Hey y’all, this is not my account, I was accidentally signed into another persons account. Didn’t want to misrepresent. ~Lindsay
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Hey y’all, this is not my account, I was accidentally signed into another persons account. Didn’t want to misrepresent. ~Lindsay
Just to clarify, these "charges" are actually official complaints from another campaign, not like "charges" that originated with the SGA or some official body.Originally Posted by BLUE
The article in Tech Talk was very thorough, and in my opinion did a good job of covering both sides, but it was very confusing, and not completely clear which charges stood and which charges were dropped, and more importantly, what specific charge(s) were the official reason for disqualifying Smith.
As someone whos been around the whole time, worked with both parties, seen them in action, I can say that the two candidates are both good people. Had Babcock lost fairly, there is no doubt that he would have held his head high and congratulated Smith, HOWEVER, Caleb's campaign was playing dirty from day one. Actually, before that... he sent an e-mail announcing his candidacy prior to the time one is able to campaign. He plays the role of "innocent, I didnt do anything," nicely, but the truth of the matter is... he played wrong and whomever called him on it... he was called on it. When rules are broken, OUR governing body is there to determine justice. Prior to all of this, however, the elections commision warned Mr. Smith and removed his 30 dollar deposit. Sit down gracefully!
Now, as for the appeal being filed from a campaign. Yes, his campaign team may have collaborated and authored the article, but the 50 signatures that were attached werent from any team. In fact, three were former Caleb supporters. The people deserve to know that the Smith team was in clear violation of numerous codes... three of which were in that appeal.
The fact is:
Caleb Smith was not impeached. Rather, he was disqualified from the race. This is due to numberous violations of the election code. At the mandatory election meeting, all candidates were given a copy of the bylaws that contained the election code. By signing their name, they agreed to follow by the rules. However, one candidate did not follow by the rules. Mr. Smith was given a warning, something done out of courtesy by the election commision. There is more to the story than is being told here. I encourage you to drop by the SGA office in Tolliver to get a copy of the public records in order to educate yourself further on this matter.
ok...so I'm kinda biased...like CNN only cover their half of the story. haha.
Actually Caleb's campaign manager told me he was impeached right after all of this happened, and that is why i titled the thread "Impeachment." That is where I got my original information. She wanted me to get everybody to protest SGA's decision.
I don't like the way Caleb ran his campaign. His campaign slogan was "LSU-R? Heck no!" It seemed that he was uneducated on the issue. He never really talked about any issues; he just used political rhetortic. He sent a facebook message out to all Tech students bribing them free Chick-fil-a. I haven't talked to him in over a year, and he sent me a facebook message asking me to send out a campaign message from him to all of my groups. When I was obviously trying to study for a test, his campaign people came to me telling me to vote for him and giving me a lot of candy because Caleb was "sweet." That was cute. During the presidential debate he did a back-flip. He juggles, does toe-touches, and back-flips during SGA meetings. Those are actions of a clown, not a President. Don't get me wrong. I like Caleb. He is a tremendous ambassador to this university; however, I just do not approve of the manner in which he ran his campaign.
And just a sidenote...Caleb has 1190 LA Tech friends. Babcock has 187. Caleb won the election by 92 votes. I thought that was interesting from an engineer's perspective.
Caleb's campaign manager obviously is not familiar with what is going on. The election commission decided to disqualify him in a meeting on Sunday night. Mr. Smith appealed this decision to the supreme court. The Supreme Court upheld the election commissions' decision with a 4-2 vote on Tuesday.
According to the documents, the election commission did not approve of Smith using the "LSU-R? Heck NO" slogan either. SGA President Lindsay Mencacci informed all members of the senate that this was not true and to dispell all rumors of Tech becoming LSU-R before the mandatory election meeting; however, Mr. Smith still used this as his campaign slogan. One of his campaign managers even went as far to post that Babcock supported Tech becoming LSU-R on a Facebook discussion group. This is not the truth; she edited this after being confronted by Babcock earlier this week.
Only about 1200 students voted in the election. So, all those facebook fanatics must not have gotten out to vote after being bribed and entertained. The flips and juggling didn't impress me!! Maybe Babcock will learn an amazing talent now that he is President and this ruling can NOT be overturned since it has been decided by the Supreme Court, the SGA's final authority.
From a non-engineer, who sits around counting his number of friends?
Caleb Smith. :icon_roll
For clarification, it's a Facebook.com thing. They're "virtual friends," not "real friends."
