Daniel Sakow, Staff Photographer

Many Washington pundits quip that money and advertising are what gets votes, but does this adage hold trueat San Diego State?

Associated Students released campaign expenditures figures yesterday that show just how much candidates actually spent on the signs and T-shirts seen across campus throughout the past few weeks. But while there seems to be some correlation between the money spent on campaigns and votes, there were also some surprises.

In the presidential and vice president of finance categories, winners Matt Keipper and Tyler Morgan were also the big spenders. Each of the candidates spent more than $1,000 more than the next biggest spender.

Morgan spent the most out of all executive council candidates with $2,945.51 in personal funds and $427.50 in donations. That is more than triple his competitors’ spending combined with Lauren Burns and Eric Lyman spending $800 and $175.55 respectively.

However, despite striking differences in budgets, the VP of finance position was the most hotly contested of the elections with Morgan coming out on top by only 17 votes.

Khouloud Elmarsi also won a close election for VP of external affairs, spending $1,304.37 to Erin Hogeboom’s $578.80.

Keipper outspent at least one of his competitors, Daniel Goldberg, who used $361.51 but was disqualified before gaining 11.2 percent of the vote. The campaign expenditures of Andrew Roy, who finished with 41.8 percent of the vote, are still a mystery, however, as he failed to turn in his expenditure receipts by the April 7 deadline.

Although the elections are over, A.S. elections committee will convene this afternoon to decide whether Roy should be reprimanded or disqualified for this violation, but this decision will not change the outcome of the election. Roy could not be reached for comment by the time of print.

Despite these successes with high spending, other candidates discovered that money does not always buy votes.

Sabrina Brown came in third out of four for VP of university affairs despite spending more than the other three candidates combined. Brown’s $1,260 suggests a limit that dwarfed competitor John Ly’s $826.11. However, it did not stop Ly from a landslide victory.

Likewise, Amanda Venegas spent $1,674.48, which included a $480 donation from her Alpha Phi sorority, but lost her bid for executive VP to Brian Hamilton, who used only $759.81 on his campaign.

Despite the successes of these relatively low spenders, money should not be completely ruled out. Eric Lyman, Brad Webb and Edmundo Garcia all spent in the neighborhood of $200 this year and will all miss out for A.S. executive council next year.

In the past, there was a limit as to how much candidates could spend, but this was done away with in 2000. Despite allowing an unlimited amount of personal funds, donations are capped at $500.