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The student Democrats held a “Midnight Madness” event Monday night, when they put up campaign signs and wrote chalk messages supporting Democratic candidates across the campus. Student Democrats said some of the material was torn down or washed away by WSU maintenance staff by Tuesday morning, and a WSU professor was observed tearing down materials on Tuesday afternoon.
Minnesota law restricts placing or distributing campaign information within 100 feet of polling sites. Ian Galchutt and Gerald Strauss, president and vice president respectively of the WSU College Democrats, said their Republican counterparts had complained to the university and convinced staff to take down the signs, even those that were placed beyond a 100-foot boundary from Kryzsko Commons, a polling place on campus.
The university ultimately determined, based on advice from the attorney general’s office, that the Democrats could place campaign information on WSU property, as long as it was 100 feet away from Kryzsko Commons. The Minnesota Attorney General’s office would not comment on the issue because of attorney-client privilege. The AG’s office represents WSU as a state institution.
Material placed or written on blue emergency phones, building signs, and parking lot signs was taken down because the university has a policy against material campaign related or not being placed on those items.
“Even a sign for a sorority house’s chili cookout would have had to be taken down,” WSU spokeswoman Mollee Sheehan said. “It doesn’t matter what the signs say.”
But Strauss said other material was taken down that did not violate those rules.
Kurt Lohide, WSU vice president for finance and administrative, denied claims by Democrats that his staff removed legally placed campaign material. His office received complaints that staff may be taking down signs, but he said they were immediately instructed to not do so. There was no evidence that WSU maintenance staff was responsible for removing any campaign materials, except those placed in illegal areas or those that violated WSU policy, he said
“There was no direction from me or facilities to take down any signs or chalk or any of those kinds of things,” Lohide said.
Nevertheless, Edward Roberts, a WSU physics professor, was taking down Obama signs Tuesday afternoon. He said the canvassing of the campus by a campaign was inappropriate and said the chalk would be hard to remove from limestone on buildings.
“This is revolting,” Roberts said. “If I were Obama people, I would be embarrassed.”
WSU College Republican president Thom Heiderscheit said Democrats, Republicans and WSU officials had previously agreed to restrict placing material on the campus entirely because of ambiguous language in a new Minnesota statute that restricts campaigning on “public property on which a polling place is situated.” The university flipped on its decision, he said, after Democrats complained.
Republicans said they called WSU officials about the signs Tuesday morning because they were under the impression that campus campaigning was banned. Heiderscheit said he saw an employee removing signs from the campus courtyard.
Heiderscheit said the sign removal ceased after WSU’s legal department contacted the attorney general for advice, and the Republicans dropped the issue.
Heiderscheit was adamant that the College Republicans did not remove any signs themselves. College Republicans are debating whether they should challenge the statute in court or ask to have the polling site in Kryzsko Commons moved in the future, he said.
Nolan Rosenkrans may be (507) 453-3519 or at nolan.rosenkrans@lee.net. Winona Daily News’ Katie Derus contributed to this report.
CaptnTony wrote on Nov 5, 2008 3:46 PM:
Also, why does the checker count a second space/carriage return as a word?
Oh, and stop using 1s and lower case Ls in the image verification. Either use all CAP letters (no zeros (0) then) or use lower case letters (no ones (1)). Or find a way to make numbers bigger to indicate they are numbers not the letters. Just an idea in case a mod is reading the posts. (sorry for off topic rant, but it catches me almost every time) "