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Jessica Darland/Iowa State Daily

Government of the Student Body President Hillary Kletscher said that she wants to see spending caps on election campaigns.

GSB campaign spending sparks controversy By Makayla.Tendall @iowastatedaily.com

other outside of Beardshear Hall, signing up people for free throughout the week. On Wednesday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. they will be serve hot chocolate and

Government of the Student Body members prepare for elections after the former election commissioner questioned whether or not GSB President Hillary Kletscher campaigned illegally during last year’s campaign season. Adam Guenther, the election commissioner for last year’s elections, brought one of Kletscher’s comments about the possibility of buying students’ votes in last year’s election to the GSB Supreme Court’s attention, asking the court to look into the issue. Though the Supreme Court decided not to hear the case, Guenther said he wanted to bring the comment to light to be sure Kletscher’s presidency wasn’t founded on votes that were bought. During the last GSB Senate meeting of the fall semester, the senate voted to not have caps on election campaigning, so candidates could spend however much they wanted on campaigns and not have to stick to the previous cap of $1,250. Kletscher vetoed the bill soon after it was passed. During the Jan. 14 GSB meeting, the senate tried to override Kletscher’s veto, but ultimately failed. Kletscher argued that not having a spending cap would allow students to overspend, which could lead to campaigning discrepancies. “I bought some votes last year. I did,” Kletscher said during the Jan. 14 meeting. “I had people tell me, ‘oh, you bought me candy. You gave me hot chocolate.’ I personally could have spent more than the spending limits on my campaign. But because it was there, it allowed me to make smarter financial decisions and do what was best for the Government of the Student Body.” Kletscher said just the fact that the small perks like candy and hot chocolate had some monetary value to get students’ attention and start a conversation could have meant that money influenced students to vote for her. She was arguing to have caps because if candidates were able to spend a lot of money, it would not only be financially detrimental, but candidates could spend money in extravagant ways that would influence students to vote for them. “I really tried to think about innovative and new ways to start a conversation with students. Some of those ways did include having hot chocolate on campus on a freezing day and giving candy by some of the dining areas on campus,” Kletscher said. “It’s the same thing if you think of student organizations that have free pizza the first month of every year. Everyone loves something free, especially in college because we all have those tight budgets.” Though Kletscher did not exceed the $1250 cap, she said she spent right up to the limit and used similar campaigning techniques during the two years she campaigned for executive positions. “At the end of the day, I want any student who’s attending Iowa State to be able to run. I want every student to feel like they can do that and not have to take out more student loans to keep up with what maybe their peers are doing to campaign. The spending cap is really important for that,” Kletscher said. She said talking to student organizations about her campaign platform was the biggest reason she was elected. “It’s been really great that I’ve been able to go back to some of the larger student [organizations] this year and say, ‘hey, remember that parking thing we talked about? We did that. We opened 95 spots. Remember talking about raising tutor wages? That happened,’” Kletscher said. However, Guenther said Kletscher’s comments were out of line for a GSB president, who is supposed to represent students. While the Supreme Court decided to throw out Guenther’s case, he said Kletscher’s comments made him question the legitimacy of her entire presidency. “I think she said it pretty cavalierly. Whether it be one-cent candies you pick up at the dollar store or $100 you pass

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Large sporting events pose as networking opportunity for sex traffickers By Danielle.Ferguson @iowastatedaily.com While you were watching the Super Bowl, drinking beer and munching on chips, you probably weren’t thinking about the thousands of men, youth and women who are being forced to have sex with complete strangers. That’s because while millions of Americans watched Tom Brady attempt to throw a touchdown pass, thousands of youth, men and women were trafficked in and around Glendale and Phoenix, Ariz. Sex trafficking — the use of violence, threats, fraud or coercion to force men, women and children into commercial sex against their will — and the Super Bowl have a history of being connected, so says a number of media articles around the nation. However, the correlation might more be created by the media rather than hard data, as human trafficking happens every day, says Brandon

Bouchard from Polaris Project, an organization that attempts to disrupt conditions that allow human trafficking. There were more than 10,000 news articles about sex trafficking and the Super Bowl in 2014. “Polaris definitely falls on the side of saying that we don’t think there is a lot of evidence out there to support the idea that there is a massive spike in human trafficking,” Bouchard said. Bouchard said Polaris has received an influx of phone calls and media requests about the Super Bowl. “We want to make clear that awareness is meant to be conducted so that people understand this is a problem year round,” Bouchard said. “That’s an issue that goes well beyond the Super Bowl, in that there hasn’t been a prevalent study conducted for the United States, specifically on the issue of sex and labor trafficking or modern slavery

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More than 300,000 youth and women are estimated to be trafficked in the United States ever year. 18,645 human trafficking cases reported since 2007 90,480 hotline tips since December 2007 600,000 to 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year. More than 70 percent is female and 50 percent is children. The average age a teen enters the sex trade in the U.S. is 12 to 14-year-old. Between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. each year. Trafficking generates a profit of $32 billion every year. Backpage.com, a site often mentioned when speaking of commercial sex, featured about 1,000 advertisements for commercial sex as of Saturday night, with more than half featuring some sort of “Super Bowl special.” The weekend before the Super Bowl, backpage. com donned about 200 commercial sex ads the weekend of Jan. 16 to Jan. 18 in the same area.

*Information courtesy of Polaris Project, U.S. Department of Defense and DoSomething.org

Colleges Against Cancer paints campus purple By Berenice.Liborio @iowastatedaily.com The Iowa State University chapter of Colleges Against Cancer hopes to paint the campus purple and raise money for cancer awareness and research. People can register for the group’s largest event — Relay for Life — from Sunday through Saturday. The theme for the event this year is superheroes and the slogan is “saving the world, one lap at a time.” The ISU chapter will have a fundraiser at Insomnia Cookies on Tuesday. Part of its profits for that day will go to Colleges Against Cancer. Its goal this year is to raise $115,000. Last year, the event raised more than $103,000. “We are trying to push ourselves even more and we can all be heroes in a sense,” Jordan Schill, senior in marketing and vice president of Colleges Against Cancer.

Iowa State Daily

Colleges Against Cancer kicked off Rally Week on Sunday, where people can sign up for Relay for Life, which is March 6 and 7, for free.

Tim McKeague, sophomore in accounting and treasurer of Colleges Against Cancer, suggests students raise money as a team and not just go to the relay without any donation. “As a fundraising goal,

we hope each team raises at least $100,” McKeague said. “So it all adds up in the long run.” They will have booths at the Memorial Union — one outside of the Union Drive Community Center and an-