Wednesday, 5/7/97 Candidates muddy waters during debate
Presidential hopefuls use forum to attack opposing parties
By Mason Stockstill Daily Bruin Contributor Under the hot midday
sun, five candidates for Undergraduate Students Association Council
president convened in Westwood Plaza Tuesday for a debate to better
acquaint students with their positions. The candidates included
Ruben Garcia of the Bruin Unity slate, Access Coalition’s Ben
Hofilena, Kandea Mosley from Students First!, Christopher Hecht of
Bruin Vision and Justin Sobodash with Liberty ’97. The debate,
sponsored by the Daily Bruin, was the only time that all the
candidates for the position of USAC president met together in
public to present their platforms – and, for the most part, bash
the other candidates and their parties. Chancellorial assistant
Carol Petersen, who has moderated many discussions at UCLA, posed
questions that had been specially prepared by the Daily Bruin’s
editorial staff. In their opening statements, the candidates summed
up their platforms and took the opportunity to slam their
opponents. Political attacks were rampant at the debate, as
candidates often prefaced their statements with the phrase "I’m
about to mudsling." Most of the mud was aimed at Students First!, a
convenient target because of their two-year reign over USAC. Each
candidate, save for Mosley, claimed that Students First! is either
corrupt or ineffective and offered their own party as the best
alternative. But Mosley stood on her slate’s record and history,
pressing other candidates to explain their experience in student
government. "The philosophy of Students First! is to empower
students and give every student a voice," Mosley said. However,
every other candidate used part of their opening statement to
denounce Students First!’s track record. "We’ve had two years of an
ineffective student government that has failed to reach out to
student groups," Hofilena said. Fiscal responsibility was also a
hot topic, mentioned several times by each candidate. ASUCLA bore
the brunt of these attacks because of the association’s financial
problems as well as the recent increase in mandatory ASUCLA fees.
Hecht blamed mismanagement for ASUCLA’s financial troubles and
criticized the way the fee increase was handled. "There was no
referendum (on the ASUCLA fee increase), the students were not
reached out to in any way, and there is nothing to say that ASUCLA
won’t institute another increase five years from now." Sobodash
chimed in with Hecht, bringing up an objection to some of this
year’s expenditures made by the Students First!-controlled USAC. "I
don’t think we can have fiscal responsibility on the part of ASUCLA
when USAC is sponsoring political movements that we may or may not
agree with," Sobodash said. The issue of campus unity also sparked
strong reactions from the candidates. "Student government should
not be run by 13 tyrants up in Kerckhoff," Garcia said. "There
should be a student senate where all students are represented." In
the end, most candidates had stopped slinging mud exclusively at
Students First! and had moved on to attacking each other
indiscriminately, accusing each other of spewing rhetoric and
lacking specific plans. "This is upsetting – anyone can just spew
out a bunch of rhetoric," Hecht said. "But where is the plan?"
CHARLES KUO/Daily Bruin Presidential candidate Kandea Mosley
discusses her platform at the USAC presidential debate. CHARLES
KUO/Daily Bruin The debate drew a crowd of approximately 100,
composed mostly of affiliates of the presidential candidates.
Previous Daily Bruin stories Presidential candidates debate key
issues, May 1, 1996