Howard W. Buffett charged the Associated Student Government with corruption Thursday night as he formally ended his re-election campaign for Associated Student Government Executive Vice President. He also alleged personal attacks by his opponent, Weinberg and Communication sophomore Jay Schumacher.
Buffett shocked the audience at the Executive Vice President and Presidential Debate at Norris University Center by verbally attacking “ASG insiders” who he said have tried to stop his reform efforts during his time in ASG, and defamed him throughout this year’s campaign.
“My opponent and his supporters have shown they will stop at nothing to beat back the rising tide of reform,” Buffett said, reading from a pre-written speech.
Buffett said eight different erroneous campaign violations, including false accusations against his family, had been filed by his opponents.
A campaign violation anonymously filed with the ASG Election Commission Tuesday alleged that the Buffett campaign, using the promise of a new lightboard, bribed the theater community during last year’s election. The violation stated that Buffett then purchased the lightboard with donations from an unspecified family member. The allegations were dismissed by the Election Commission.
“No title is worth the attacks my opponent has made on my integrity,” Buffett said. “No student council position is worth having my character slandered. But apparently this title is enough for Mr. Schumacher to destroy the character of others.”
Buffett concluded by asking the audience to “bear witness to the reality of ASG and the corruption that has crippled it.”
Schumacher then gave his remarks as planned during the debate.
“The reason he was able to say anything was because he knew those accusations were false,” said Schumacher campaign manager Melissa Borschnack.
Schumacher, who was visibly flustered, categorically denied the allegations made against him, save that a member of his campaign had filed the first violation against Buffett. The Buffett campaign had made data available from its Web site before the official start of electronic campaigning.
Schumacher said he tried to foster a dialogue with Buffett to create a fair campaign.
“I would never attack Howie’s family or his name,” Schumacher said.
Schumacher said he was surprised that he would be lumped in as an “ASG insider.”
“I’m not on exec board, I’m not in those meetings, I don’t see the finances,” he said.
In an interview with The Daily after his speech, Buffett admitted that it was impossible to confirm that the attacks had come from the Schumacher campaign. He added, however, that certain suspicious actions could only have been perpetrated by his opponent.
Buffett said that while Schumacher might not have been an ASG “insider” in the strictest sense of the word, he was a part of a cohort of senators and executive board members who made a point of upholding the “status quo” by defeating several attempts at reform.
Buffett also said that the “feelings I expressed tonight have been building up for my entire tenure as EVP.”
However, he plans to return to ASG as an off-campus senator to try and effect change in the same vein as current ASG Rules Chair Gabe Matlin, a McCormick senior, who as a senator helped spearhead efforts to make ASG’s finances more transparent.
Matlin said the constitution prevents ASG from removing Buffett from next Tuesday’s ballot. But if the ballot is not approved by the Senate, the election could be delayed as ASG attempts to reconcile the ballot with its constitution, possibly by an amendment allowing the removal of Buffett’s name.
Reach Jordan Weissmann at
