Tritons United! Not Given a Fair Shake

Dear Editor:

The Guardian seems to print just about anything these days. You’ll print Alicia White’s lies about me supposedly “campaigning for president” while fighting for the Office of Academic Support and Instructional Services. I never talked about running for president when I was helping O.A.S.I.S.

You’ll print my opponent, Harry Khanna, claiming that he should win because he has “A.S. experience.” I’m proud of not being part of the A.S. political machine. Khanna and Student Voice have hurt this campus. No one on Tritons United shut down a TV station. No one on Tritons United voted to illegally triple funding for Khanna’s fraternity, screwing other clubs in the process. I’m proud of our record. We spoke out against funneling extra cash to Pi Kappa Alpha, and we spoke out against shutting down Student-Run Television. Khanna, however, did neither. And as far as experience goes: I ran for California governor against Arnold Schwarzenegger and Cruz Bustamante while Harry Khanna was still at his private high school.

You quoted Khanna saying that when I criticize the extra funding A.S. gave to Pi Kappa Alpha, it “makes the whole Greek system look bad.” I never mentioned any other Greek orgs: Only Pike had the gall to screw the system for their fraternity Vegas trip. No other Greek org tried to pilfer the student treasury. And Khanna is the one who makes his fraternity look bad: He’s the one who cowered in fear of Pike and let his Pike brother Greg Murphy, the vice president of finance, give them extra cash for their Vegas trip.

The Guardian is being incredibly biased in this election. You let Harry Khanna rip apart my platform with his lies, but you never gave me a chance to respond to anything he said in his own platform. Half of the article on my campaign consisted of slanderous quotes from Khanna, but his article made him out to look like an angel. You never examined his record of doing nothing, standing idly by while SRTV collapses around him and O.A.S.I.S. loses funding.

You also failed to report on misogynistic comments made by Josh Pengson on the online message board SDuncensored three weeks before the start of official campaigning. Pengson, running for commuter at large in Warren College, attacked Tritons United’s vice president internal candidate, Alicia Coates, in a vicious and vile way. He said that people shouldn’t vote for her because she’s modeled for Maxim magazine and was a Raiders cheerleader. Pengson and Student Voice apparently can’t get past the surface — not surprising, since Khanna’s campaign slogan last year was “Make A.S. really good-looking.” They don’t realize that Coates isn’t just beautiful, she’s also a strong, intelligent, political science honors student with a near-perfect GPA who’s advising a San Diego congressional campaign. Tritons United is proud to be running with such a person. I wish Khanna and Student Voice could say the same about Pengson.

I’d like to invite any student who hears something about me or Tritons United to contact me at [email protected].

— Daniel Watts

A.S. Presidential Candidate