Zach!Zach Liberman (or someone claiming to be him) has requested clarification of the issues his party is facing.Claim: He did not violate campaign laws because he was only posting criticism of the ASUC, and not campaigning. He was acting in his capacity as president of Berkeley Esquires. He also claims that he knew the posters would raise legal issues.Meh, I say. That might fly with a Judicial Council unwilling to disqualify candidates because of the mess it tends to cause. But since the main campaign platform of BEARS-United seems to be ASUC incompetence, I can't help but be a bit skeptical of the reality of that claim. Luckily for me, the decision is not in my hands. Further, the claim that he knew such things would be legally tricky seems to not mesh all that well with his "we're new" argument.The mystery of the missing party: BEARS-United is totally new this year! What happened to last year's BEARS-United? Zach says he took it over and revamped it.Big Campaign Issue: Forfeiting the $4,000 stipend of all executives. All BEARS-United execs are promising to do it, according to Zach.Qualification: Zach says he has a lot of experience running stuff. He built Berkeley Esquires from scratch in a year.Goals: BEARS-United wants to revamp the ASUC so it can do "bigger things."This worried me greatly. Zach seems to want the ASUC to become a leadership force for creating change across the country. In fact, he suggested that the people he represents are not necessarily Cal students. In fact, he didn't even seem to care what was going on at Cal yet, only relying on the talent of his candidates to come up with "innovative solutions to campus problems," presumably as they come up. The "We'll figure it out as we go along, since we're smart enough" platform worries me, obviously, but dovetails nicely with the whole "we don't know or care what the rules are" approach. In fact, the goals in particular: webcasting senate meetings, forfeiting exec salaries, bringing in consultants, and creating a watchdog committee, all seem to focus more on changing the ASUC than on helping students out with the ASUC.In any case, the details of this vision are to come, I'm told, and I will be publishing them when I receive them. posted by Beetle Aurora Drake 3/27/2005 03:49:00 PM # Comments (0) . . .
