A bevy of 2004 presidential hopefuls and their representatives have visited the city of Madison in recent weeks, hoping to mobilize one of the most politically charged universities in the country and attract newly coveted primary votes in Wisconsin.

Campaigners have viewed the state with added importance ever since legislators changed the primary election to an earlier date. With one year remaining until the actual election, Madison has emerged once again as a hotbed for political events.

Democratic candidates such as retired Gen. Wesley Clark, Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, and U.S. Sen. Dennis Kucinich have made stops in town. Republican National Committee chair Ed Gillespie, who promoted incumbent Republican nominee President George W. Bush, has also been to Madison. Several candidates for the Democratic nomination have yet to make Wisconsin a stop on the campaign trail, including Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., Rev. Al Sharpton, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt, D-Mo.

Republican Party of Wisconsin political director Rick Wiley suggests that candidates who haven yet to visit Madison, specifically Edwards, are at an immediate disadvantage.

“I don’t feel that [Edwards] is going to be a factor in this state at all. He has not been here yet and I don’t foresee him coming any time soon,” Wiley said. “The state of Wisconsin needs a reason to identify with this candidate, and he hasn’t given us one thus far.”

Wiley pointed to the experience of John Kraus, Edward’s statewide campaign director, as one asset of his campaign.

Edwards spokesperson Carlos Monje stressed Wisconsin’s importance to the presidential campaign.

“The primary states for this election are the usual, Iowa and New Hampshire, but currently Wisconsin is seen as a very important swing state,” Monje said. He attributed this change to the earlier state primary as well as a very powerful student population in the state.

All the presidential nomination candidates seem to have realized that students are going to play a much larger role in selecting the next president, and virtually every hopeful has a supportive organization now in place on the University of Wisconsin campus.

Similarly, Edwards has implemented a new College Outreach Program aimed at getting college students active in the political process. Recently, his website opened a “Students for Edwards” page to help this mission.

A first-generation college attendee himself, Edwards has expressed the importance of a college degree and has proposed programs that would benefit students.

This is the primary basis behind his “College for Everyone” initiative. Edwards has stressed the value of a good education and, in doing so, has begun working toward giving all high school graduates equal opportunity to attend some form of higher education. In this initiative, he proposes an offer that would grant every student free tuition for the first year at any public university or publicly funded education institution if the student is willing to work 10 hours per week for the first year.

Amongst eight other serious contenders for the Democratic nomination, Edwards has struggled to get attention for his campaign. Unlike other Democrats, Edwards has not campaigned by being “Bush Light” — agreeing with the current president’s decisions.

“On the issues, we differ in opinions quite substantially,” Wiley said. “Edwards seems to think that Bush made a mistake in Iraq, and he is quite vocal about it. This shows me that he is out of touch with a country that has shown they support the president.”
Edwards plans to separate himself from the other Democrats, who are focused on traveling extensively while meeting individual voters in a more intimate fashion.

“The senator understands that it is very important for the citizens to see him as a regular person,” Monje said. “They have to be able to trust him and believe that he has the knowledge needed to run the country successfully.”

Edwards only recently emerged in the national spotlight and is currently ahead of other Democratic campaigners in polls in South Carolina and North Carolina.