8A = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
NATION
WEDNESDAY,OCTOBER23,2002
Bush endorses republicans campaigning for office
President travels country, tries to raise money for candidates
WASHINGTON — After blazing new records on the fund-raising trail this year, President Bush has reached the end of the road in his quest for campaign cash.
The Associated Press
Bush has headlined 66 fundraisers this year, an average of one every four days, but plans no more before Election Day, several White House officials said. His efforts brought in more than $140 million for Republicans.
The president has shifted into get-out-the-vote mode,starring at rallies Tuesday in Pennsylvania and Maine.
He crossed the finish line Thursday with a double-header that saw him haul in $1 million for the Florida GOP and $800,000 for Georgia's gubernatorial and Senate candidates.
Bush shut the door on all money events with a thank-you bow Monday night to the Republican National Committee's "Regents" — those who have given more than $250,000 over the past two years. Reporters were barred from the event at the McLean, Va., home of developer Dwight Schar, a member of the RNC's "pioneers" club — those who rounded up $100,000 or more for his presidential campaign two years ago.
From there, it was rallies for Bush on Tuesday in Downington, Pa., for gubernatorial candidate Mike Fisher and congressional hopeful Jim Gerlach; and on to Bangor, Maine, for congressional candidate Kevin Raye, Sen. Susan Collins and gubernatorial hopeful Peter Cianchette.
Bush resisted undertaking such an aggressive fund-raising campaign when senior aides first presented him with their plan about a year ago. He was absorbed by the war in Afghanistan, and waved the advisers away.
But early this year, he accepted the blueprint. The campaign opened Jan. 9 when he starred at a $1.5 million event for his brother Jeb, who is seeking re-election as Florida governor. Jeb Bush became the largest beneficiary of the president's fund raising.
Other big winners have been Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, two of Bush's rivals for the 2000 GOP presidential nomination, both running for U.S. Senate; Scott McCallum, the GOP gubernatorial candidate in Wisconsin; Bill Simon, running for California governor; Norm Coleman, the GOP's U.S. Senate hopeful in Minnesota; Jim Talent, running for Senate in Missouri; and John Cornyn, running for Senate in Texas. All got multiple, in-person plugs from Bush.
Bush never took more than a few days off from the fund-raising campaign. On the day he signed
the McCain-Feingold bill tightening fund-raising laws, Bush collected $2.6 million for Republican Senate candidates in two states. "I'm not going to lay down my arms," Bush said at the time.
If McCain-Feingold survives court challenges, it could make Bush's fund-raising campaign the last of its kind. In May he raised $30 million at an RNC gala much of it in large contributions from corporations that the new law would prohibit the national political parties from accepting.
but the new law doubles the amount an individual may give to a presidential campaign, making it possible Bush could raise $200 million or more for the 2004 primaries if he turns down public funding.
Bush's prolific fund raising has helped the GOP accumulate a substantial stockpile of cash for next month's election.
The RNC began this month with $30 million on hand, for example, compared with $5 million for the Democratic National Committee. But the Democratic Party, too, is collecting big "soft money" checks up to the last minute; Newsweb chief executive Fred Eychaner of Chicago donated $3 million to the DNC in September, and he and Hollywood entertainment mogul Haim Saban each gave at least $1 million to the Democratic senatorial committee last month.
"Bush's travel schedule and end of the campaign strategy can make this election into a referendum on the economy."
Joe Lockhart and John Podesta
Clinton White House alumni
Bush's $140 million-plus total obliterated the estimated $50 million President Clinton and his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton, raised in 1994 — the run-up to his
first midterm campaign as president. Clinton raised about $105 million during 2000, but that was a presidential election cycle, which produces higher fund-raising totals than midterms.
Vice President Dick Cheney, confined after the terrorist attacks to "undisclosed locations" for security reasons, hit the road even more aggressively than Bush. He headlined some 70 fund-raisers, raking in more than $22 million.
Democrats planned to use Bush's heavy political itinerary against him.
"Bush's travel schedule and end of the campaign strategy can make this election into a referendum on the economy," Clinton White House alumni Joe Lockhart and John Podesta wrote to Democratic leaders last week. "We all know from national polling that voters believe Bush is not spending enough time focused on the economy by a factor of two to one."
Conflict encourages increased student activism
The Associated Press
BERKELEY, Calif. - On a tree-shaded plaza at the University of California at Berkeley, two leaflet-covered tables have become the latest flash points for a school with a long history of debate.
One table has fliers advocating divestment from Israel. The other has the opposite message, promoting the purchase of Israeli bonds. Some observers think such activism is a sign of something larger.
A new generation is rallying
nere and at campuses across the country on the conflict in the Middle East and other issues, rekindling old passions and offering a taste of what future anti-war protests might look like.
Thirty eight years after the Free Speech Movement at Berkeley created the blueprint for college activism, the new protesters are tuned in and turned on. Where protest leaders of the past mustered their troops by stapling fliers to telephone poles, today they flip on high-speed modems.
"This generation really seems to yearn for connections and
meaning," said Molly Schaller, an assistant professor of counselor education and human services at the University of Dayton in Ohio.
Schaller, who follows student culture, sees a shift as Generation Y, which grew up with the Internet at its fingertips, takes over from Generation X, raised in the "Me Decade" of the 1980s.
Today's students "know a lot. They have a lot of information, and that's what calls them to action," said Schaller.
While students at other campuses around the nation have been moved to act on issues ranging from banning sweatshop labor to ending racism, Berkeley has been roiled by Middle East conflicts — a subject that has sparked raucous demonstrations.
Thirty-two students face possible suspension for taking over a campus building in a demonstration promoting the divestment campaign in April.
County prosecutors have dropped trespassing and other charges against the pro-Palestinian students, but Berkeley decided to go ahead with the hearings, saying school rules must be upheld.
Students' attorney Anne Weills said administrators are overreacting to "a very simple, small sit-in." The students have sued.
It's familiar ground for Walls. In 1964, she was a civil rights organizer working with Berkeley students on the Free Speech Movement.
"I imagine there are going to be a lot of protests that are coming down the pike. I imagine that I will begin to join them," said Linda Williams, a Berkeley film professor who signed a faculty petition supporting the protesters.
Pro-Israeli students, many of them members of the Israel Action Committee, have held counter-rallies and debates. Their Israeli bond-buying drive, Project Invest, is also spreading online.
Jewish students say the atmosphere has become tense; vandals threw a cinder block through the window of the campus Jewish center and wrote anti-Semitic graffiti.
Leaders of the pro-Palestinian student movement condemn these unsolved attacks, but they too feel targeted, especially since Sept. 11.
kansan.com
elections commissioner position vacancy
administer, interpret, and enforce all election rules and policies set forth by the student senate elections commission.
eligibility must be a regularly enrolled student at the university of kansas, lawrence campus. members of student government organizations are not eligible.
salary $8.50/hr., starts Nov. 18
STUDENT applications available in 133 strong hall SENATE and the o&l office,400 kansas union applications due:
Friday, November 1 • 5pm to 133 strong hall