Elections carry controversy
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Final trial for CSUN executive hopefuls brings mixed messages
By Haley Etchison and Rochel Leah Goldblatt
Candidates from the Students 4 Students and Rebels United parties hit the pavement on Wednesday amid controversial campaign tactics in the CSUN Executive Board general elections.
Illegal fliers were posted in many places on campus throughout the day.
One version of the paper showed Ciavola’s face superimposed on a cartoon of Alice in Wonderland’s Cheshire Cat wearing the Mad Hatter’s hat. The flier bore the phrase “the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party Express endorsed candidate” and “Reject Ciavola.”
Another said “Vote 4 Cory Bradley” and included a photo of Bradley walking a pageant runway with “… and a 3.9 GPA” written below.
Members of the Rebels United campaign followed who they claimed was Democratic Party activist Angie Sullivan around campus and said they witnessed her leaving from the reserved lot between Tonopah Hall and Frank and Estella Beam Hall at night.
Rebels United supporter Ken Minster identified Sullivan from photos on her Facebook page, and the party believes she may be among those behind the effort.
Late Wednesday night, Sullivan and UNLV student Mercedes Haefer began tweeting about Ciavola. Neither mentioned the fliers specifically.
Haefer released Ciavola’s phone number in a tweet. She was indicted in June for allegedly targeting PayPal in a campaign associated with the Internet group Anonymous.
Some of the leaflets bear the phrase “paid for by ABC Productions,” which Ciavola aid could refer to a social media campaign called “Anyone But Ciavola.” Two Facebook accounts associated with ABC were shut down due to alleged harassment.
“Our job is to represent CSUN,” said Rebels United presidential hopeful Mark Ciavola, “and I think that elections are the best advertising that CSUN gets.”
“It is very difficult just to get students to vote because the majority of students thought that elections ended with the primaries,” said Students 4 Students senate president candidate Omar Quasssani.
Both Ciavola and Quassani said that their commitment to CSUN would not waver if they were to lose their races.
“The best thing I can do [if I lose] is to provide my ideas for the candidate that did win,” Quassani said.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Ciavola said. “I held [current undergraduate student body president] Sarah Saenz accountable for a year. I will hold Cory Bradley accountable for a year [if she wins]. I will still represent students to the best of my ability and try to make CSUN a better place.”
An individual campaigning for the Students 4 Students Party in the free speech zone near Lied Library on Wednesday said that candidate Cory Bradley should be undergraduate student body president on the grounds that she is “the age of a student.”
The individual was seen shouting at students and refused to give his name to The Rebel Yell.
“I’m not the person to talk to,” said the individual, who is allegedly named Chip.
The individual refused to comment until he was asked why he supports Bradley.
“Because I’m a fan of her policies, if you must know,” he said.
Asked to specify which policies he backs, the individual alluded to the idea that Bradley’s opponent, Mark Ciavola, is unfit to be president on the grounds that he is not “the age of a student.”
Ciavola, 37, is a non-traditional student.
“Don’t you believe that a president of a student body should be, one, a student?” said the unnamed Students 4 Students supporter.
Karla Washington is a CSUN senator for the William F. Harrah College of Hotel Administration, but she said that she supports Students 4 Students as a student, not in her official capacity.
Washington, also a non-traditional student, said that she backs Bradley and Quassani precisely because they stand for all students.
Washington said that she did not know the anonymous campaigner, who fled the free speech zone when The Rebel Yell continued questioning him about backing Students 4 Students.
“I have no idea why he ran away, but that’s not cool,” she said.
Asked why he would not speak to The Rebel Yell, the individual said, “I have a first amendment, I’m pretty sure.”
The individual repeatedly referred The Rebel Yell to speak with Quassani.
Quassani said that he could not remember the anonymous campaigner’s name.
“It’s one of [Bradley’s] friends,” he said. “We don’t really know him that well. He came and he was like, ‘I’m a student. I want to support you guys and tell me what I can do for you.’”
Quassani said that the individual had been briefed on the ticket’s platform.
