If You Had The Votes, UW Candidate Had The Beer

Maybe the beer was too warm or the flowers wilted.

Whatever the case, a spirited bid by a University of Washington senior-class president to become student-body president partly by giving premium beer to fraternities and potted azaleas to sororities went flat Thursday after he lost the election.

“I just wanted people to remember my name,” said Marcus Charles, a member of Kappa Sigma and one of four candidates for president of Associated Students of the University of Washington. “I don’t think the beer had anything to do with (losing).”

He gave buds - not Buds - to sororities, which ban alcohol.

He spent $1,845.60 on the campaign whereas other candidates spent $332.69 each as a record 2,421 votes were cast by UW students (usually about 1,200 students of the UW’s 33,000 vote in such elections).

The state Liquor Control Board says Charles violated state laws by giving away beer without a license. If the beer was given to minors, that too is illegal. Both crimes are misdemeanors.

Charles said he gave beer - 33 half-racks - only to fraternity presidents he knew were over 21.

“There’s no law against giving a friend a beer,” said Bill Schroeder, an enforcement agent in charge of the Liquor Board’s Seattle office. “But trafficking is when you give away alcohol as an inducement.”

Ricardo Galindez, assistant to the vice president for student affairs, said the UW would not immediately investigate Charles’ actions because the beer was delivered to fraternity houses, all of which are off campus and not subject to on-campus law.

Mike Suydam, a student who chairs the Election Administration Committee, said the committee would file a complaint if they learned any recipients were under age.

Under state law, trafficking is the selling, supplying or distribution of alcohol without a state license and is punishable by a $500 fine and up to 60 days in jail.

“I figured I’d take some heat.”