Wednesday's Marquette Student Government elections marked the conclusion of the "gloves-off" and tension-filled race for the new MUSG president and executive vice president.

"The gloves came off during the debate," College of Business Administration junior and MUSG presidential candidate Dan Calandriello said, "and outside the debate election violations did occur."

In fact, there was only one election violation, according to MUSG Adviser Jon Dooley.

"Jamie Wu and Anna Titulaer were brought before the election committee and held responsible for the election violation of sending out unsolicited campaign e-mail," he said.

The election committee issued a warning to Wu, a College of Communication junior and presidential candidate, and Titulaer, a College of Arts & Sciences junior and executive vice presidential candidate, which Wu called "extremely fair."

"Anna and I take full responsibility for our actions, and we had no bad intentions in sending the e-mails. The election committee was levelheaded and they saw there was no malice in our intentions," Wu said.

The unsolicited e-mails proved not to be the only e-mails that caused Wu and Titulaer's campaign problems.

College of Arts & Sciences junior and MU Band President Andrew Phillips sent all 103 band members an e-mail on Tuesday containing information stating why many band officials were going to stand against Wu in the election.

Though Wu and Titulaer's names were not specifically cited, the e-mail made it clear which candidate band officials disagreed with.

"Wu wants to make fine arts part of the Marquette curriculum, but that would make band a credited course and we don't want that," Phillips said in an interview with the Tribune.

"Not all band members would be able to make it into the credited course, which would cause disparity between those who accepted into the course and those not accepted. Fine arts in the curriculum would not benefit the band," he said.

Phillips went on to say he is not affiliated with the campaign of Calandriello and executive vice presidential candidate Kristen Kamm, and that it is his "duty to inform and protect the band … Any good president would have done what I did."

In response, Wu said, "Anna and I never said we wanted to make band a mandatory class; we wanted optional credit. And we never intended to take ownership away from band."

Wu added that she did not believe Phillips' e-mail hurt her and Titulaer's campaign.

"I feel that people who understand our fine arts stand would vote for us one way or the other," she said.

The results of the election were not available at press time, and will be announced in a press conference outside the MUSG office in the Alumni Memorial Union today at 1 p.m. The voting took place online and only Information Technology Services was informed as votes came in.

"The campaign was really tense. When a candidate starts to attack the other personally and steps away from the issues that's a low blow," Wu said, referring to comments Calandriello made during debates about his attire reflecting his approachability. Wu said she felt Calandriello's comments implied that her often-professional attire made her seem unapproachable to students.

"This whole campaign Anna and I have given 110 percent of ourselves, and no matter what I am pleased with our performance."

"I really don't know how the voting is going," Calandriello said Wednesday night. "I know it's a close race, but I think Kristen and I squeezed it out. Even if we lost I wouldn't have changed anything that we did.

"I realize that someone has to lose," he said. "But when I was making the decision to run I remember seeing a sign that said, 'You can't steal second with your foot on first,' and that's true. No matter what I'll know that we tried, no regrets."

Visit www.marquettetribune.org this afternoon for a story on the election results.