Facebook... yes, virtualy friends.
Acording to the SGA constitution, the student's could demand a new election all together. Won't happen.
If I ever want to throw an election, I'll move the other persons fliers to SGA "A" Frames. Haha! I'm just joking.
Fun Fact: about 75% of the SGA were Babcock supporters
The appeal process came down to mudslinging on the character of Caleb Smith. He should have been disqualified for campaigning in the polling area under constitutional ruling. The proper ruling was made since his deposit had previously been forfeited due to the "A" framd and car issue. He wore his campaign shirt in the restricted area while he passed out fliers telling to vote for the SGA backed 20 for 20 parking improvement amendment. (not himself). The initial appeal filed by the Babcock campaign to the Campaign Committee was filed without Caleb’s knowing, nor his having a chance to defend himself. This was later appealed by Caleb to the SGA Supreme Court.
I had no part in promoting Caleb for the Presidency, ( I voted no for the 20 for 20 and was also against his use of the slogan “LSU-R, Heck No”) although I do know him personally and have spoken to him. I have also gotten to know this case extremely very intimately and have recently taken a great interest in campus politics. Point being, the entire process was handled poorly. Caleb Smith is a dedicated and passionate individual who wants to see the SGA do great things. However, the one thing that should be said at this point in time is that Caleb Smith is a man of integrity and should be treated with the do respect that he deserves.
“T”
Official: Caleb will not file an appeal to the Student Organization Board which has ustimate power over every campus organization including the SGA. Nor will his campaign team.
However, after the appeal date has passed, Wednesday at 2:30, an appeal will be made to the Student Organization Board concerning the Constitution and Bylaws of the SGA. President Mencacci agreed with me when we spoke that both documents need major revisions concerning the issue of elections and especially concerning the SGA Supreme Court in general. There are many slight contradictions and one-way loopholes in both the SGA Constitution and its Bylaws. Of the two documents, virtually no policy concerning the Supreme Court at all exists. (the Supreme Court has only been part of SGA for approximately three years) The appeal to the Student Organization Board is not going to be an attack on the SGA; the main reason for waiting until all other drama has passed. The SOB (haha, now that's irony) will simply give a mandate to SGA stating that they must revise both documents within a certain amount of time. Caleb has no part in this appeal either, but it has been discussed with him. His concern was with upholding the integrity of the SGA as was Barry Morales' and Lindsay Mencacci's. The appeal will neither hinder nor hurt the integrity of the SGA and will simply be used as a tool to ensure that both of the aforementioned documents are sufficiently revised in a timely matter.
Please email me if you would like more information on this matter:
dco009@latech.edu
"T'
I guess I'm showing my age, huh?
Blue, I agree with you for the most part. It is sad that such good guys, Caleb and Matt, are caught up in this "character war" because that's not where the big issues are. At the end of the day, Matt ran a campaign by the book and Caleb didn't. And the vote was only a 92 vote difference, it's easy for me to believe (with my 4 years experience in SGA) that 46, if not more, people were influenced by the illegal campaigning (3 direct violations to the election code, all of which I personally witnessed) and the "LSU-R" stunt. Lots of people think that SGA did something wrong, but we didn't. We did everything by the book, our governing documents, which by the way both Matt and Caleb have sworn by oath to uphold for the past 2 years. I'll admit the books aren't perfect and some issues in this race weren't covered, but every decision we made was to ensure a FAIR race was conducted. So, there are 2 issues here in my opinion: 1st - Caleb broke some rules (maybe not on purpose) and Matt did not, so in my opinion the disqualification was just; 2nd - there are some challenges within our documents that need to be address, but by no fault of Caleb, Matt or any other member of our SGA, so if anyone is angry about the situation they should get involved with the process. Honestly, it's time to get to work. The more time we spend filing appeals and talking about it, the less we are serving the students. Caleb and Matt are both great guys and at the end of the day they will realize (if they havn't already) that this organization and the people we serve are more important than the title they will hold or their personal differences. Sorry this is such a long post, I am pretty passionate about this whole issue. Have a HAPPY EASTER everyone!!!
I think it's really good that people are coming here to debate this issue.
Matt actually did have his vote for Babcock pin on in the poling area... Caleb just never appealed that. But yes TechGal, you're right. Everything was done by the books and the entire election and appeals process was done according to both the Constitution and the Bylaws.
I also agree that both Matt and Caleb are great guys.
"T"
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