Campaign '96 began at noon yesterday at the UA with a mad race by campaign staff to get their candidates' names up on as many bulletin boards and kiosks around campus as possible.

These candidates are running for positions in the Associated Students of the University of Arizona. Primary elections will be held March 26 and 27, with general elections a week later on April 2 and 3.

Until then, candidates campaigning for positions as president, vice president for programs and services, vice president for clubs and organizations, and undergraduate senators, will be busy passing out their platforms to students and hanging fliers around the UA campus.

The candidates were given copies of the ASUA elections code, which explains what is legal and illegal for them to do during the election process. It outlines where they can and cannot hang fliers, how they must conduct their campaigning, and also the set budget they have to spend on campaign materials.

These rules are enforced by the ASUA Elections Commission, which is headed by Jennifer Haber, this year's election commissioner. The commission monitors the candidates throughout their campaigns and is in charge of setting up the polling sites around campus.

This year Haber disqualified four candidates because they did not have a part of their candidate packets completed by the deadline.

One of the candidates who was disqualified, Steve Romero, political science junior, appealed the decision and took it to the ASUA Supreme Court. The court decided on March 7 that Romero, who is running for vice president of programs and services, could run on the ballot despite the fact he didn't have his packet fully completed on time. The other three candidates did not appeal and dropped out of the race.

Haber said there will also be some write-in candidates on the ballot whose applications are due by 5 p.m. tomorrow.

She said Kyle Dorsey, accounting and finance junior, is a definite write-in candidate who is running for a position as an ASUA senator.

ASUA President Ben Driggs said the structure of ASUA is an issue that has been in dispute for almost three years now. He said it is a constant battle between the Graduate and Professional Student Council, which wants to be a separate government, and ASUA, which wants to keep things unified.

The ASUA/GPSC structure is currently being discussed by the two governing bodies and the administration, he said.

As it stands now in ASUA, Driggs said, there is one student body president who has a cabinet and legislative bodies that he or she oversees.

The cabinet consists of the Arizona Students Association, a statewide student lobbying group. The Undergraduate Senate, the GPSC and the Central Coordinating Council, which have power similar to the veto power of the U.S. Government, all make up the legislature.

All campus clubs and organizations are funded and regulated by ASUA, along with programs and services.

Some of these programs and services include Spring Fling, the Bisexual, Gay and Lesbian Association, and the Escort Service. Students need only their UA IDs to vote in the ASUA elections.

This year, graduate students will vote for GPSC candidates through a mail-in ballot.

The Wildcat will take an in-depth look at each of these candidates throughout the campaign to find out about their platforms and also to discuss their experience as UA students that may qualify them for a student governing position.