Re: "USG campaign rules to limit fliers, funding," Feb. 12 article.

First things first, the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) is nowhere near what federal elections are. After saying that, one cannot wonder why USG is committing the same problem that corrupts our current federal elections; that is of campaign financing.

This Tuesday, USG Senate ratified the elections code allowing for executive tickets to have exorbitant spending caps of $700. Why is this a problem? For the same reason it's a problem in federal elections: because elections turn into a bidding war to see who wins. In every federal election cycle, it is a fact that the party or nominee who spends the most money wins. The same goes for USG -- the last two executive tickets who spent the most money (although not so disparaging from the amount spent by the runner- ups) won the election.

The problem isn't that people are spending a lot. If they want to win an election so badly they spend nearly $1,000 dollars, then by all means, go ahead. But numerous people who have great intentions and platforms who cannot spend that amount surely will back down because of such an insurmountable disadvantage.

At a time when tuition continues to rise and the administration continues to ignore the students, the last thing we need is fewer candidates and opinions. Last I checked, the federal election system only honors two candidates, both of which pretty much are the same thing. In an institution of higher education, we need to instill better democratic values instead of less.