THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
VOL.101.NO.128
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
ADVERTISING:864-4358
WEDNESDAY,APRIL8,1992
(USPS 650-640)
NEWS:864-4810
Clinton, Bush win in Kansas primary
By Jenny Martin
Kansan staff writer
Results from Kansas' first presidential primary election since 1980 show that on the state and Douglas County levels, Bill Clinton and George Bush are the choices of their respective parties.
Clinton, the only Democrat to make a campaign stop in Kansas, easily tipped the other 10 Democrats on the ballot. The vote was the 28 percent of the popular vote statewide.
Former Massachusetts sen. Paul Tsongas edged out former California Jerry Brown for second in the state, and then Cruz edged campaigning several weeks ago.
With all 51 of the county's precincts reporting, Clinton received 37.4 percent of all Democratic ballots cast to Tsongas' 23.6 percent. Brown received 23.4 percent of the vote.
But the Democratic race was tighter in Douglas County, where 8,641, or 32 percent, of the county's 27,125 registered voters went to the polls yesterday.
In the Republican race, Bush received 62 percent on a statewide level and 58.4 percent in Douglas County. Fifteen Republican candidates were listed on the ballot.
On both ballots, the county echoed a nationwide trend indicating that
many voters are unhappy with the presidential candidates this year: 14.4 percent of Republican and 11.3 percent of Democratic ballots cast were for "none of the names shown."
Representatives from both of KU's large political party groups expressed disappointment with what they called a low turnout.
At Allen Field House, the 4th
Precinct of the 2nd Ward, the major
of the 778 registered voters are KU
students. About 11 percent of the
voters registered there cast a ballot yester-
day.
"I was hoping students would show more interest," said Jennifer Dodd, who is president of the KU Young Democrats and volunteered to work the field house polling place. "This was pretty pathetic."
Dodd said that if students would make an effort to vote, they could set their own agendas and make changes.
"This kind of a turnout in the primary of a presidential year makes a difference."
David Kelsey, Wichita sophomore and vice chairperson of the KU College Republicans, said that the student turnout had been very disap
Democrats All precincts reporting
FORCED POLITICAL ELECTIONS
Clinton 51% 27
Tsongas 15% 6
Uncommitted 14% 1
Brown 13% 2
Other candidates — 7 percent of the popular vote
Republicans All precincts reporting
Republican
Bush 62% 30
Uncommitted 16% 0
Buchanan 15% 0
AKU student is the sole voter at the moment filling a ballot at Allen Field House for the presidential primary.
candidates — 2 percent of the popular vote
Source: The Associated Press
"We expected a lot more Democrats today," said Kelsey, who also volunteered at the field house. "We didn't expect many Republicans because a lot of people think that George Bush has it pretty much wrapped up."
pointing.
Kelsey said that a couple of students were confused about the identification of Brown on the ballot. Brown moved from Alexandria, Va., on the ballot.
Both Kelsey and Dodd said that about 20 students had to be turned away from the polls because they didn't understand the registration
Justin Knupp / KANSAN
rules.
"This was another indication of the apathetic attitudes toward politics students have." Dodd said.
She said that many students did not realize that they had to register to vote 15 days before the primary. Some students tried to vote in precincts that they were not registered in, and others were not residing at the address they registered with.
"It is really sad to have to send vot-
tal way when we have so few in the
first
Carol Gates, precinct supervising judge at the polling station at Central United Methodist Church, 1501 Massachusetts St., 1st precinct of the 3rd
ward, said that of 809 registered voters, 99 Democrats and 29 Republicans cast ballots.
Gates said that although a turnout of 128 voters was not good, she was satisfied.
"We primarily had students coming in today," she said. "We were really pleased with the student turnout."
"President Bush had virtually no opposition even though there were a lot of names on the ballot," Getter said. "There was very little incentive for Republicans to go to the polls
today."
The Democratic turnout was low because a lot of people do not like the choices they are being given, Getter said.
He also cited as a factor the fact that although Clinton and his wife Hillary spent part of a day in Kansas, virtually none of the candidates had spent any time in the state campaigning.
Getter said that the low number of students who had turned out to vote was not unique to Lawrence or KU.
Clinton tightens grip on Democratic nomination
"This is consistent with what we generally know," he said. "Older people tend to vote at a higher rate than people in their younger years."
The Associated Press
in 1984.
Front-runner Bill Clinton thumped Jerry Brown in the brutal New York primary yesterday and added a Kansas landscape for good measure, boosting his chances of earning the Democratic presidential nomination despite persistent voter unease about his integrity.
Campaign dropout Paul Tsongas made a surprise bid for second place in New York, but deferred a decision on whether to re-enter the race.
