Debate Wrap Up
After last year’s ASUO election that featured seventeen grievances and a heated presidential debate, I was pumped for this years annual ASUO shitshow. Alas, the grievance count still remains at an all time low and the debates were anything but entertaining.
The thunder that sparked the debates last year is gone and this debate seemed nothing more than a elongated question and answer session. Half the time the candidates answered questions sitting down, the other half was candidates talking about outreach.
There were two main issues touched upon during the debates. Campaign spending seemed to dominate most of the debates as the first topic questioned the Oregon Action Team’s morality due to campaign funding. The second biggest issue was whether or not student tickets to football games are more important than funding late night LTD transit to students in the Kinsrow Area.
Sure, over spending on campaign funding is an issue in the current economic climate, but to attack a persons morality on campaign funding is ludicrous. True Blue stuck to one of their main campaign points during the debate stating several times that there campaign budget is $2009 (because it’s the current year, get it? nudge,nudge).
Breakdown of the campaigns during the debates.
Oregon Action Team
Michelle Haley handled questions about the campaign spending with honesty and used clearly explained reasons for her campaign budget, while other candidates just pointed out that they spent more on the slate so far. Ted Sebastian the VP candidate offered up the idea of having a bar on campus ( we will hold you to that if you win).
Students First
Carina Miller talks really fast. I mean really fast. I do not understand what their platform is yet. Gower seemed to be the real talking head during the debates, but came off more pissy than anything else. The guy knows what he is talking but acts like a stuck up thirteen year old girl when he has the mic.
True Blue
Nick Schultz is really good about public speaking, honestly. But I am getting really tired of hearing about their spending cap for campaign finances. These two were a real bitch to film (shameless plug warning. New Oregon Commentator News with Debate Coverage to be posted in the next week) as Nick Schultz is a solid sixteen inches taller than Lidi Soto. Also Soto seems to get a bad case of the giggles when talking in public.
Emma and Getachew
Boring.
iGov people
These guys don’t stand a chance in the election, but made for the most interesting duo during the debates. Their platform is seriously flawed though. How can they expect a student body in which less than 20% vote on ASUO be responsible enough to allocate $11,000,000 through Duckweb? Props for the effort though.
Conclusion
When are we going to get past campaign finance issues and on to the real issues? We want fire, we want grievances, we want something newsworthy to come out of these elections. Also last year at the elections there was a vast amount of soda and those huge pizzas from pizza pipeline, this year there was carrots, broccoli and ranch dip for snacks. Fucking recession.
