bill said it would not increase the impartiality of the elections process.
while not being overly bombarded" Heilman said.
Adam Wood, Lawrence senior, said the time limit was unfair to smaller coalitions because they couldn't do as much as the larger ones in six weeks. Wood said it would be "basically impossible" for Senate to accurately enforce a spending limit.
"Larger campaigns can afford to exceed the spending limit by budgeting enough money to afford the fines they would have to pay for going over," Wood said. "Why kid ourselves? Let's not delude ourselves that this somehow is going to be fair."
Elise Higgins, Topeka junior.
said campaigning before the spring elections last year lasted six months and several coalitions, including former coalitions United Students and ConnectKU, spent
about $10,000
on their campaigs while
others spent
t h o u s a n d
s l e s s. One former
coalition,
Students for
Liberty, spent
just $75. She
said the elections process
should be more
cutting campaign time but not the campaigns' budgets. He said that it was difficult to get students involved in the elections and that putting a cap on the budget would
"This will actually create an artificial barrier on how much honest people can spend."
Bill Walberg, El Dorado Hills,
Calif., senior, said he agreed with
regulated and the time limit for campaigning should be set at six weeks, including elections week.
ADAM WOOD Lawrence senior
take away from the coalitions" "social budgets," which included making buttons, posters and having kickoff parties.
"We don't have a cap on the presidential election. Why
do we need a cap on this one?" Walberg said. "I think it should be a microcosm of the real thing if people are going to take us seriously."
Wood said the bill did not accomplish either of its objectives to regulate elections and help out the smaller coalitions. He said it weakened new or third party coalitions because they did not have an established base of support or financial stability at the beginning of a campaign.
"This will actually create an artificial barrier on how much honest people can spend." Wood said.
The senators debated about whether some rules were better than no rules, regardless of their enforceability.
Sarah Shier, Salina freshman,
said even though the rules might
not be enforced perfectly, it would
be better to punish disobedience
rather than to ignore it.
—Edited by Scott R. Toland