Candidates continued campaigning at a furious pace across the state Monday, working to capture votes the day before Wisconsinites cast their ballots in the Democratic primary today.
Today marks the culmination of Wisconsin’s stint in the national spotlight as the state, which many consider the race’s key contest, finally decides who wins its delegates and comes a step closer to capturing the nomination.
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean visited Madison one last time, speaking to a packed crowd at the Orpheum Theater Monday night.
Although yet to win any state in the primary race, Dean said the substance of the televised debate Sunday night from the Marquette University campus revealed that his candidacy has put “spine” back into the Democratic Party. Dean argued his decision to stand against the war in Iraq and the No Child Left Behind Act has influenced other Democrats to do likewise.
“We have already written the Democratic party platform,” Dean said. “[It is] a Dean for America platform.”
Dean’s speech focused in particular on the influence young people have had on his campaign, both as a core base of support and as the very directors of his candidacy. He said that 18- to 30-year-olds are both running the Dean campaign and are the driving force behind it.
Dean has put particular attention on winning the student vote in recent days, visiting the University of Wisconsin campus several times over the past two weeks.
“The student vote is a big deal, especially in this primary,” Dean said. “We are trying to win votes. A lot of them happen to be in Madison.”
Polls continue to show the Dean camp trailing far behind the other two major candidates among Wisconsin voters. The former Vermont governor’s campaign chairman, Steve Grossman, left the campaign after saying publicly Sunday he would join Sen. John Kerry’s team if Dean did not win Wisconsin, according to the New York Times.
Sen. John Kerry (Mass.), the race’s frontrunner, also campaigned in Wisconsin Monday. His fellow senator from Massachusetts, Sen. Ted Kennedy, campaigned for Kerry at the Kohl Center Monday morning along with Kerry’s wife, Heinz fortune heiress Teresa Heinz Kerry.
Kennedy, who came to Wisconsin in 1960 for the Democratic primary in order to help secure the nomination for his brother John F. Kennedy, emphasized to Kerry supporters that the contest here is of “enormous importance and consequence.”
“February 17 is the date, Wisconsin is the state, John Kerry is the candidate,” Kennedy said.
The senior Massachusetts senator focused in particular on the issue of lost jobs in Wisconsin and across the country.
“The Republicans just can’t get it when it comes to the jobs and the shape of the economy,” Kennedy said. “We know that a Democratic president who is committed to the economy is going to get the job done.”
Edwards made rounds to several campuses across Wisconsin, from Fox Valley Technical College to UW-Eau Claire. He plans to visit Madison one last time today, meeting with student supporters at Union South at 10:30 a.m.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) spoke at a rally in the Memorial Union’s Great Hall Monday afternoon. Musician and Kucinich supporter Tim Reynolds performed a free concert at the event.
