Time, Money Rules for Campaigns May Change

Student government leaders will meet later this week to finalize the details of legislation designed to reform the student elections process.

Student Body President Jen Daum and Speaker of Student Congress Tony Larson will introduce legislation containing the lowered figures to the Rules and Judiciary Committee of Congress by early next week.

Candidates in every general election race, from student body president to senior class president, will be required to observe the new spending limit.

Student body president candidates can spend a maximum of $500 in the general election, and senior class president candidates can spend $175. No new numbers have been proposed as of yet.

By lowering the maximum spending levels, Larson said he hopes to lessen the burden of running for a student government office, making it open to more of the student body. He also said the emphasis of the campaigns could then be placed on platform ideas rather than paying for large posters with glossy photographs of the candidates' faces.

Daum said that candidates have been using money during past campaigns to inform the student body but that the limit should be lowered.

"We want to lower the spending limit because election season will be shorter by a week," she said. "We'll find a good compromise between having the resources to run an effective campaign and having money that can be spent wisely, not frivolously."

Rules and Judiciary Committee Chairman Blair Sweeney also has discussed lowering spending limits in committee meetings but personally favors public funding. "Basically you don't want only people running that are rich, affluent or have the money to spend," he said. "When the limit is that high, you may exclude people that could be good candidates."

Sweeney said that he knows people in Congress are interested in the potential legislation but that no one has concretely weighed in on the issue.

"I haven't talked to anyone who is outright opposed," said Sweeney, who will control the first discussion of the bill during Rules and Judiciary Committee meetings. "But I expect a fair amount of debate."

Senior Class President Paymon Rouhanifard and Senior Class Vice President Rob Albright conducted their winning campaign with a budget of $250, the spending limit for senior class campaigns in a runoff election.

"If we were allotted half as much, we would have adjusted our spending likewise and still tried to get out the word as effectively as possible," Albright said.

Rouhanifard said that as long as there's a common standard, the limit is not going to matter if two to three competitive candidates are running. "What's good about senior class is there are two candidates, so more people are helping out to raise the funds. We never had a hard time."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.