UPDATE 2:42 PM: Damooei just called Bwog to inform us that the final word from Robert Taylor is that the Elections Board is not going to consider Krebs’ rules violation complaint because of the deal struck between Ness, Krebs, and Damooei. No idea what we’re talking about? Read on… 

The front page of today’s Spectator features an article about George Krebs’ plan to file a rules violation against Alidad Damooei in response to a comment made by outgoing CCSC President Michelle Diamond’s that Damooei and his party were “a stronger ticket.”

The Spec article (and Damooei, when Bwog spoke with him) claims that a rules violations deal was struck between Damooei and Krebs. The deal, which was facilitated by Elections Board Chair Andrew Ness, specified that Krebs would not file a rules violation against Diamond’s statements (Diamond is not allowed to endorse any candidate), if Damooei would not file a rules violation against Krebs’ party for posting a campaign flyer on the glass window of an EC computer lab, which is a violation.

According to Damooei, Ness explained to Krebs and him that if either of them were to file rules violations this late in the game, hours-long judicial hearings would prevent them from going outside and getting people to vote. Krebs and Damooei agreed that avoiding this was appealing, and the three shook hands.



This last-minute ruckus began several days ago when the Spec ran an article with a quote from Diamond saying that “Connect Columbia is a stronger ticket.”  The quote, Diamond says, was given off-the-record. Diamond told Bwog: “Now I was talking to [the reporter] on my cell while running to class and while I’ve had some trouble with working with Lien [Hoang, the author of the piece] in the past, I do really think that she has a lot of integrity and has really developed as a reporter this year, so I’m assuming she didn’t hear me or I wasn’t clear or I was talking to fast or something.”


Damooei pointed out other errors in the article: “There are major misquotes. They had two quotes from Cliff Massey that contradicted each other. That’s because the second one was [said by] Jen Choi.” Damooei sympathizes with the reporter, Lien, explaining that “she had a bunch of articles coming out that day. There was a lot of pressure that day.”

To make matters more complicated, Krebs filed a rules violation this morning against Damooei.  The reason: several days ago, Diamond printed out and showed to Spec a three-month-old email that was written by ESC President Peter Valerias that said that Krebs had “dropped the ball on off-campus Flex.”  Krebs told Bwog that the email proves that Diamond’s involvement was not merely through quote confusion but through a “thoughtful, premeditated act to really do damage to us. She was clearly trying to sway voters in the final moments.”

According to Krebs, Ness and the judicial board “won’t even consider [the rules violation] because we already had this agreement.” But things apparently can’t end there, so Krebs is taking the matter to Robert Taylor, the Executive Director of Student Life and Activities, who is the final word on all things CCSC.

Both candidates were anxious to get off the phone with Bwog so they could head back to voter outreach and both described their focus today as going towards winning the election. “By the time the smoke rises, the battle will be over,” Damooei philosophized.

– JNW