The University Daily Kansan
Election guide
October 18, 2000 Page 8A
Faculty member pursues fifth term
By Jason Krall
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Barbara Ballard hopes to use a fifth term as 44th Dist. Rep. to ensure continued success for education reform and social programs she's already begun.
But that doesn't mean Ballard, associate vice chancellor for student affairs at the University of Kansas, intends to rest on her laurels.
The Democratic candidate hopes to promote legislation that would provide need-based financial aid to students at Kansas universities, helping offset rising tuition at institutions such as KU.
"When we raise tuition, we have to put money there for students who may not be able to afford it." she said.
"I'd just as soon have someone in there who cares about me as a student," he said.
because she was a KU administrator with the University's interests in mind.
Ballard: Hopes to be elected for a fifth term in the Kansas Legislature.
Andy Bean,
Menomonie.
Wis., sophomore, said he
liked Ballard
as a candidate
Ballard said she would continue to support funding for child exchange and visitation centers, which she introduced as a social program in Kansas four years ago. The centers supervise exchanges of children between divorced parents who have joint custody, as well as children's visits with parents who do not have custody. The supervision reduces the potential for confrontations and even violence between parents. A program known as FARM performs those services in Lawrence.
As a member of the house appropriations committee, Ballard said she would continue to focus on making sure social services, including assisted living programs, such as Meals on Wheels, received increased funding to meet their growing needs. She hopes to expand programs financed by the Neighborhood Improvement Youth Employment Act, which she sponsored in 1994. The law provides funding for youth mentoring programs around the state, including a program at the Pelathe Indian Center in Lawrence that pairs low-income high school students with adult mentors.
Ballard also hopes to promote tourism throughout the state. Though she voted to allow officials in DeSoto to explore the possibility of the controversial $284 million Oz amusement park project, she said she would rather use state funds to promote Kansas' existing attractions.
But education remains Ballard's top issue. Bringing salaries for faculty at KU up to those of its peer universities is one of her main objectives.
"In some cases we compete with business for faculty, and we can never compete with the salaries businesses can offer," she said. "But we can try to offer a higher salary, if their love is higher education."
— Edited by Casey Franklin
Annie Hedricks, Clinton, Mo., senior, stands in front of Vice President Al Gore's campaign headquarters in Nashville, Tenn. Hedricks is working this semester as an assistant to Gore's chief of staff. Contributed photos
'Once in a lifetime'
Student spends semester at Gore campaign headquarters
By Kursten Phelps
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Annie Hedricks is enjoying her semester working at Vice President Al Gore's presidential campaign headquarters.
Not many students answer the phone at their jobs and have Vice President AI Gore on the other end of the line — but Annie Hendricks does.
But Anne Henderson,
The Clinton, Mo., senior is working at Gore's campaig
headquarters in Nashville, Tenn., this semester
as an assistant to Gore's chief of staff.
Hendricks, a journalism major, said she never was terribly interested in politics, but when the opportunity to intern for the campaign during the summer arose, she took it as an experience that doesn't come around very often.
"I never really was that interested." Hendricks said. "I voted and everything, but now that I'm on the campaign, I am more passionate about the election. I just thought it would be a great opportunity. My first choice was to work in the communications department, but I got placed in management. I decided it was a once-in-a lifetime opportunity, so I went ahead and took it."
Apparently, she had what it took to do the job and was offered a paying position as Chief of Staff Chip Smith's assistant for the remainder of the campaign.
Hendricks said her job responsibilities included a little bit of everything. She helps keep Smith, who answers to 150 employees, stay on track with his schedule. She also proofreads press releases and tracks General Election Accounting Fund money, which is the money Gore would use for legal expenses during his term if elected.
She also gets to see campaign commercials before they're broadcast, helps with polling and often types up speeches for the campaign.
And then there's the routine office tasks, such as answering the phone.
"Al Gore calls all the time," Hendricks said. "I'll pick up the phone and hear, 'This is Al Gore calling for Tad,' who's a senior adviser on the campaign. It's not a big deal. It's kind of cool that Al Gore calling seems normal."
"It's a real learning experience." Hendricks said. "Where I'm at, I get to see all the inside stuff. It's very exciting. I see how brilliant they are with strategy and how their minds work."
Her position has also allowed her to go behind the closed doors of the "war room" the conference room where campaign big shots plan their strategies. "The War Room" documentary about Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign made the room famous.
The excitement of being on the front lines of a presi-
dential race has its price, though. While her fellow KU
students are cramming for midterms and blowing off steam at local bars, Hendricks works 12-hour days, six days a week.
"The campaign office is open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and that when we're there," Hendricks said. "It's really long hours but it's exciting. But I do cherish my Sundays."
