Despite some of REACH’s banners being torn down, the party has decided not to report the incident to the Board of Elections, upholding a vow to campaign cleanly.
In the shadow of last year’s negative senate campaign season, the REACH and yOU tickets have agreed on one thing — to keep the campaign clean.
“I think it’s been a clean campaign so far,” said Kate Steven, Board of Elections chair. “So far, so good.”
Several of REACH’s banners that were hung on Mill and Palmer streets were ripped off and taken, said Zach George, presidential candidate for REACH.
However, yOU’s presidential candidate, Tony Koehling, said he is confident his candidates weren’t involved.
“I know that it was no one related to my party whatsoever,” said Koehling, a junior studying political science. “It must just be a case of random vandalism.”
Some of REACH’s flyers have also been taken and chalking erased in what has been an otherwise fair campaign, George said.
“I think both parties have been doing a wonderful job to cleanly campaign,” Koehling said. “No one is negatively talking between parties.”
Koehling’s web-based campaign tactics decrease opportunities to negatively campaign against yOU, George said.
“It’s easy for us to not negatively campaign when there’s not anything for us to campaign negatively against,” said George, a junior studying finance.
Steven agrees that the campaigning has thus far been fair, adding that the board has not received any complaints or repeals related to negative campaigning.
“I think they’re all great candidates,” Steven said. “They’ve passed our background checks and have all acted very professionally. What I’ve seen has all been positive.”
If a candidate filed a complaint with the board, it would analyze the situation as “unbiased as possible.” The board would then meet with the individuals and determine a conclusion, Steven said.
sj950610@ohiou.edu
