Days before the Student Association’s 2005 elections began, charges and counter-charges started flying in a tale of betrayal, secret tape-recording, and claims of attempted bribery.

Mazin Kased, chairman of the Student Association Senate and Elevation ’05 Party treasurer candidate, was taped offering a candidate from an opposing party a future SA job in exchange for dropping out of the race and denouncing his running mates.

On the tape, Kased offers SUNY SA delegate candidate Francisco Baiocchi his choice of SA positions, some of which pay stipends of several hundred dollars a month. Kased tells Baiocchi he is acting on behalf of current SA President Anthony Burgio, and that Burgio would “take care of” Baiocchi when it comes time to hire next year’s staff.

“You’re comin’ into the family now, you’ll be set,” Kased says on the tape. “We’re going to take care of you.”

Baiocchi has said he plans to file complaints with the Student Wide Judiciary (SWJ) and with university administration on the grounds that Kased bribed a voter, an offense that could carry consequences ranging from community service hours to removal from the election.

“This situation sends a very spooky message that this may be business as usual,” Baiochi said Saturday. “It makes you wonder how often this actually happens.”

After the tape was made public, Kased apologized profusely. He maintains, however, that he did nothing wrong.

“It sounds shady, but it’s politics at work,” Kased said Saturday. The job offer was actually a lie, he maintained.

“No question it looks like Mazin was offering him the house,” Burgio said Friday. “It’s not Mazin’s position to offer anything to anyone.”

“It’s one thing after another with these guys,” said Matthew Pelkey, himself a SUNY SA delegate candidate running with Baiocchi in the Reform Our Campus (R.O.C.) Party. “It’s this sort of unethical politics that gives politics a bad name.”

The tape is a clear case of bribery, not just politics as usual, says Baiocchi. He says he taped a conversation with Kased that took place in an office on the third floor of the Student Union last Thursday because he wanted proof that SA officers offer jobs to competing candidates to ensure victory for the candidates they support.

Kased, who confirmed that the tape was real, insists that the offers were made because Baiocchi had indicated displeasure with his party, specifically fellow SUNY SA candidate Matthew Pelkey.

“I was just a friend trying to help another friend,” Kased said Saturday. “It’s just politics.”

Kased claims the conversation is taken out of context, pointing to a meeting between the two that took place the previous day where he says Baiocchi initially approached him with complaints about Pelkey.

Baiocchi says that Kased’s characterization of their earlier conversation is a lie. In fact, it was much another job offer, Baiocchi said. It was the initial attempt at bribery, said Baiocchi, that drove him to set up a meeting for the following day where he would bring a tape recorder hidden in his backpack to collect evidence.

The tape (see sidebar for excerpts) includes a number of exchanges in which Kased outlines the process by which Baiocchi would drop out of the campaign, issue press statements condemning his former running mates, and then receive any job he wanted in next year’s SA administration.

In one such moment, Baiocchi asks if he could be guaranteed SA involvement next year for quitting. On the tape, Kazed replies, “Francisco, I guarantee my word…you will get a spot in SA. And I’m going to give you a good position.”

In the conversation, Kased also said that current SA President Anthony Burgio would “take care of” Baiocchi, helping him denounce his party and assuring him a job next year.

Burgio says Kased’s claim was unfounded, and that the offers were not made on his behalf. “I have no power for hiring next year,” he said Friday night, adding that throughout the taped conversation, “Mazin’s acting a little delusional.”

On the tape, Kased goes on to offer Baiocchi the position of student affairs director, and even seat in the senate, a post elected by the students.

Burgio said that if this was an attempt at a buyout, it is “reprehensible…not just on an election level, on a moral level.” However, if Baiocchi did express the wish to leave his party at a previous meeting, Burgio contended, there’s nothing illegal or immoral about Kased’s actions.

Burgio said voters need to determine how the incident reflects on Kased as a candidate for SA treasurer. Burgio said he might censure Kased, the current SA Senate chair, if there is popular sentiment to do so.

Baiochi said he plans to wage a campaign against Kased because “a person with such incredibly weak morals has no place overseeing $2.7 million of student money.” Both he and Pelkey say they want Kased to be removed from the race.

Kased apologized to his party, Burgio, and the student body, but was confident the charges wouldn’t affect his public persona.

“I’m not ashamed,” he said. “Something like this going public is not a problem for me.”