All TU Candidates Separate from Slate Due to “Irreconcilable Differences”

Connor Gorry / The Triton

All of Tritons United’s (TU) remaining candidates have separated themselves from their slate over the weekend and refiled as independent candidates due to conflicts with their slate leader and former Associated Students of UC San Diego (ASUCSD) presidential candidate, Joseph Giltner.

The former TU candidates said that they are not “jumping ship” but instead want to highlight their general discontent and disappointment with the TU brand, in a submission published Sunday.

According to ASUCSD elections code, candidates that have filed under a slate are only allowed to refile as independents, so the newly independent candidates are unable to run together as a combined slate.

AS Campuswide Senator candidate Danielle Vivani, speaking on behalf of the 13 former TU candidates, told The Triton, ”We will strive to represent all UCSD students within AS—something we believe political parties have failed to do for this campus.”

Giltner, TU VP Campus Affairs candidate Elvin Topalov, and FRESH START VP External Affairs candidate Crystal Sandoval were removed as AS candidates over spring break. In the past week, TU has faced campaign finance violations and has had multiple grievances filed against it. The Elections Committee disqualified TU yesterday for repeated campaign finance violations.

The newly independent candidates commented, “Our disassociation aims to bring light to greater issues, both historical and current, that plague the Tritons United name and brand.”

TU had to remove Giltner from campaign materials in 2016 after a candidate filed a grievance against TU for “misleading voters” by advertising him as a presidential candidate, even though he was not a registered candidate. Giltner told The UCSD Guardian that he decided not to run after TU had already created campaign materials.

These newly independent candidates will not have the statement saying that TU violated campaign finance rules next to their names. While they took responsibility for not catching the problems in their slate, they attributed those mistakes to campaign leadership and not themselves.

Giltner told The Triton that he supports the election of the former TU candidates but did not want to respond to additional questions about the disqualifications.

Voting for AS Elections ends Friday at 4:00 p.m. You can view our endorsements for AS executive candidates here.

Orianna Borrelli is the News Editor of The Triton.