Students 4 Students is campaigning with promises of parking improvements and expansion of the CSUN scholarship program.
A student campaigning for Rebels United allegedly passed out campaign fliers to students in line for the polls, in violation of CSUN election rules.
Rochel Leah Goldblatt reports on CSUN student government for The Rebel Yell. Contact her at
rochelleah.goldblatt.ry@gmail.com. Contact Haley Etchison at news@gunlvrebelyell.com.
I just went to Angie Sullivan’s FB page and found more than a hundred searchable photos, including photos of herself.
Another
article where The Rebel Yell shows it’s true colors as a billboard for
conservative ideas, mostly illogical conspiracy theories and fear
mongering.
“Members of the Rebels United campaign followed who they claimed was Democratic Party activist Angie Sullivan around campus”
The
UNLV paper implies that Angie Sullivan was in some way connected with
the illegal fliers. They have no proof that she was connected to it but
they would like readers to believe that she is regardless of the fact
that there is no proof.
The
UNLV paper goes on to state, “Rebels United supporter Ken Minster
identified Sullivan from photos on her Facebook page, and the party
believes she may be among those behind the effort.”
Again,
there is no proof that she was on campus for malicious reasons. These
statements by the UNLV paper do bring up some very important questions
though. Why did Ken Minster blame Angie Sullivan for something he had no
proof of? An even better question also comes to mind. Why was Ken
Minster, a UNLV student, able to identify Angie Sullivan, an elementary
school teacher, from her Facebook account? An account which has no
personal photo on the main wall and very few searchable photos.
The
UNLV paper wants readers to suspend disbelief, ignore the complete
absence of facts, ignore the creepy stalker behavior of Ken Minster, and
just follow along with their poorly cobbled together narrative about
“the Democratic Party” being out to get Mark Ciavola.
To
fully understand the real facts behind the article you have to dig
deeper than the highly partisan UNLV paper bothered to do. A very quick
search on Ken Minster shows that he has listed himself as “Campus
Outreach Director for the UNLV College Republicans” on his twitter
account. The two political parties don’t usually employ college students
to do opposition research on activists for opposing parties but it
seems that in Ken Minster’s case they have made an exception. There
really is no other plausible reason that he could or would recognize
Angie Sullivan, a relatively unknown K-12 education activist, on seeing
her unless of course he really is stalking her. Let’s hope he’s a paid
operative for the Republican Party and not stalking an overweight
elementary school teacher.
The
one thing the UNLV paper is very careful to steer clear of is Mark
Ciavola’s documented history of being paid by the Joe Heck (R)
Congressional campaign for harassing his political opponent, ex-UNLV
professor, Congressional Representative Dina Titus. I doubt anyone would
blame the democratic party if they decided to give Mark Ciavola a taste
of his own screeching hissing venom but if they were out to get him
wouldn’t they have done a better and more organized job of it? The UNLV
paper also avoids mentioning Mark Ciavola’s continued use of the UNLV
College Republican’s resources to campaign for office and to recruit
Republican volunteers for his presidential bid.
The
UNLV paper decides to double down with their unaccredited statement
that, “Two Facebook accounts associated with ABC were shut down due to
alleged harassment.” Anyone bothering to contact Facebook to inquire
about these “ABC” accounts being shut down for “harassment” won’t be
surprised to learn that Facebook has no record of shutting down any such
accounts.
All
of this leads to the UNLV paper’s continued cobbling together of rumors
that some mysterious student was overheard speaking out against The
Rebel Yell’s endorsed candidate Mark Ciavola. The sum total of all the
provided evidence leaves any intelligent reader wondering why the UNLV
paper is publishing a conspiracy theory dreamt up by Mark Ciavola and
Ken Minster in a dark smokey room inside the Republican Party offices.
GO AMY!!!!!!!!!1
Campus Outreach Director for the Republicans (Ken Minster) accuses a “Democratic Party activist” and liberuls for trying to ruin Mark’s campaign? He has no proof but he ran to the Rebel Yell, which endorsed Mark, and they ran it like it’s true?
Was there nothing else going on? No REAL news?