With the election starting today, one presidential candidate says he is a productive activist who can't understand rumors he is hard to get along with, and the other candidate says budgets and building relationships are crucial.

The two candidates, Bob Ray and Adam Dondro, are hoping to lead more than 15,000 constituents and have a crucial role in controlling a $23 million budget, as president of the Chico State University Associated Students.

Dondro is a 22-year-old Auburn native who is majoring in psychology and political science.

Ray is a 30-something he refuses to divulge his age who has been attending Chico State "on and off" since 1994, and is currently a graduate student in political science.

Tuesday the pair, along with the candidates for the other 10 positions that will be filled in the two-day election, took part in a forum in the Bell Memorial Union on campus.

Ray, who has been active in community politics for several years, was clearly upset with any suggestion he doesn't get along with people.

"Basically what's going on is there is a whisper campaign saying, Bob doesn't get along with people, so don't elect him,' which is completely false. Everybody that I have ever worked with, I've had a great working relationship with. I don't understand why it gets perpetuated and I really wish it would stop," said Ray, who has run for campus office twice before unsuccessfully.

"I would like somebody to give me an example of one time I've been unreasonable and yelled and screamed," Ray said.

One place where the candidates found a level of agreement was on the topic of Halloween, and they agreed the students are not happy with the current situation.

"I think we are in a special place right now, where things have not gone great (with Halloween) the past few years and the people have not been happy with them, but the city is happy with the safety level right now," said Dondro, who is the current Associated Students executive vice president.

"So where we are at is a good start and we can work with them and say this does not work for the students.

"Students live downtown. This is our home where we live and we have a right to be comfortable in our homes. We need to work with the city to get back to that level. We can say it's safe. Now work together with us, where the students are comfortable, students can have a good time, students can have a Halloween, while still keeping it safe," continued Dondro.

Ray, who in his published campaign material has describe the current Halloween situation as a "police state," said, "Adam (Dondro) has had a whole year to build these relationships and fix some of the problems that we have with regard to holidays and that hasn't happened.

"I go to (Chico) City Council meetings and most of the time I'm the only student who gets up and says, You know, what happened on Halloween wasn't good.'

"There isn't one student I know that appreciated the police response in downtown Chico. I've been a lone voice, without the Associated Students, for quite a while.

"I have a plan to deal with Halloween," said Ray.

Ray explained he wants to have a major band come to Chico on Halloween and have the event at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds, with the help of the city. He said they would have to work out bus transportation, and campus organizations could put up fund-raiser booths.

"I think it would be an alternative ... to what's going on and have the city work on (the message) Halloween has moved to the fairgrounds.' There's been activities that happened in Chico like that in the past that have worked and I think that we can do it again," said Ray.

Another big issue for both candidates is textbooks.

Both candidates said all students understand the significance of textbook costs.

Ray said he would like to work with faculty to get them to use the same textbook for "four or five years" so they could be sold as used books at cheaper prices.

At the same time, he said the high price of the textbooks sold in the student-owned AS Bookstore encourage students to buy their books online or elsewhere, hurting the AS revenue.

Dondro said he has already spent time in Sacramento lobbying members of the Legislature to block a proposal that would call for books to be "rented" to students.

He also pointed out the campus bookstore only makes about 6 cents on the dollar on each textbook it sells.

The election for student body officers will be an entirely online affair this spring. Students can sign on to a Web site from their homes, starting at 8 a.m. today, and continuing Thursday. There will also be computers set up around the campus where students can log in and vote.