Five students in Walton Complex told the Emerald Tuesday that a woman came to their rooms and pressured them to vote for Sam Dotters-Katz and Johnny Delashaw last Friday. All five students identified the woman as former Student Senate President Sara Hamilton.
Andrew McNulty contacted the Emerald Tuesday afternoon and said Hamilton identified herself by name and talked about her campaign for ASUO president last year.
McNulty, a political science major, said he was familiar with her name but he had no connections to the ASUO or any campaign. He said he had not been following this year's election, but was surprised when he read recently that Hamilton had no formal role in the Oregon Action Team campaign.
A case pending before the ASUO Constitution Court centers on Hamilton's involvement with the campaign. Matt Rose, campaign manager for the Rock the Yellow slate, is challenging Dotters-Katz and Delashaw's win because a check Hamilton wrote to the Emerald was not listed as a campaign contribution.
Rose's grievance states that Hamilton is a member of Oregon Action Team's campaign committee. The ASUO elections board, the respondents in the case, recently told the court there is no proof that Oregon Action Team has "expressed authorization, either explicit or implicit, for her actions."
"She was using words like 'we' and 'our,'" McNulty said, "and I completely thought she was affiliated with those people."
He said Hamilton pressured him and his roommate, Sam Olson, to vote for Oregon Action Team candidates.
McNulty said he gave Hamilton his computer and allowed her to vote for who she wanted. "I was very uncomfortable but I was trying to be polite," he said.
Hamilton told the Emerald Tuesday that she could not recall campaigning in Walton Complex. She said she campaigned all over campus, mostly distributing leaflets on 13th Avenue and University Street.
She said she campaigned every day and several members of the Oregon Action Team live in residence halls, so she could have been seen delivering or picking up campaign materials.
She said she ate lunch at the Living Learning Center while campaigning one day and placed door hangers at Ducks Village.
University Housing rules state that candidates and their representatives must be escorted by a resident of the hall and "must not solicit or campaign to other residents in the halls."
Hamilton said she supported Dotters-Katz and Delashaw because they brought a fresh perspective to the ASUO and weren't attached to "special interests."
"That doesn't mean I didn't do things without their permission," she said.
Dotters-Katz played down his connection to Hamilton in an interview.
"Sara Hamilton's role in the campaign was pretty distant. Sara started doing stuff without our permission," he said. That started when Hamilton purchased an advertising contract with the Emerald after Dotters-Katz canceled his because the elections board disallowed it.
He said he wrote a letter asking her to "please stop." The contract "put a real strain on her part in the campaign," he said.
"I think there are a lot of reckless and inexcusably unprofessional accusations that are being thrown around," Dotters-Katz said. "For people to keep coming out of the woodwork like this is highly suspicious."
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