Clinton visit brings presidential election to The Beach

Salute • Long Beach State Democrats President Morgan Wheeler salutes Jane Harman along with other women in politics. Wheeler set-up the event to not only foster support for John Kerry, but to bring the national elections to a local level. Yulian Danusastro / Daily Forty-Niner

 

By Sonya Smith
Daily Forty-Niner
Editor-in-Chief

Senator Hillary Clinton's visit to Cal State Long Beach on Friday not only brought together women to support John Kerry and John Edwards, but also the Long Beach State Democrats who in August 2004 started up again after a two-year absence.

In her speech Clinton urged attendees to get more people registered to vote and to remind people to vote on election day. This effort to get more people involved in the election process echoed the efforts of the Long Beach State Democrats, who with Associated Students, Inc. have registered 1,200 CSULB students to vote so far this semester.

As 3,000 students, staff and community packed into the Pyramid, opening speaker Alice Germond, secretary of the Democratic National Committee, used her booming voice to rally the crowd as she reminded the energetic crowd that the votes of women do count in the election.

Germond summoned her fellow politicians onstage such as Congresswoman Juanita Millender-Mcdonald, City of Long Beach Mayor Beverly O-Neill, Senator Betty Karnett, Congresswoman Linda Sanchez and Congresswoman Jane Harman to voice to the audience their support for Kerry.

The main draw of the event, however, was proved as the main speaker approached the podium to the roar of the crowd shouting “Hillary, Hillary," waving their Kerry/Edwards signs and making the stands tremble with their stomping.

Once Clinton took the podium, she talked about how Kerry is a better choice than Bush in terms of health care, education, environmental policy, energy policy and appointing Supreme Court justices.

Rather than envision four more year of Bush as president, she “prefers to think about what it will mean to the country if John Kerry gets elected."

She explained her trip to a blue state as an effort to increase the margin of votes for Kerry as much as possible.

“If everybody that wants John Kerry as president, and doesn't want Bush as president, votes — we will win," Clinton said.

Clinton left the audience with the assignments of getting voters to register, volunteering to help with the elections as pollworkers and getting everybody to vote on Nov. 2.

President of the Long Beach State Democrats, Morgan Wheeler, said that the event was intended “for all students; for democrats, republicans and libertarians."

He hopes that the event got students motivated about the upcoming election, especially women voters. The event started out as women in politics getting together to show their support for Kerry and Edwards, and as Wheeler said, “just got bigger and bigger and bigger."

After learning that Clinton was going to be in town for a Santa Monica fundraiser Friday night and that she was looking for a college to speak at, Wheeler hoped for the best as he put in a bid for her to come to CSULB.

“I was ecstatic and beside myself," Wheeler says of when he found out just over a week before the event that Clinton was coming. “Then when all these other people got added I thought wow, this is a huge event."

This huge event was something that Wheeler did in his efforts to rally the collegiate democrats.

He feels that the republican party, “doesn't respond to youth and that they don't listen to students' needs." “We are a huge block of student voters, it's time to change and to try and make sure that our votes are heard."

Also wanting to see that students are heard in the upcoming election, past-president of the College Republicans Alex Omel was at the event to see Clinton speak. He hopes that because of a republican presence on campus students can see fair and balanced sides .

“Students should see both sides of the issues and be able to make an educated decision," Omel said.

Past ASI President Danny Vivian was also on-hand for the event. He hopes too that the event will get people involved in politics on the local level, “because that's where politics start." He said that the 18 to 35-year-old category is not being listened to.

“With financial aid funds going down and tuition costs going up students are not standing up for themselves."

CSULB's NAACP Chapter President Vanessa Davis says their chapter attended the rally as "a good way to show support for both sides, and for getting out and voting."

For students wishing to vote in the upcoming election, the deadline for voter registration is today. Volunteers will be on campus with voter registration forms, or you can go to the non-partisan Web site www.declareyourself.com to register to vote online.