Most Student Association executive officer candidates spent around $500 for the financial reporting period, which ended Monday night.
SA bylaws permit an executive officer candidate to spend $600 on a campaign. Candidates involved in a runoff election are allowed an additional $150. The candidates are required to submit an expenditure form listing all items, paid or donated, which were used to promote a candidate.
Items a candidate or campaign worker already owns and did not purchase expressly for campaigning are exempt from the expenditure form. Televisions and blank white T-shirts are commonly exempted items.
Presidential candidate Adam Telle spent $553 on his campaign through Monday night. Telle’s largest expenses were posters, which cost $196 and stickers, which cost $50.
Telle listed the most items of any candidate, with a total of 15 separate expenditures, mostly for art supplies and paper.
Presidential candidate Juan McCullum spent the lowest amount of any candidate campaigning for a campuswide office, $326. McCullum’s largest expenses were $77.50 for “printing services” and $71 for barbecue supplies.
McCullum campaign spokeswoman Akilah Minor said “printing services” covered expenses for posters, stickers and brochures.
Minor said the reason the cost of printing posters and stickers was so low-the lowest of any campaign-is because the campaign used the same company it used last year.
“We are a returning customer. We used the same company last year, so they gave us a discount,” Minor said.
McCullum’s campaign had the fewest listed number of items of any campuswide campaign. Among the common items mentioned on other campaign lists that were not present on McCullum’s list were T-shirts and shoe polish for decorating cars.
Minor said campaign workers painted on their own shirts and used car polish without the official sanction of the campaign.
“We did not endorse people to go chalk their cars,” Minor said. “That was of their own initiative.”
Attorney General candidate Jon David Cole spent the most of all campuswide campaigns, $578. Cole opponent, Jonathan Cole, spent about $416.
Secretary candidate Stefanie Thomas spent $566, the second-largest amount. Thomas’ opponent, Katherine Sinele, spent almost $540.
The remaining candidates for senior class president, Wesley Black and T.J. Harvey, spent well under $100.
The Elections Commission investigates any candidate suspected of wrongdoing, but hopes the candidates are truthful and act in good faith, said Elections Commission Stacie Carter.
“We just trust the candidates to have enough integrity to be honest about their expenditures,” Carter said. “However, sometimes that doesn’t happen.”