Before disqualification from the SGA presidential race, political science junior Elliot Sanchez faced a war of words with former opponent and presidential-elect André Breaux.

Sanchez’s handbills outlined his platform in a series of bullets, but Breaux shot back with his “Mythbusters” handbills in an attempt to debunk Sanchez’s platform positions.

While several of Sanchez’s supporters used body paint to promote Sanchez during the election, Breaux printed and distributed another handbill, this time claiming he does not “objectify women with half-naked body paintings.”

Breaux said this served as a response to Sanchez’s platform to provide support services to sexual assault victims, as advertised on one of Sanchez’s handbills.

“I, like a lot of people, complained about (Sanchez’s) blatant use of sex appeal,” Breaux said. “People are saying there is some hypocrisy here. It doesn’t seem appropriate for this type of campaign.”

“To my knowledge, there are no restrictions on the content that can be placed on campaign material,” said Sanchez. “Whether or not that means anything goes is up for dispute.”

Though the handbills sparked controversy from both candidates, Sanchez feels his have been representative since the beginning of his campaign.

“We put the handbills out since day one,” he said. “We were very consistent with our message. We know there were no formal (written) complaints made” about the content. “We made sure we complied with all the campaign rules and guidelines.”

Breaux, however, claimed “complaints were filed all along. Multiple complaints that were filed were non-verbal or personal frustrations.”

Once Sanchez received a sanction from SGA Commissioner of Elections Desiree Tirado, English writing senior, to halt campaign efforts until the polls closed, a stack of handbills were found near the polls and in the basement of the Danna Center.

“I was told verbally ‘No more handbills’ after the sanction,” Sanchez said. He said the handbills were removed from the University Programming Board office, though he is not sure how they appeared in the Danna Center.

“I talked to my staff, and we’re certain they did not distribute any handbills,” he said. “I complied completely with all sanctions and followed all guidelines to the fullest extent. At no point did we decide to violate the techniques in the election code.”

Tuesday afternoon Tirado filed a complaint with the Court of Review because of Sanchez’s alleged campaign violations. Breaux registered two complaint forms describing campaign methods used by Sanchez that did not meet the acceptable methods in Article III, Section 6 of the SGA’s Election Process which outlines the only 14 approved campaign methods.

“I don’t know if it was directly him or someone else on the campaign staff,” Breaux said of the appearance of Sanchez’s handbills in the Danna Center. “But they are an extension of him. He has to accept responsibility.”

“If you’re just looking at the complaints, I might give the impression of being nit-picky,” Breaux said. “I’m not trying to stir up the pot, I just tried to put my feelings on the record. “If I lost the popular vote and hadn’t filed a complaint, I would have always regretted knowing I had not stuck up for myself.”

Alex Woodward can be reached at [email protected].