Candidates Sanctioned For Illegal Postering

On the first day of the Undergraduate Council presidential race, the Election Commission handed down early sanctions for illegal campaigning—with the Bonner-Long campaign bearing the brunt of the penalties.

The commission fined presidential candidate Lauren E. Bonner ’04 eight points—the equivalent of $8 in campaign funds—for hanging posters in non-designated areas.

Her running mate, Luke R. Long ’03, received a four-point fine and the other vice presidential candidate, Anne M. Fernandez ’03, lost two points.

Each point deduction means that a campaign’s $100 spending limit is reduced by $1. For every 10 penalty points, a candidate is docked an additional $10—making a 10-point violation the equivalent of a loss of $20 in spending.

The Election Commission did not report any violations for presidential candidate and current council Vice President Sujean S. Lee ’03.

Traditionally campaign violations this early on have not significantly impacted the race, according to Election Commission chair Kyle D. Hawkins ’02.

“I don’t think it’s a big deal to get some postering penalties on the first day,” Hawkins said. “It happens every year.”

Hawkins said early violations are usually due to campaign workers unfamiliar with postering rules.

Lee-Fernandez campaign members, however, said they believed the violations might cause some harm to their opposition.

“It will harm [their campaign] internally,” said Lee-Fernandez supporter and current council secretary James R. Griffin ’02.

Griffin said that dipping into campaigns early on to pay fines could have consequences as the race reaches its final stretches next week.

“It’s going to limit their options later on,” Griffin said.

Bonner said she remained optimistic about her chances, and said campaign tactics like meeting with students would be more important than spending money on posters.

“Posters and spending money help, but they can’t win you an election,” Bonner said.

Bonner accused the Lee-Fernandez campaign of reporting postering violations to the Election Commission—an accusation denied by both Lee and Fernandez.

According to Bonner, Lee and Fernandez broke a “tacit agreement” the two campaigns had made not to report each other’s infractions.

Because of the agreement, Bonner said, she and Long did not report Lee-Fernandez violations, even though Bonner reported that she had seen “between 15 and 20” Lee-Fernandez violations.

“We decided not to report Sujean and Annie on anything,” Bonner said. “We tried to be nice guys about it.”

Lee said she and Fernandez have in the past and will continue to abide by the informal agreement the candidates made with each other not to report violations.

“I didn’t even look for their violations,” Lee said. “When I got the e-mail from the Election Commission, that was the first time I heard about it.”

Hawkins, the commission chair, declined to comment.

Last night, in a meeting concluding too late to be reported in today’s paper, both tickets met with the Bisexual, Gay, Lesbian, Transgender, and Supporters’ Alliance (BGLTSA) to seek that body’s endorsement.

Former vice presidential candidate and BGLTSA co-chair Fred O. Smith ’04 recently dropped out of the council race and gave his personal endorsement to Bonner and Long.

BGLTSA political chair and Lee-Fernandez supporter Blake J. Boulerice ’04 said an endorsement of Bonner-Long is far from assured, however.

“I’ve discussed the candidates with a couple of the board members and very few of them have actually made a decision yet,” Boulerice said. “I expect that there will be a lot of discussion.”

—Staff writer William M. Rasmussen can be reached at wrasmuss@fas.harvard.edu.