IUSA parties set to kick off campaigns

Campaigning for the IU Student Association elections begins this week, following major modifications in the Elections Code implemented in congress's last meeting. \nApplications for candidacy were made available last week following a campus-wide call-out meeting. Applications are due to the IUSA office by 5 p.m. Wednesday. The election process includes a debate, which will be held Feb. 21 and moderated by University Chancellor Ken Gros Louis. Elections begin at 10 a.m. Feb. 28 and end at 10 p.m. March 1. Once elections are calculated and announced, tickets have until March 2 to submit complaints. \nTwo tickets exist unofficially -- Red Hot and Hoosier -- but more could be added come Wednesday.\nAt the IUSA Congress meeting Jan. 24, congress voted to make changes to the Elections Code. Elections Coordinator Keith Johnson said the goal of the changes was to avoid problems the tickets met last year during elections.\n"I think these changes are good for the process," he said. \nOne big change made to the code is the spending limit for each ticket. Johnson said in the past, tickets received a base of $1,000 plus $35 per congressional candidate on that ticket, with a maximum of $3,170. In other words, if a ticket had 10 members running for congressional seats, it would receive $1,350. Now, each ticket receives $3,000 regardless of the number of candidates it has running.\nJohnson said poor attendance at congress meetings fueled this change. He said candidates running for office because their friends who were on tickets asked them to run so the ticket could earn more money. He said many of these people won seats, but didn't care to go to meetings.\n"Great (independent) candidates are losing to big ticket people who didn't care," he said.\nStudents running for executive positions are required to run on a ticket. An executive ticket consists of a president, vice president, congressional secretary, treasurer and at least one congressional candidate, according to Section 309 of the Elections Code. Congressional seats are available from each residential sector including dorms, greek houses and off-campus housing. Johnson said tickets can start campaigning now, as long as they follow the rules outlined in the IUSA elections code.\nCurrent IUSA President Alex Shortle said he hopes the tickets will take the issues seriously enough not to pull election stunts such as bribery and overspending.\n"We don't want false promises, we don't want typical election stunts; we want (tickets) focusing on the issues," he said. "They need to be aware of what's going on"