Personal attacks overshadowed campus issues on Monday at theAssociated Students Inc. executive officers debate in the LibraryQuad.

Candidates debated in front of an audience ofmore than 200 students; most of those students present were clad inred, yellow or orange T-shirts.

Instead of using the allotted speaking time toaddress campus issues, many of the candidates of the red and yellowslates devoted a significant amount of the speaking time toattacking each other.

Joshua Wood, who is running for president onthe red slate, set the presidential debate’s tone by refusingto shake Brandon Kline’s hand. Kline is the yellow slatecandidate for president.

“It’s obvious to see that this isa two-way race,” Wood said.

Kline addressed the members of the red slateas “communists,” and he criticized work that themembers of the red slate have done while in office. Kline said thathis yellow slate’s collective lack of ASI experience was anadvantage over the red slate.

“We are not ASI politicians,”Kline said of the yellow slate.

In his opening statement, Wood said that he isproud that the red slate has not run a “negativecampaign.” He also said that he would “not talk aboutwhat the other candidates have done.”

“I’m not going to talk about howBrandon Kline asked me to run with him, and he started braggingabout how he busted Peter (Ucovich’s) boards lastyear,” Wood said.

Kline criticized ASI’s introduction ofcolors to identify the political parties, effectively circumventingthe prohibition of slates.

“The colors are ridiculous … andwe’re in this predicament thanks to the current sittingboard,” Kline said.

Luke Wood, who is the red slate candidate forvice president of finance, directed his attacks towards SacramentoState President Alexander Gonzalez.

“We have the president of the universityputting $25 million to a recreation thing, we have him putting aquarter of a million dollars to his office,” Wood said.”He’s not putting money into textbooks … andhe’s not putting money into students.”