Brown said he would continue his candidacy, but Clinton's showing — leading in Minnesota and Wisconsin also — prompted party insiders to suggest the Arkansas governor had the race well in hand.
In a victory speech in New York, Clinton depicted himself as an apostle of change and said the night's results marked a turning point for the United States. He reached out to the supporters of Tsongas and Jerry Brown, saying, "We want to be their campaign, too."
"He is going to get the nomination, absent some unfathomable collapse," said Tom Donilon, who helped in the campaigns of Jimmy Carter in 1980 and Walter F. Mondale.
If so, it would propel the 48-year-old Arkansas governor with the soft Southern accent into a fall campaign against President Bush in a time of exceptional turmoil overseas and economic hardship at home.
Tsongas was elated about his unexpected showing.
"Let me say, the message survives and the message lives and the message has real power," Tsongas said. He said he would encourage Greeks to seek whether to resume active campaigning.
Clinton's victories were probably enough to dampen any hopes Tsongas — or anyone else
In New York, with 99 percent of the precincts counted, it was:
Clinton: 393,890,41 percent
Isongas, 279, 645, 25 percent
Brown: 252, 402, 26 percent
Clinton had a landslide victory in Kansas. He gained 51 percent of the vote, with Tsongas, Brown and an uncommitted line on the ballot bunched far behind.
President Bush did even better in the Kansasprimary. He gotall 30Republican delegates, swamping Patrick Buchanan by 62 percent to 15 percent with 100 percent of the vote counted.
But the surprise of the day in Kansas was the support for Tsongas, who had quit campaigning and whose Kansas volunteer organization had stopped all activity.
Tsongas trailed Clinton, 51 percent to 15 in total vote, yet he broke the Democrats' 15-percent threshold for getting delegates statewide and in enough of the state's five congressional districts to claim six delegates.
Tsongas took four delegates away from Clinton as the vote count wore on, lowering the Arkansas governor's total from 31 to 27.
Still, Kansas was Clinton's state. His volunteer campaign quietly began organizing last December, and he was the only candidate in either party to visit Kansas before the election
Returns from Wisconsin gave Clinton 38 percent, to 35 percent for Brown and 22 percent for Tsongas with 95 percent of the precincts tallied.
Returns from 95 percent of the precincts in Minnesota showed Clinton edging Brown, 33 percent to 22 percent, with Tsongas at 23 percent.
Bush won Republican primaries Wisconsin and Minnesota against the deflated conservative challenge of Patrick Buchanan. Bush was gaining nearly all the delegates at stake, and seemed on track for clinching a nominating majority when Indiana, North Carolina and Washington D.C. hold primaries on May 5.
Bush's victory margin ranged from 62 percent of the vote in Kansas to 69 percent in Minnesota and 78 percent in Wisconsin.
Clinton entered the night's primaries with 1,101 delegates, more than half the 2,145 needed for the nomination. He was leading for 166 in New York, Wisconsin and Kansas. Minnesota's election was a popular vote and bestowed no delegates. Tsongas went in with 475 and led for 95 more. Brown had 166 and led for 100 more.
Bush began the night with 876, including 100 from New York, where Buchanan was not on the ballot. The president led for 87 in Kansas, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Buchanan began the night with 46 and led for 8.
Most Democratic voters responding to network exit polls said they wanted another candidate in the race, CNN reported. Polls indicated that 60 percent in Wisconsin and Kansas and 66 percent in New York were dissatisfied with the choice of candidates. In New York, a quarter wanted Tsongas back and a third wanted Gov. Mario Cuomo.
Clinton stumbled two weeks ago in a Connecticut defeat, and lost Vermont's caucuses to Brownwa week ago. After that, he was forced into virtual hand-to-hand political combat in New York, confronted not only by Brown's daily attacks, but also by the city's tabloids and damaging disclosures about drugs and the draft.
Clinton acknowledged that he had tried marijuana when he was a Rhodes Scholar in England more than 20 years ago, although he said he had never inhaled. He also was forced to disclose that he had received an induction notice — later rescinded — from his draft board during the same period, a fact that he had kept to himself earlier in the campaign when controversy swirled about his draft record during the Vietnam War.
Warm-ups end, voting starts in Senate elections
By Jay Williams
Kansan staff writer
Now it's the voters' turn.
After weeks of campaigning by the Vision and Unless coalitions, students will have the chance today and tomorrow to say which candidates they want to represent them in Student Senate.
Students can vote between 8 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. at the Burge Union, Kansas Union, Murphy Hall, Strong Watson Library and Wescoe Hall.
