Dem’s daughter delivers
by N.S. Garcia & Kathryn Graham
The Metropolitan
Alexandra Kerry, daughter of Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry,
defended her father’s ideas and policies and suggested to Auraria
students Monday, Oct. 11 how important the young vote is in the upcoming
election.
Brad Wakoff / The Metropolitan
Alexandra Kerry, daughter of Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry, addressed students in the food court of the Tivoli Monday, Oct. 11. She stressed that her father is the best candidate for college-aged students.
Kerry landed in Denver Sunday and spent about 90 minutes in the food
court of the Tivoli, addressing students’ concerns.
Colorado has turned into a very important battleground state in recent
months. Both presidential candidates have spent a considerable amount
of time in the state. While registered republicans outnumber registered
democrats by 185,000, there are as many as 950,000 unaffiliated voters,
one of the largest blocs in the nation. Colorado, along with other states,
has seen a large influx of new voter registration.
Nathan Pitman, president of the Auraria Young Democrats, said they have
been seeking a guest speaker from the Kerry campaign to come to Auraria
and host a discussion since school started.
Angie Knepell, also of AYD, said the event was last minute.
“I was really impressed,” Knepell said. “Alex Kerry
was very open and got her message out.”
Knepell pointed out that while most colleges and universities have a
large liberal population, she believes that Auraria campus has a very
strong conservative population. However, she said she feels the campus
will lean toward Kerry.
Kerry’s main focus was education and the environment, Pitman said.
“In terms of education, my father and Sen. Edwards have a plan
to give a tax cut to state schools of $4,000 for those people who enroll
in a four-year institution. They also have something called a service
plan,” said Kerry.
The service plan would provide educational aid to Americans who serve
in the military full-time for two years. The service plan is similar to
AmeriCorps and it will be made available to those in the middle and lower
income brackets, she said.
Under the Kerry and Edwards education plan, states that commit to keeping
tuition costs down would receive $10 billion in fiscal relief.
“Education is incredibly important to my dad and Sen. Edwards,”
Kerry said.
Another issue Kerry addressed was her father’s plan to improve
the job market. A new independent report shows President Bush did create
jobs in the governmental sector but the jobs he created were low-wage
ones, Kerry said.
The report said there hasn’t been a net-job loss like our current
one under any president since Herbert Hoover, she said.
Kerry also has a plan to raise the minimum wage to $7 per hour by the
year 2007. This increase will mean a $3,800 a year wage increase for seven
million Americans.
Addressing the environment, Kerry called President Bush’s environmental
record “one of the most despicable in all of United States’
history.”
“He stood in front of the United States, during the debate, and
called himself a steward of the environment. To me, as a voter, as a young
woman and not just as a daughter of a candidate, that’s one of the
largest lies that he actually proclaimed in all of his candidacy,”
she said.
A potentially important group of voters on the Auraria campus—and
nationwide—is the gay and lesbian community.
“I believe he is against gay marriage and I don’t think it’s
because he doesn’t believe that gay people should be together, it’s
just he believes in the tradition of the church. However, he is for gay
rights and he believes that gay unions should be recognized by states
and that they should have full partner benefits and health care,”
she said.
Sen. Kerry’s military record was also discussed. One student, whose
father also served in Vietnam, questioned whether Sen. Kerry’s action
of testifying before congress after returning from the war was unpatriotic.
Kerry emphatically suggested her father’s actions were anything
but unpatriotic and that he was standing up for his fellow veterans.
“That is a horrible misconception,” she said. “The
fact is, he was advocating for the soldiers.”
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