The Quad

Issue date: 11/6/06 Section: News

In the homestretch of the 2006 mid-term elections, Democratic candidates for Pennsylvania's local, state and national offices-joined by the likes of former Vice President Al Gore, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Illinois Senator Barack Obama-visited our area on Saturday, promoting themselves, their policies and each other.

Crisscrossing Southeastern Pennsylvania with the goal of getting out the Democratic vote, the politicians made stops in Bristol, Brookhaven, Downingtown, Radnor, Norristown, Glenside and Doylestown. Distinguished politicians joined Gov. Ed Rendell, who is running for re-election; Bob Casey, who is running against republican incumbent Rick Santorum for Senate; and other local politicians running for U.S. and state representative positions.

In Downingtown, just minutes from the WCU campus, Tom Houghton, Anne Crowley and Barbara McIlvaine-Smith promoted their candidacies for state representative. Joining John J. Sweeney, the president of the international AFL-CIO, was the regional leader of the union group, Bill George, who rallied the crowd with promising words of encouragement. "Organized labor has […] 1.4 million potential voters in this election, and we're gonna turn out 80 percent of them," he said.

"No polls vote. Nothing matters until 7 a.m. on Tuesday," Governor Ed Rendell said, demoting his large lead in the polls and pressing college students to get out and vote. It was Rendell's campaign bus on which the big-name candidates arrived at the rallies. The Democratic governor, who was previously the mayor of Philadelphia, cited improved education, budget reform and expanded access to affordable prescription medications as just a few of his accomplishments since taking office in January of 2003.

Bob Casey Jr., currently the state treasurer of Pa., is offering "an independent voice" in Washington D.C., as he runs for office against two-term republican incumbent Rick Santorum. Casey Jr. says that his message is one of change. "We want a new direction for America," he said.

Casey Jr., a Democrat, offers controversially moderate opinions on the issues. Casey does not want to set a timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq. He is also pro-life, as is Rick Santorum. "This is no senate candidate anywhere in the United States," former Vice President Al Gore testified, "who has had as forthright and courageous and detailed a policy statement and positions on global warming than Bob Casey."

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