I'll be eventually shutting down this blog as it no longer serves any purpose or readership. In the meantime, make sure to check out The O'Hara Factor, Rings of Benzene, and my new podcast -- The Arizona Podcat.

The O'Hara Factor, not ASUA Watch, will be covering the ASUA election. What you see here is archived coverage of the 2005 election, not 2006.

ASUA Watch is on hiatus until I can guarantee that it can be a group blog. Until that time, I will be covering the Cade Bernsen controversy on The O'Hara Factor. Click the link. (Yes, I'm Googlebombing.)

In case you couldn't tell...

Author's blogs:
Garrett O'Hara Laura Keslar Bridget Bettencourt Anthony Molieri

The Arizona Daily Wildcat reports in today's edition on accusations that presidential candidate Jacob Reuben has violated the ASUA Elections Code by campaigning during UA basketball games and spending over the $370 limit.

The picture to the right is the picture mentioned in the Wildcat article depicting Reuben next to a UA basketball player, which Tyler Carrell, Cade Bersen's campaign manager, says was taken inside McKale center "clearly right after the game."

This isn't the first time an ASUA presidential election has gotten "dirty". Last year, losing presidential candidate Josh Shapiro filed an appeal with the ASUA Supreme Court, alleging bias on the part of elections commissioner Daniel Suh and filing sixteen(!!) code violations against Chapman. Chapman filed two against Shapiro.

Stand by; the ASUA Supreme Court may become involved again. Special thanks to Al Gore for the good example.

You all know their positions. If you don't, the links are on the right. I'll just be going over a few nitpicks along with some serious spin coming out of Admin VP candidate Fernando Ascencio.

Nitpick #1: The "sold-out 14,000 show."

Admin VP candidate Fernando Ascendio wasn't afraid to mention that he was President of the ASUA Speakers Board during the year. I had been a critic of the board last semester for its lack of political bias in choosing speakers. He mentioned numerous people before mentioning a certain "sold-out 14,000 show."

I wonder who that was...

So I called him on it. Ascencio attempted to explain that he didn't want to be "defined as the guy who brought Michael Moore to campus," but his argument falls short. Why would he omit that? Was he simply not proud of it? If he's ashamed of it, he either needs to tell us or simply not run. If he's proud of it, let him say it and take the heat. This was spin.

The bad response actually came shortly after Ascencio directly criticized fellow candidate Cassiopeia Sonn, currently ASUA's marketing director, for not doing a good enough job as marketing director such that ASUA marketing had become a campaign issue. Sonn declined to respond to Ascencio's accusation, which became the only direct candidate-to-candidate question of the day (at least until I left).

Nitpick #2: Bad speaking technique

Mr. Franklin, don't read your speech. Mr. Hill, take off the sunglasses. Mr. Bernsen, I know your face is completely red, but that doesn't mean you have to speak like it. And for pete's sake, it must have been 85 degrees out there! GENTLEMEN, TAKE OFF YOUR COATS!

Nitpick #3: Loaded questions?

After I called Ascencio for what's cited in Nitpick #1, another student went up and asked how much money that ended up costing us. Well, that would be negative $20,000, actually.

But even worse was the unsolicited comment from a guy in the front row who asked the debate moderator (presumably ASUA elections commissioner Adam Falck) if he would ban "loaded questions." To his credit, the moderator explained that this isn't "softball", this was "hardball." Kudos to the moderator.

Nitpick #4: O'Hara left when it wasn't over yet! What a jerk!

For pete's sake, I had a midterm at 1300. Give me a break, you. I didn't even get to fire a question at any of the presidential candidates.

Jacob Hill has replied to our analysis and inquiry about his proposed professor recruitment/retainment fund. In his own words:

Garrett thanks for inquiring.

the student fund is not necessarily a student funded fund. it is a student started letter writing campaign focusing on alumni, local business's and corporations that draw from the u of a grads, and parents. students could absolutely contribute to the fund, anyone who wants to can. the fund will be 100% voluntary, no fees will ever be instituted. sorry about the grammar, but this is a real busy time for me!!

Jacob

Well, President Bush doesn't have very good grammar, either. I wouldn't worry about it, Jacob. Nonetheless, it really ought to be clarified for those who haven't read this.

Update shortly thereafter: Jacob Hill has also informed me that he does have a website. Therefore, his Dead End Award is demoted to the LMTH Award for not mentioning his website where the common student would be able to find it.