Government of the Student Body presidential candidate Jason Boggess, senior in mechanical engineering, may have exaggerated how much help he got from members of GSB who were against seeing his opponent, speaker of the senate Jonathan Turk, junior in political science, become president.

Boggess submitted a letter that was published in Friday’s edition of the Daily where he wrote “the quantity and severity of these GSB comments has raised great concern in my eyes that simply cannot be ignored.” In the letter he claimed members of GSB were concerned about the possibility of Turk becoming president.

Boggess later said the number of people he was referring to in his letter was “about 10,” but from a list Boggess provided to the Daily, only one corroborated his story.

Boggess said any additional sources he had he would not reveal because they are his friends and they wish to remain anonymous.

However, in an e-mail Boggess referred to the individuals as “complete strangers to us two weeks ago.” Boggess then sent the Daily a list of seven individuals who he said had either expressed an opposition to Turk or helped with Boggess’ campaign. Two of the seven individuals on the list have publicly endorsed Boggess-Haskin, which is contrary to Boggess’ original claim that the individuals he referred to in the article wished to remain anonymous.

This left a list of five individuals who could potentially have been the people Boggess referred to in his letter. Only one individual confirmed that his or her name should have appeared on the list.

GSB vice president Maggie Luttrell, senior in history, was one of the five. In a previous interview, Luttrell said her name should not have been on the list. She said she supported Turk-Peterson and it would be “hypocritical” for her to say bad things about them.

The Daily contacted one of the remaining four sources who said his or her name should not have been on the list as being afraid of Turk becoming president or speaking out against him. The source declined to comment on whether or not he or she had assisted the Boggess-Haskin campaign in the election.

GSB chief justice Corey Becker, senior in political science, was also on the list from Boggess. Becker said his name should not have appeared on the list either.

“I never said I didn’t support Jason or Turk,” Becker said. “And I’m not saying they’re not viable candidates.”

Because of his position on GSB, he wanted to remain neutral in case a situation were to arise in the court.

“I thought that I had communicated to Jason that I would not be endorsing or helping either candidate with their campaign,” Becker said.

He added that he never helped either candidate with their respective campaigns and never expressed concern about the possibility of Turk becoming the next GSB president.

Becker’s statement denying the legitimacy of his name on the list left two individuals out of the original “about ten” Boggess previously referred to.

A member of GSB who was mentioned on the list said Boggess was accurate in putting his or her name on it.

“I would be scared for Turk to be president and represent the student body and university,” the source said.

The source said members of GSB don’t want to work with Turk because he always has to be in control.

“Turk is just mad because people aren’t going to vote for him because they didn’t trust his character,” the source said. “He brushes people off and hurries people through things.”

Justin Knight, junior in political science and former GSB member, was the final person from the list to be contacted.

Knight said he saw Boggess collecting signatures and asked Boggess what platforms he and Haskin were running on.

“On Feb. 19 I received an e-mail from Boggess that read: ‘Still want to help with our campaign? We are looking for people to write letters to the Daily to show the world the true side of Turk,’” he said.

Knight responded to the letter and wrote “I strongly encourage you to reconsider your campaign strategy.”

“Specifically, attempting to ‘show the world the true side of Turk’ is not only crude and unnecessary, but it is far from sagacious by any measure,” Knight wrote to Boggess.

Knight said he was “interested” in Boggess’ message.

“But beyond that I never committed to anything,” Knight said.

He said he never helped Boggess-Haskin with their campaign.

“I did say that anyone who thinks Turk is entitled to [the position] is wrong,” he added.

But he said he never said anything bad about Turk and never expressed concern about the possibility of Turk becoming the next GSB president.

“Well, I said it was around 10,” Boggess said when asked why individuals on his list were denying the legitimacy of his claims.

Statement from Boggess

I apologize to senator Turk for turning this into a mud-slinging race. My letter Friday was never meant to attack his person. It was only my intent to explain where we were coming from, how we got involved in the race and why we started late. Like I said over the past few days, from what I can tell, senator Turk is good and honorable man. Let us stop this high-school drama that has been perpetuated by the Daily and turn the race back to the issues.

Statement from Turk

I want to thank the Daily for its work on covering the election so far. With regards to responding to one or two members of GSB and their comments about a Turk presidency, I just want to say that I respect their right to their opinion. However, my work speaks for itself. To continue to partake in a game of ‘he said she said’ is simply not constructive and is pointless. With that I would like to simply say I have served in the GSB for three years and have loved the work I have done and the people I have met. I am proud to be running with an accomplished partner Chandra Peterson, and we hope to be given the chance to really tackle the issues that matter most to students in the office best equipped to address them, GSB president and vice president. I am proud to be supported by GSB senators Paul Keppy, Lauren Suerth, Elisa Berzins, Daniel Porter, Jim Smaga, Chelsea Zigtema, Brandon Fischer, Michael Weber and others, the current GSB president and vice president, the past two GSB presidents, the current GSB finance director, GSB treasurer and others. I am also proud to be supported leaders of IRHA, Freshmen Council, International Student Council, Interfraternity Council, Collegiate Panhellenic Council, Veishea and the Student Union Board.