Former Kirkwood candidate apologizes for forwarding emails

After allegations became public regarding IU Student Association and University code misconduct, the accused Kirkwood ticket congressional candidate has publicly apologized.\nLuke Fields, presidential candidate with the Big Red ticket, accused Adam Pozza, a congressional candidate for the Kirkwood ticket, of accessing Fields’ computer and forwarding e-mails regarding Big Red’s campaign to members of the Kirkwood ticket, according to the complaint. On Monday, Pozza said in a written statement that he was sorry and regretted his personal error in judgment.\n“The error is not the fault of the Kirkwood ticket,” he wrote in the statement. “The Kirkwood ticket and its candidates did not suggest or request in any way that any e-mails be reviewed or forwarded.”\nThe IUSA Elections Committee will meet Wednesday night to decide if Pozza’s actions should disqualify the Kirkwood ticket.\nIn response to the allegations, the Kirkwood ticket asked the IUSA Elections Commission to remove Pozza’s name from the ballot.\n“I just want to reiterate the fact that ... his actions are his own doing,” said Joe Weis, Kirkwood ticket presidential candidate.\nWeis said he is confident the Elections Commission will not hold the Kirkwood ticket responsible for Pozza’s actions.\n“I feel toward the end of this, it’s becoming more of a race on personal attacks than the issues at hand,” Weis said. “All three tickets, it’s our role as candidates to bring up the issues students care about rather than attacking personally to gain an advantage. I think, unfortunately, that’s what it’s resulted in these past couple of weeks.”\nOn Friday, the Big Red ticket filed a formal complaint against the Kirkwood ticket after Fields, the Big Red presidential candidate, discovered campaign e-mails were deleted from his outbox.\nAccording to the complaint, Fields’ returned to his Willkie apartment after spending the night in Indianapolis to find six months’ worth of e-mails deleted. After restoring the missing files, he noticed several campaign-related e-mails forwarded to other e-mail addresses.\nThe complaint states the e-mails were forwarded to IU Undergraduate Finance Club and to Eric J. Gibson, chief of external for the Kirkwood ticket. Pozza is currently the vice president of the IU Finance Club.\nAccording to the evidence submitted with the complaint, five e-mails were sent out from Fields’ account between 3:55 a.m. and 4:17 a.m.\nPozza lived with Fields and Big Red ticket vice presidential candidate Dan Sloat, but as of March 21, had moved out of the apartment.\nPozza said in his written statement that he had been at odds with Sloat and Fields since the beginning of the year.\n“Although not an excuse,” he said, “this happened in the context of personal and political conflicts.”\nPozza states in his written statement that “contrary to any suggestion in the allegations and Indiana Daily Student article, the e-mails were not forwarded to the Undergraduate Finance Club.”\nTimothy Williams, president of the finance club, said in a written statement that despite the information in the IUSA complaint, the e-mail address didn’t belong to the club. \nWilliams said the Big Red representatives involved in writing and signing the report made the assumption that the e-mail was of a student organization. There is no official e-mail listed for the finance club, according to it’s Web site.\n“Because of their lack of research,” Williams said, “my entire organization and I have been put in a position that makes it very difficult to try and save our reputation.”\nBut Fields said the complaint was not meant to harm the club’s reputation or insinuate that the club got involved in the election.\n“The complaint filed by the Big Red Ticket was against the Kirkwood ticket and members of the Kirkwood ticket and not against the IU Finance Club,” Fields said in response to Williams’ statement.\nWilliams said he does not condone Pozza’s actions and was not involved in any way. As of Monday, the Undergraduate Finance Club is in discussions on Pozza’s future rule with the club.\nIUSA president W.T. Wright said the Kirkwood ticket had no knowledge of Pozza’s actions and Pozza’s involvement with the Kirkwood ticket was “minimal.”\n“I don’t want to involve (Pozza) with IUSA,” Wright said.\nSpecial projects editor Brian Spegele contributed to this report.