More than 50 people gathered at Union South Wednesday night to show their support for presidential hopeful Howard Dean.
Dean for America, a group which consists of Madison students and working residents, congregated with the objective of acquiring more campaign involvement.
Also important to the agenda was getting Dean’s message out to all interested people, including UW students. Through phone calls, flyers and chalking, members of Dean for America hope to draw more people to help with the campaign.
There was continuous brainstorming throughout the meeting on how to draw the largest crowd possible for Sunday’s rally, where Dean will be speaking. He is scheduled to arrive around 4 p.m. on the lawn in front of the Kohl center.
By calling every dorm room in the state of Wisconsin, along with 20,000 Madison residents, Dean campaign State Director Mike Tate hopes to draw in a tremendous crowd. The volunteer team is also chalking every main sidewalk along, and they gather at the clock tower at 6:30 a.m. every morning to place more than 5,000 flyers, hitting every room on campus.
Dean’s appearance at UW is part of his ‘raise the roots’ campaign that targets the younger generation.
“One of the most exciting things about Dean is that he is reaching out to the young people and energizing them. It’s been a while since the younger generations really got involved in the political world,” Tate said.
Students voiced their reasons for backing Dean.
“Dean is someone who is pragmatic, compassionate, intelligent and electable. He is a great public speaker and has the brains and character to back up what he says,” UW senior Michael O’Connell said.
To help spread Dean’s message, participants at the meeting wrote letters to local officials such as Senator Tammy Baldwin and Mayor Dave Cieslewicz.
“The great thing about Dean is that he is not perfect, yet he is still good. He can be defensive and brisk when speaking, but his good qualities outweigh the bad,” volunteer John Mosman said.
For more information on the Howard Dean campaign, go to www.deanforamerica.com/raisetheroots.
