Candidates for SA elections only have about a week to campaign on campus, and even then it's all but limited to a small square of floor in the Student Union. The restrictions have forced the two front-running political parties in this year's vote- the UB Advocates and the Progress party - to use some serious brainpower to best make use of the limitations of election rules, pushing the envelope of what some consider ethical campaigning.
"It's very well thought through and extremely complex," said Peter Rizzo, current SUNY SA delegate and campaign veteran. "Traditionally, what parties do to win are things the average Joe just doesn't know about."
Rizzo's insider knowledge comes from his involvement in last year's SA election and his part in this year's race with both the UB Advocates and more recently, Progress.
Rizzo said to win an SA election, outsiders have to overcome an incumbent SA party that has years of collective experience and strategy saved up, everything ranging from large-scale exposure to individual interaction, from winning club endorsements to picking a ticket that guarantees the club endorsement.
"It's all about perception," he said. "Every step we make is all about 'how is this going to be perceived through the student publications.' "
In the aftermath of the club council endorsement meetings, The Spectrum received tips claiming both the Progress party and the UB Advocates placed supporters in meetings to ask questions favorable to the respective party. Viqar Hussain, presidential candidate for UB Advocates, said those UB Advocate questioners were specifically club members, but Progress party planners freely admitted to using the tactic.
"Oh it's absolutely true - they (UB Advocates) did it as well," Rizzo said.
Rizzo said it's a necessary part of a campaign process that bans all negative advertising, making criticism of candidates - constructive or otherwise - nearly impossible.
"You have to point out the holes in their platform, and if no one does, no one will ever know," Rizzo said.
Hussain was on the receiving end of some of the critical questioning, which he said he welcomed.
"It's great," Hussain said of the questioning process. "There's nothing wrong with asking questions. I was asked about when I received a C from The Spectrum ("SA Report Card II," Jan. 25) for the SA Senate. It made me explain what I have done, which is a good thing."
Rizzo pointed out that the endorsement process often leaves outsider candidates vulnerable when compared to incumbent candidates.
"You have a club member asking someone like (Progress party presidential candidate) Greg Stern if he is a member of a club e-board, which he's not. If there isn't another question it makes him look horrible, even though he has so much other experience," he said.
This year's club endorsement hearings were all open to the public, with the exception of the Special Interest, Service and Hobbies committee, so Elections & Credentials Chair Avneet Jacob said the questioners were within their rights to be at the meetings.
"Those students are undergraduates and entitled to everything every other undergraduate is entitled to. There's nothing illegal about it," he said.
He did say the SISH club endorsements were limited to club e-boards because external questioning had gotten intrusive.
Greg Rhoads, Sub-board I treasurer and another Progress party campaign manager, said the questions could be abused, but usually are not.
"It can be damaging, but planting questions is not always designed to be damaging. It's used to exploit a truth that might not come out otherwise," he said.
Sonia Kang, current SA vice president, said the questions are simply a part of politics, pointing out even national politics use guided questioning.
"When (President) Bush speaks, who's asking questions? It's all his friends," she said.
While placing questioners is one strategy, anyone who has passed through the Student Union has been bombarded with flyers and candidates chatting them up.
Even the seemingly simple tactic of talking to people in the Student Union is carefully thought out.
"As long as (the candidate) the last person you talk to, you're set," Rizzo said. "They start at the stairwell, and you walk them from that line and point them to the voting booth."
This year, one party went for a unique visual presence on campus. Progress party utilized green t-shirt-clad supporters - conspicuously females that could be considered "cute" - to help tout the candidates.
Rhoads said the use of bright t-shirts was more than just a gimmick - it was another tactic that circumvented election rules on canvassing campus.
"You can't hang flyers or campaign in classrooms," he said. "But a person wearing that t-shirt in class, it gets noticed. You'll have people remember the party name."
Hussain said that though it wasn't a tactic he would have used in his own campaign, it undeniably sticks out.
"It was an attractive idea, but not for me," he said. "I'm glad they're creative like that."
Though t-shirts and balloons present a fun face to the campaign process, all the candidates detailed a sometimes-bitter part of political campaigning that occurs before the candidates are officially announced. All the candidates - and former candidates - said the pre-petition jockeying can turn good relationships a bit sour.
"Rarely do we put people in who are truly qualified. They pick by who would get the most votes," Rizzo said.
Rizzo said the formation of the Progress party stemmed from a perception that more qualified candidates within SA were pushed off the incumbent ticket in favor of more popular candidates. For example, all candidates admitted Progress treasurer candidate Peter Grollitsch, a current SA bookkeeper, was pushed off the UB Advocates ticket in favor of Andrew DeShong, an SA promotions director who only recently was named to the finance committee. What Rizzo, Rhoads and Grollitsch contend is DeShong was viewed as more popular, while Hussain said he thought DeShong was more qualified.
"If you're not thinking about the job and more about getting elected, then you shouldn't be doing this," Rhoads said. "And it doesn't apply to just SA, it applies to every ticket."
Kang, who as vice president has run the political gauntlet, said skewed priorities and hurt feelings are an inevitable part of getting elected.
"Elections bring out the worst in people and that's what's happening now," she said. "It brings out what kind of character you are, and some people are going to backstab to get what they want."
Mark Seldines
Freshman
Biological Science
"Because I don't like the school's government and I want it to be better and change"
Jacob Berger
Junior
Psychology
"Because I want to be active in our student body. How can you complain if you don't vote?"
Corey Switzer
Senior
American Studies
"My friends who are campaigning told me to. I know nothing. Sad, but true."
Diana Smithens
Junior
English and Philosophy
"This year's election is very important to me because next year I am a senior so I want a good executive board. I feel apathy towards voting is a problem here at UB so I want my vote to count."
