While many politically minded students were watching the presidential debate Tuesday night, students at the College Republicans meeting listened to live political speakers in University Hall.
About 20 students attended the last-minute meeting at 8 p.m., just as the presidential debate began airing on television.
The meeting was designed to “give people an opportunity to get involved in campaigns,” according to College Republicans Vice President Brian Pastor, a Weinberg sophomore. But, the meeting was cut short so members could walk to Norris University Center to watch the debates as a group.
The speakers included volunteers from the campaigns of presidential candidate George W. Bush; Dennis Driscoll, the republican nominee for Congress in Illinois’ 9th district; and Mark Kirk, the republican nominee for the 10th district.
All three representatives urged the importance of helping with their candidates’ campaigns, stressing the tough races they are running.
“Illinois is one of our toughest states,” said Pat Daly, an NU law student serving as the Bush-Cheney youth director for upstate Illinois. “We really need to win this state and we need your help to do that.”
Daly also spoke about key election issues, especially Social Security and the appointment of new Supreme Court justices.
“I know you always hear people saying the issues are important,” he said. “But now we finally have a budget surplus and we need to decide what to do with it.”
He spoke against “throwing it into Social Security,” a plan he said was not working. Daly said George W. Bush has been consistent on policy issues throughout the campaign, while Gore has made hundreds of campaign promises.
Gore would probably even promise to open the Allison dining hall on the weekends, Daly said sarcastically.
The Driscoll campaign representative, Suzan Ullrich, said, “We need all the help we can get.” Because Driscoll is running against an incumbent, it will be a difficult race, she said.
“The Driscoll campaign is a big challenge,” Pastor said. “People who want to see change should be getting involved.
“If you want to get involved, this is the time to do it. You won’t have another chance while at college to get involved in such a big election.”
Driscoll actually showed up to the meeting around 8:20 p.m. but because the meeting ended earlier than expected, he did not get to speak to the entire group.
David From, who represented the Kirk campaign, called Kirk’s race a “hotly contested election.” Kirk is running against Lauren Beth Gash for one of the congressional seats that analysts say can determine which party has a majority in Congress.
“Democrats see this as an opportunity to get control of the house, but we don’t want that,” From said.
Students responded positively to the speakers’ messages.
Weinberg junior Elliot Fladen said he attended the meeting because “it’s always interesting to hear a variety of viewpoints,” although he could not stay long because of the presidential debate.
Weinberg junior Ezra Church, who is on the executive board of College Republicans, said he hoped to have a larger attendance, though it was a decent turnout considering the debate. Despite the attendance, he said he thinks many students will get involved with campaigns this fall.
“Members of our club tend to be highly motivated,” Church said. “You have to be, to be a republican at this school.”
