GPSA debates donations standards for elections

The Graduate and Professional Student Association Council wrangled Saturday between pushing for a more ethical elections code or continuing to allow elections to mirror those of state and federal government.
The council debated how to amend the GPSA bylaws to ensure that elections reflected transparency, fairness and consistency.

The council passed a resolution that provides for a vote at its August meeting about whether to change GPSA bylaws.
“The purpose of an election is not simply to elect a candidate to office but to lay an emphasis on core democratic principles,” said GPSA communication and journalism representative Brandi Lawless in a memorandum.

The new bylaws would limit all campaign contributions to UNM students, faculty and staff and mandate that contributors provide their UNM e-mail, student identification number and the amount donated to each candidate. All the information would be verified by the GPSA Elections Committee, and the names of the contributors would be posted to the GPSA website.
According to the resolution, the new laws would also put a $50 cap on the amount a single contributor could donate to acandidate, and GPSA candidates would be limited to spending $500 on their campaigns.

There would be no cap on how much an individual could raise; however, the resolution stipulates that any excess funds be donated to a nonprofit organization of the candidate’s choice. GPSA representative Desi Brown said GPSA has not had ethics problems in past elections, but the council wanted to get ahead of the issue.

“Who’s to say that next year someone doesn’t come along and get a $2,000 contribution?” he said. “In my opinion, instead of us being reactive we should be proactive.”

In GPSa’s most recent election, presidential candidate Martin Gutierrez got $500 in campaign contributions but did not immediately release the names and amounts of contributions.

GPSA Representative Robyn Lubisco argued that allowing candidates to solicit contributions could help increase voter turnout by bringing more publicity to elections.

“If they want to spend $5,000 — great. Spend $5,000,” she said. “In the end, I think spending more money could get more people to vote.”

Brown said limiting the amount a candidate can spend will create cleaner and fairer elections.
“The more money you can keep out of elections the cleaner the election is going to be,” he said. “Especially if you combine that with open government and open elections.”

He said GPSA candidates do not have a history of soliciting large contributions, but not implementing a policy leaves the door open to the risk.

“We want to eliminate that danger of things going on underground,” he said. “If you can have open elections and limited campaign contributions then it just makes it cleaner.”

Lubisco said the new bylaws do not reflect the norms of other government elections.
“It reflects everyday life. We shouldn’t have anything different,” she said. “In the presidential election you aren’t capped.”
Brown said creating a more ethical elections code would keep large contributions from influencing the political process.
“I think the actions we took are going to reduce the chances of that happening,” he said. “It really levels the playing field.”