GPSA Presidential Candidate Martin Gutierrez has received $500 in campaign donations so far, according to data he posted on his website Tuesday evening.
Gutierrez posted the information more than 24 hours after the GPSA council passed a resolution encouraging candidates to submit a list of campaign contributions and expenses.
He said the report was late for three reasons: First, he said he didn’t receive notice from the council about its recommendation until Monday. Second, he said he had to get permission from his contributors to print their names and, third, he said he had family issues over the weekend that prevented him from compiling the report.
“It just took us an extra day to get things together,” he said. “We weren’t trying to stonewall anyone.”
Gutierrez’ website lists his contributions as $200 from a high school friend, Ivan Gallegos, $100 from his parents, another $100 from himself, $50 from Irene Parra, his volunteer campaign staffer, and donations totaling $50 from two classmates and a supporter.
Gutierrez said receiving donations for a GPSA presidential candidacy brings the election to a new level.
“I think that it became an issue because no one’s brought this level of professionalism to a GPSA presidential election before,” he said. “I think that the graduate students deserve this.”
GPSA President Lissa Knudsen and council representative Brandi Lawless drafted a resolution last Thursday asking for a “clean campaign” clause in the GPSA bylaws.
However, the resolution turned into a recommendation at the council’s Saturday meeting.
Gutierrez criticized Knudsen for not receiving donations.
“My opponent said she’s spent zero. That means she doesn’t have the confidence and faith in the graduate population that not even 50 cents or a dime should be spent to get her message out,” he said. “Her response is that people are happy. How do we know that people are happy? Because they’re not showing up? People who don’t show up aren’t happy.”
Gutierrez said all the emphasis on campaign contributions is short-sighted.
“What’s keeping me up at night is not who is giving me money and how much I’m able to pull in,” he said. “What’s keeping me up at night is the plan that we’re going to pull together that everybody’s happy with and that we’re able to take on these new budget cuts.”
Accepting donations for GPSA president increases the election’s overall credibility, Gutierrez said.
“I think that we’ve raised the bar for GPSA elections a little bit higher than what it was before, and that gives us the credibility with the administration to say that we’re running a professional election,” Gutierrez said. “We’re going to show up on Thursday turning graduate student votes out.”
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As for expenditures, Gutierrez’ website lists $480 in Daily Lobo advertisements and $26.05 for his website.
Gutierrez also said he’s employed between 15 and 18 graduate student volunteers for his campaign to help with advice and outreach as part of the professionalism he wants to bring to the GPSA elections.
“I’ve demonstrated that I’m able to get graduate student support and my connections in the community to raise a little bit of money to get my message out,” he said. “That is the action that I would be judged upon — that I’m fulfilling a campaign promise before I’m even elected.”
Gutierrez also released his spring 2010 course schedule to the Daily Lobo and said he plans to post it on his website. In the interest of transparency, he said, he’d like Knudsen to do the same.
“I wanted to demonstrate even further to the graduate students and UNM community that I’m eligible as a graduate student enrolled in the sufficient amount of credit hours to accept the position — should I win the election — and the stipend that comes along with that,” he said.
