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by Taylor Hughes
Friday, September 26, 2003
Presidential candidate Vermont Gov. Howard Dean will bring his national college campaign tour to the University of Wisconsin in early October, state campaign coordinator Mike Tate announced at the Students for Dean kickoff meeting Thursday.
Dean will appear on the front lawn of the Kohl Center Sunday, Oct. 5, after a weeklong tour of college campuses around the country.
Tate requested that meeting attendees support Dean’s campaign in upcoming weeks and announced a need for students to help chalk sidewalks, man pro-Dean tables around campus and hand out some 100,000 quarter-sheet fliers in the week preceding Dean’s arrival.
“This is a great opportunity for students to get involved. College campuses should be the first place candidates visit; there is so much energy here,” said Students for Dean member and UW sophomore Emily Falenczykowski-Scott.
Tate hopes at least 1,000 people will attend the Kohl Center rally. A drawing will be held among student volunteers for a chance to meet and introduce Dean on stage. All volunteers will receive a free t-shirt for helping with the campaign.
Other supporters of the campaign voiced their endorsement of Dean’s political opinions. Madison District 8 Ald. Austin King expressed his support for Dean’s stance on issues such as abortion and affirmative action, both of which Dean strongly supports.
“I am excited as hell for Howard’s candidacy for the presidency,” said King.
King also contrasted Dean with presidential candidates Sens. John Kerry and John Edwards, saying Dean had voted in favor of issues that the Democratic Party supports more frequently and consistently than either Kerry or Edwards. Kerry and Edwards both recently avoided a pro-life vote in congress, King added.
Other meeting attendees also expressed their support for Dean.
“I feel like he can win, and I agree with his [political views],” said UW junior Emily Fischer. “I feel he is a good combination of both elements of a good candidate.”
Dean is one of 10 current Democratic candidates, including Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., retired Gen. Wesley Clark, and Ambassador Carol Moseley Braun.
Frank Harris, chair of the University of Wisconsin College Republicans, however, feels differently about Dean’s campaign.
“In the long run, the best Democratic candidate is going to be one that doesn’t focus on the war. When I heard (UW professor of history) John Sharpless speak at one of our meetings, he said the Howard Dean campaign really has to take focus out of war,” Harris said. “Voters don’t want to hear about dying people.”
Harris added that focusing on domestic issues would improve Dean’s campaign.
All the Democratic candidates consider the U.S. economy to be a major issue in the upcoming election, and many of them are taking different stances regarding the repeal of Bush’s tax cuts.
In a televised debate among the candidates Thursday, Dean promised a reduction of President Bush’s tax cuts and a reduction of the federal deficit, which is currently projected to be several hundred billion dollars for the next fiscal year.
