Following allegations that he has attempted to sway the Student Association election, President Travis Nemmer said he could never be a puppet master. That requires way too much coordination, he said. He couldn't tie his shoes until fourth grade.
Voting booths opened in the Student Union Theater Tuesday and will remain open through Thursday. On Monday, The Spectrum published an article entitled "Accusations of injustice shroud SA election," in which Treasurer Justin Neuwirt stated his belief that Nemmer had been unethically influencing the election for next year's executive board. Nemmer responded to Neuwirt's claims in the Monday article, but he spoke on the topic in greater detail in a meeting with The Spectrum on Tuesday.
"Public service announcement: It's a student election," said Nemmer, who referenced heavy controversy among SA members following the story's publishing. "Everyone needs to calm down. Neither of us are using our powers to sway the election, if for no other reason than [Neuwirt] has a job after this and I'm going to law school, and we both have much better things to do with our time than try to rig an election."
Nemmer said he had a meeting with Neuwirt Monday and they found it funny that while many SA members were up in arms over the apparent division between the president and treasurer, Nemmer and Neuwirt are still on friendly terms.
"The relationship between me and Justin has certainly not gone downhill," Nemmer said. "At the end of the day, this is just business."
Neuwirt said he and Nemmer still get along fine and are not best friends, but they aren't on the e-board to be best friends.
"I expected everybody to hate me as the whistleblower of all of this," Neuwirt said. "A lot of the stuff that was published is the truth. Obviously, people are going to deny it."
Nemmer reiterated his belief that his proxying for the Senate, People of Color (POC) and Assembly is not unethical. He said when Neuwirt was running for SUNY delegate in 2011, then-VP Shervin Stoney proxied and broke a tie to endorse Neuwirt.
Nemmer said when he endorsed candidates for POC and went into the hall to call Anna Sheng, for whom he proxied, to get her decision, he called on speakerphone with Elections and Credentials (E&C) Chair Raphew Fahm and E&C member Theresa Cervantes present.
Nemmer also said assertions that the E&C committee has ties to Spirit presidential candidate Nick Johns are "completely, irrevocably and objectively false," and explained that, for example, E&C member Judy Mai ran alongside Neuwirt on the 2012 United Party ticket and he believes she has no link to Johns.
The Monday article outlined that Fahm had appointed Meghan McMonagle - the 2011-12 vice president who was involved in a $300,000 mobile application scandal - to the E&C committee. Fahm and Neuwirt then engaged in argument concerning McMonagle.
"She wanted to be part of the committee because she wanted to stay out of the political affairs, and the best way to do that is to be on the committee," Fahm said. "Everybody will leave you alone. It's basically an immunity card."
Fahm said McMonagle stepped down because she didn't want to deal with the press discovering her involvement with the election, which ended up coming to light regardless. Fahm, like Nemmer, had qualms with Neuwirt's assertion that the E&C committee is linked to Johns.
"The list is publicly available for anybody to look at any time," Fahm said. "I'm willing to go through the list with anyone who asks, and I'm willing to point out any connections to candidates. Ultimately, the committee is linked to Nick Johns in the same sense they're linked to [Forward presidential candidate] Carson Ciggia, in that everybody is a UB student."
Nemmer had a final message for the Spirit and Forward parties, which infiltrated the Student Union Tuesday and inundated students with flyers as they attempted to convince people to vote.
"I've been watching you guys for a couple hours now," Nemmer said. "Good Lord, do not stand in f***king clumps of people."
Email: news@ubspectrum.com