"There was this energy there, with all the delegates and exciting speakers and so many important people there supporting Al Gore." Hendricks said. "There were a lot of famous people."
One of the highlights of her experience, Hendricks said, was attending the Democratic National Convention in August.
Although she is enjoying her experience at campaign headquarters, Hendricks said she didn't foresee a career of campaign-hopping.
career of campaigns app. "I would never work for a campaign where I didn't believe in the candidate," Hendricks said. "I really think it's essential that Al Gore wins."
And she said she believed Gore would win the race, which has proven to be one of the tightest contests in recent history.
"He has amazing ideas about social security, health care and prescription drugs." Hendricks said. "His interests are working families, which is a majority of the people in the U.S."
On a more personal side, Hendricks said the Gore family was easy to get along with.
"Al and Tipper are great parents, and they all are really down-to-earth and fun," Hendricks said. "And Karina is doing a great job of trying to impact the youth vote. She travels around and reaches out not to just students,but young professionals,too."
Hendricks said a campaign doesn't have a lot of money to pay its workers, so the workers tended to be young people without families and other responsibilities.
"It's good though, because you get new ideas," she said. "Young people are fired up to make a difference and to have an impact. We have a different insight than older people and kind of give a fresh look at issues that interest us."
interests us.
Hendricks said she earned about $1,600 a month,
which is enough to pay rent and her living expenses.
She'd make more, she said, if she had a degree.
Hendricks decided to apply for the internship at the recommendation of a friend who worked on a previous campaign. Her uncle, who is a lobbyist on Capitol Hill for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, helped her get a foot in the door.
Patty Noland, career development coordinator for the School of Journalism, helped Hendricks with the online application, her resume and cover letter. Noland said Hendricks made a good choice in deciding to work for the campaign this semester instead of coming back to school and graduating in December.
"To work on a presidential campaign is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that can lead to further connections to great things." Noland said. "The networking she can get from this is amazing, I encouraged her to do it." Noland said Hendricks had the right type of personali-
one's very enthusiastic and very energetic." Noland said. "She's a hard worker and it 24-7 on a campaign, so you need to have that kind of temperament. She worked for free for two months, and because she worked hard and did a great job, they offered her the full-time position."
Kerry Benson, lecturer in the journalism school, had Hendricks as a student in her business writing class and said her personable character suited the job.
"She is tenacious and knows no strangers." Benson said. "I think she's particularly suited for Gore's campaign because she's from a small town in Missouri, so she can relate to the issues he's addressing and really knows what he's saying."
Hendricks will return to Lawrence next semester to complete her education. She said this experience had opened her mind to the different options available.
"I don't know for sure what I'm going to do when I come back," she said. "I might intern at a PR firm in Kansas City. I'd like to see different aspects of what I can do. But this has definitely opened my mind to things that I hadn't considered doing."
Law student running for Kansas House of Representatives
Candidate focuses on salaries, tuition
By Jason Krall
writer@kansan.com
Kansas staff writer
If you think cramming for midterms is tough, try balancing a grassroots, door-to-door campaign with the workload of a second-year law student.
the 46th District of the State House of Representatives, is doing just that.
Running against an incumbent who has gone unchallenged in the last two elections, Democrat Troy Findley. Hunter is driven by campus issues like limits on tuition hikes and tuition breaks for graduate teaching assistants. He's also strongly opposed to $284 million in state funding for the long-bated Oz amusement park in DeSoto.
Pete Hunter, Republican candidate for
Hunter is calling for a bill to put a three-year cap on tuition increases at Kansas universities.
"We need to tie the Board of Regents' hands." Hunter said. "I don't want the crown jewel of our state university system to be inaccessible to middle-class and lower-middle class families in Kansas."
He has proposed that GTAs from out of state be offered in-state tuition rates.
"It's time to reward the people who do a lot of the heavy lifting at this University," he said.
during his childhood. Since the privatization of child welfare services in 1994, adoption agencies have begun to encourage foster families to adopt their foster children. The practice takes foster families out of circulation for children who need temporary homes.
Hunter also advocates foster-care reform. He grew up in Olathe, where his parents took in seven foster children
"When we had foster children, we knew that it was always temporary, even if it was for two years," Hunter said. "Now you don't know that anymore."
Though most of the 46th District encompasses the KU campus and student neighborhoods, it also includes southeast Lawrence. Hunter said his stance on issues like the Oz amusement park and his call to eliminate sales tax on food should appeal to those voters.
Taylor Duncan, Winfield sophomore, said he'd be more likely to vote for Hunter because he was a KU student with a strong higher education platform. "If he's trying to help out the University of Kansas, I'd most definitely vote for him," Duncan said.
-- Edited by Casey Franklin
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