CANDIDATE MASEL SPRAYED, ARRESTED AT UNION TERRACE

University police confronted Ben Masel, longtime local activist and
current U.S. Senate hopeful, while he was circulating nomination
papers on the Memorial Union Terrace Thursday night.

After a brief struggle, he was pepper-sprayed, arrested, and charged
with trespassing, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, then released.

Masel says he's being singled out.

Several politicians confirmed today in interviews they have used the
terrace to solicit signatures, including both Democratic candidates
for secretary of state.

Incumbent Doug La Follette said today he's been at the terrace "four
or five lunch hours" this year soliciting signatures and was never
asked to leave.

His challenger, Scot Ross, said he's also been at the terrace for the
same purpose. He said he's never been asked to leave, but a volunteer
- - who happens to be a member of the union - was.

UW Police Lt. Bill Larson said today a union manager called police
just before 11 p.m. and complained that Masel wouldn't leave when
asked to go.

Officers Michael Mansavage and John McCaughtry arrived and asked Masel
for his identification, which Masel twice refused to present. Masel
turned to walk away and one of the officers - Larson couldn't say
which one - grabbed Masel by the wrist to prevent him from leaving.

Masel then "flailed his arms at the officers" and one of the officer
blasted him with pepper spray before arresting him.

Masel said today in an interview that he never resisted. For one
thing, he said, it would have been impossible to flail his arms
because the officer never let go of one of them and the other arm was
clutching his clipboard of signatures.

Masel said the officer didn't simply grab his wrist. "He grabbed my
arm and pulled it back."

He said the officer pulled him face down to the ground, held his arms
back, then one of them sprayed him again. He questioned why that was
necessary.

The larger question, he said, he why he was asked to leave in the
first place.

He disputes the notion that he can't exercise his First Amendment
rights on taxpayer-funded public property.

Larson said Masel was in violation of an administrative code that
restricts the union to students, staff, faculty and members "except on
occasions when, and in those areas where, the buildings or grounds are
open to the general public."

When Masel was asked to leave, it was during a hip hop concert that
was widely advertised off campus, as well as in the Isthmus weekly
newspaper, he said.

"When they advertise a concert in public locations, that would seem to
be making the grounds open to the public," he said.

And he said he is being singled out, unlike other office-seekers.

The expulsion of office-seekers from the terrace has been an
controversy for years, with union officials sporadically enforcing
various interpretations of the rules.

Masel's attorney, Jeff Scott Olson, said his client has broken no
laws.

"I expect he won't be convicted," he said. "The idea is he is not
guilty of anything and he was arrested for a crime that doesn't exist.
I can't imagine him resisting arrest."

Masel has a string of legal victories concerning unlawful arrests and
other matters.

He has won four "relatively modest" settlements from local agencies in
recent years, including a highly publicized run-in with the city
during the 2002 Mayors Conference and a $95,000 settlement from Sauk
County officials over his arrest at the 2000 Weedstock festival.

In 1996 and 2000, he won hefty settlements after being arrested and
roughed up at Democratic Party conventions.

"You do not ever have to mace Ben," Olson said. "You just have to say,
'You are under arrest,' and he will come along quietly, first to the
police station or jail, then to the courthouse and eventually to the
bank."