Students have been out in force for the past couple weeks collecting signatures and phone numbers of students who oppose the $1,000 fine being attributed to the new Social Host Ordinance. With ASUO elections just around the corner, concern about where the collected information was going became a point of interest.
At a University of Oregon College Democrats meeting on March 5, ASUO Sen. Ben Rudin, along with the rest of the group, was approached by an individual collecting signatures to repeal the Social Host Ordinance. According to Rudin, the individual mentioned that he was collecting these signatures on behalf of the Amy and Lamar campaign.
Later that night, the 2013 Elections Rules were approved by the ASUO Constitution Court. According to Article 7.3, no direct voter interaction may begin until the specific date given in the 2013 ASUO Elections Packet, which cites April 8 as the first day direct voter interaction may begin, including canvassing, telephone campaigning and anything that involves in-person contact between a campaign and an elector in a public place.
ASUO Elections Coordinator Pat Chaney had no comment on clarifying specifics because of what he called an “ongoing inquiry.”
On March 7, two accounts of signature gathering on behalf of the Amy and Lamar campaign were reported.
Sarah Reiter, a member of a sorority on the UO campus, reported that man had approached her house and was collecting signatures for the Social Host Ordinance.
“He was really knowledgeable about that,” Reiter said. “But there was a line on the paper saying ‘Do you want to volunteer or not?’ and the guy said, ‘Oh, that’s just for Amy and Lamar’s campaign, so if you want to volunteer put ‘yes’ in that box and then we’ll sign you up to volunteer the first week of school.’”
That same day, UO student Catherine Noring reported that “a man approached the door of Alpha Chi Omega. He stated, ‘On behalf of Lamar and Amy’s campaign, we have a petition against the new Social Host Ordinance that will be in effect.’”
Both Amy Jones and Lamar Wise deny having any deeper involvement with the Social Host campaign other than repealing the ordinance.
“That’s not my focus. My focus is to repeal the Social Host Ordinance,” Wise said. “If I do end up running, I want to use as many resources at my disposal as I can to win, but there is a process that we would have to go through. I don’t own these petitions, it’s property of the Young Democrats of Lane County.”
Jones had similar thoughts about using the collected information, saying that even though the information becomes public records once it is submitted, there would be a long process to retrieve the phone numbers.
“If someone wanted to request that they can,” Jones said. “We’re not going to be calling people and saying, ‘Oh hey, we got this number from this petition.’ That’s not being honest to students, that’s not what we were doing when we were collecting signatures and I’m not comfortable with that happening.”
Former ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz had previously reached out to Kevin Cronin, the executive director of the Lane County Young Democrats about Cronin’s involvement with the Amy and Lamar campaign. According to Dotters-Katz, Cronin admitted that the central goal of the signature gathering was to train the campaign staff for Amy and Lamar and that the campaign would benefit from the collected phone numbers.
When the Emerald reached out to Cronin he mentioned that the central goal of the signature gathering was to repeal the Social Host Ordinance.
“I have invited a large variety of students to be involved and benefit from these grassroots organizing trainings, including Sam Dotters-Katz,” Cronin said. “The trainings are provided for free. Lamar has benefited from these trainings previously, so he knows that when the LCYD works to repeal the Social Host Ordinance, it’s an opportunity for young people to learn excellent organizing skills.”
It appears that some of those organization skills are already being put to work. In an email, Laree Foster, who calls herself the programs coordinator for the Lamar Wise and Amy Jones’ ASUO Presidential Campaign reached out to a university program explaining that the campaign was working with the Lane County Young Democrats to repeal the Social Host Ordinance.
“If your program has any concerns or ideas that you would like to be considered for the future of the university, I warmly welcome any input and would love to hear what other students are passionate about,” Foster said in her email.
“It’s disappointing that Lamar Wise’s campaign is already out there blatantly lying to students in order to trick them into giving up their confidential contact information,” Dotters-Katz said. “To now see these win-at-all costs tactics will only further erode student trust in our electoral process and in the student government.”