Members of both coalitions said they hoped for high voter turnout in the elections. But as always, turnout is difficult to predict.
"Everywhere we have talked during this election, we have said to people, 'Just get out and vote,'" he said. "It doesn't matter who they vote for, just as long as they vote."
Chris Stong, Unless vice-presidential candidate, said he expected 15 percent to 20 percent of the students to vote in the election.
Stong said a key to an Unless victory would be support from nontraditional students. Unless has five nontraditional students on its ticket.
Stong said that more student participation was a goal of the Unless campaign.
"If we get 30 percent to vote, and
vision wins by two-thirds, we will have
themself into control."
*If they have time and are on cam-
paign to vote, they could make a differen-
tion.*
STUDENT
ELECTION
ELECTIO
SENATE
"Anybody who takes the time to learn about the issues, we certainly have a chance getting their vote," Garlinghouse said.
"If the weather is nice, there will be more people on campus and more of a chance to talk to people and get them to vote," he said. "If it is not nice, there will be a group of diehards who study the issues and vote no matter what."
He said he expected a voter turnout of more than 15 percent.
Garlinghouse said turnout would hinge on the weather today and tomorrow. The forecast for today is partly cloudy with a high of 72.
A 15-percent to 20-percent voter turnout would be similar to the turnouts for past elections. Last year, 14 percent of the students cast ballots in the co-official race, according to Student Senate Elections Commission records.
But a large number of coalitions competing does not mean large voter turnout. In 1989, seven coalitions divided the ballots from the 9 percent of students who voted.
Where to vote
There were five coalitions in the 1990 elections. Twenty percent of the students voted.
Students can vote at six different locations today and tomorrow for Student Senate elections. The polls will
Pat Warren, vice-presidential candidate with Fast Break in 1990 and Impact campaign manager in 1991, said that he expected an 8-percent
Source: Student Senate Elections Commission
Almee Brainard, Daily Kansam
turnout, based on the turnout for the 1989 election. But nobody can know for certain how many voters will show, Warren said.
Warren said the two large coalitions in that election, Common Cause and Certain Impact, were similar to this year's coalitions.
"Nobody has ever done research on
is angelosis. "Everything anybody is
angelosis.
He said Common Cause had billed itself as the experienced coalition, as Vision identifies itself this year, while Certain Impact ran a nontraditional, nonSenate campaign like the Unless coalition.
A large turnout could favor Unless, Warren said, because Vision calls itself the experienced coalition, which
voters might interpret as the status-quo coalition.
Some voters could make protest votes against the status-uo, he said.
Warren also said Vision and Unless had run quiet campaigns until this week, as had been done in the 1989 election.
Warren said that a large first-day turnout also could balance the election, as both coalitions would campaign hard Thursday.
"When we ran, we were probably winning at the end of the first day," he said. "We didn't campaign as hard the next day. The YOU coalition did and beat us."
Please refer to related story, p. 5
Jet carrying Arafat disappears in desert
The Associated Press
TRIPOLI, Libya — A jet carrying Palestine Liberation Organization chief Yasser Arafat disappeared in a sandstorm last night just before a scheduled landing in Libya, PLO officials reported.
"We're trying to find him now," Bassam Abu-Sharif, Arafat's chief adviser, said early today from Tunis, Tunisia. When Abu-Sharif spoke, Arafat's transport plane was more than seven hours overdue in its flight from Sudan.
Abu-Sharif, who was sounding distraught but holding out hope that the plane had made an emergency landing in the desert, appealed to France, Italy, Britain, the United States and Egypt to help find the aircraft.
The 62-year-old Arafat has been the undisputed leader of the PLO's Fatah faction, its largest, for 28 years. It was shot by a Palestinian and succeed him in the event of his death.
Other sources reached at Arafat's Tunis office said 12 people were on board the plane. They included three crew members and a team of bodyguards and administrative assistants.
Yasser Arafat
Pakistanian sources in Tripoli said Libyan rescue planes had gone out to search for Arafat's plane. But a PLO source in Tunis said helicopters were unable to fly over the area because it was swept by a heavy sandstorm.
PLO sources said the plane was scheduled to land in the village of Sarra at 8:30 p.m. — 2:30 p.m. EDT — and take off a little later for
Tunis.
It disappeared 15 minutes before its scheduled touchdown while flying over al-Koafa oasis, 70 miles northeast of Sarra, said Libya's Voice of the Greater Arab Homeland, who quoted the Liban news agency JANA.
Arafat founded the first guerrilla resistance group against the state of Israel in 1959 and has headed the PLO since February 1969.
With terrorism and later with diplomacy, he gave the Palestinians a name in international affairs and repeatedly bounced back from military and political setbacks.