_ _ '7W 7V-f U.S. House race A tenacious Pollack fights Pursell, the odds Race for White Ho Believe it? This thing is finally drawing ti By Michael Lustig After 12 years in Congress, Republican Rep., Carl Pursell has acquired a level of seniority. He sits on the House Appropriations Committee, ranks second on the education subcommittee of the appropriations commit- tee, and is the Republican Party's deputy mi- nority whip in Congress. Pursell Pursell has a reputation as a moderate Re- publican and helped create the "Group of 92," a group of Republican members of Congress from the early 1980s who believed some of President Reagan's policies were too extreme for them. Pursell was first elected to Congress int 1976, winning by merely 344 votes. Since then, he has won each race easily. But not so this time. The strength of his opponent, State4 Sen. Lana Pollack, has focused all eyes on the Second District, which stretches from Livonia, a Detroit suburb, west to Hillsdale and Branch Counties. Most people say the race is too' close to call, even though Pursell's campaign recently released polling data showing he leads her by 20 points. Close or not, he has raised nearly $1 million to spend on the campaign. It is the most ex- pensive race for a Michigan House seat and one of the costliest in the country. While he returns to the district most week- ends, Pursell remained in Washington until mid-October because Congress was still in session. He missed many scheduled campaign stops. Pursell has campaigned as an environmentalist, a stance on which Pollack has launched her most vicious attacks. While a state senator in the early 1970s, one piece of legislation he authored, the Resource Recovery Act, which promoted incentives for recycling over using landfills, won him the state Envi- ronmental Protection Agency's legislator-of- the-year award. See PURSELL, Page 16 By Michael Lustig Michigan has not been represented in Congress by a woman since 1975, when Martha Griffiths, now the state's lieutenant governor, left office. If Lana Pollack has her way, she will become the state's third con- gresswoman in history. The odds are stacked against her, however. She is running against the well-financed, six- term incumbent, Republican Carl Pursell, and history shows that over 98 percent of incum- bents in 1986 were re-elected. Pollack campaigns with a mission: to prove that incumbents, once elected, are not elected for life. "We need to win to show others in both parties that we can take on a mediocre in- cumbent and win," she said. Pollack, 46 and a University graduate, be- lieves she will win a close race. She knows the value of a vote. In 1976, she campaigned for Al Wheeler, who was running for . ayor of Ann Arbor. She was knocking on doors, ask- ing people if they had voted and met a woman who said she hadn't. Pollack returned later, and when the woman still hadn't voted, she picked up the woman's pink jacket from a chair, put it on her, walked herto a polling site, and watched ber enter the voting booth. Wheeler won the election by one vote. Pollack has raised over $750,000 in what has become the most expensive congressional race in Michigan - and one of the most costly congressional races nationally. It has been a bruising race. Pollack has gone all-out on Pursell. She calls him a follower and a mediocre legislator. "Carl Pursell has faded into the woodwork," Pollack said. "I'm willing to say 'Stop! This is wrong.' Too many politicians don't." She also accuses him of flip-flopping on By Michael Lustig Long before the first round in the presiden- tial primary season, the Iowa caucuses, several of the top Democratic candidates were out of the race. Most obvious was Gary Hart, who emerged in the 1984 campaign with "new ideas" and gave up his Senate seat in 1986 to run in 1988. He lost it all when it was revealed he had an affair with a Miami actress, Donna it. Dukakis bala every year, but 1 lions of dollars f Dukakis beie stronger with an and would cut b reduce the budg nrPCi the MnccnrhrncPttc hndorpt u J t L L4/ 4wY4 LIW l44G f l.7 budget deficit but has not proposed how to do By Michael Lustie Rice. For six months, candidates criss-crossed the country, shaking hands and kissing babies in primary after primary. When all was over in June, Michael Dukakis, 55, the governor of Massachusetts, was at the top of the pile. Dukakis left the Democratic Convention in July with a vice presidential candidate, Texas Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, and a substantial lead in the polls over his Republican rival, George Bush. Dukakis was first elected governor of Mas- sachusetts in 1974, lost in 1978, and was re- elected in 1982. Bentsen, 67, served as a repre- sentative in Congress from 1948 to 1954, and defeated Bush in 1970 when he was first elected to the Senate. Critics have tried to paint Dukakis as a "liberal," but Dukakis himself has made his simple message:"good jobs at good wages." He does not want to raise taxes, but said he basic research fu would as a last resort. He has conceded that Initiative. some cuts will have to be made to reduce the 11(XU 11GI~.VIUS a% U LSL f""UU.L By most accounts, George Bush should have ad to borrow hundreds of mil- had an easy going in the Republican primaries. from pension funds this year. He certainly has the resume to be president: eves nationavense wi eight years as vice president, director of the increased conventional force, CIA, U.S. envoy to China, chair of the Re- ack some defense spending to publican National Committee, U.S. ambas- et deficit. He opposes aut sador to the United Nations, and U.S. representative from Texas. After a few early scares in some primaries, Bush, 64, began winning by huge margins, which drove his competitors quickly out of the race. From March until the Republican Con- vention in August, Bush just sat. He allowed the Democrats to go about their business, and even went fishing during the Democratic Con- vention. Bush left the Republican Convention with a vice presidential candidate, Indiana Sen. Dan Quayle, 41, and a sense of attack. He fired away at his opponent, Michael Dukakis, over Dukakis's veto of a bill which would have re- quired Massachusetts teachers to recite the pledge of allegiance every day and over Dukakis's prison furlough program. One con- victed murderer who was furloughed escaped and was caught after raping a woman and stab- Dukakis bing a man. Dukakis then ended the program. Bush's standings in the polls soared during nding for the Strategic Defense September as he shed his past image of a "whimp" and someone who stays in the shad- See DUKAKIS, Page 12 ows while others do the work. He has been consistently his messag However, n is too close Bush has president." sponsibility education. 2~ Pollack votes. Pursell has at times voted for and at times voted against funding for the Nicaraguan contra rebels. He voted for Civil Rights See POLLACK, Page 13 To contr posed a "fl everything 0 State House race Birkett faces uphill battle in bid to unseat Bullard U.S. Senate race Dunn needs money, a miracle to depose By Joshua Ray Levin' Perry Bullard, running for his ninth consecutive term as the state representative from Ann Arbor's 53rd District, has a long history of representing student concerns in Lansing. Bullard During his tenure in the State House, Bullard has established himself as a progressive leader and powerful statesperson. He has been the chairperson of the House Civil Rights Committee and the House Labor Committeej and now serves as the chairperson of the influ-- ential Judiciary Committee. He is also cur-t rently serving on the Taxation, Corrections,t Elections, and Towns & Counties committees. During his career, Bullard has championed such student-related legislation as a Student Bill of Rights in 1984, which deemed several points of the then-proposed University code of non-academic behavior illegal; the Financial Assistance to Parents of Dependant College{ Students bill in 1981; the Student Representa- tion on University Governing Boards proposal; and the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) and the Open Meetings Act (OMA). Perhaps Bullard's most significant legisla- tion in recent years in the eyes of University students has been the FOIA and OMA, which require the state government - and the Uni- versity - to keep their records and to conduct their daily activities open to the public. The FOIA and OMA were points of contention last semester since many have accused the Univer- sity Board of Regents of abusing the FOIA and' OMA by not revealing their actions while se- lecting University President James Duderstadt. Bullard has also been active in broader legis- lation. He has lobbied for state divestment from South Africa, more lenient fines for mi- nors arrested for possession of alcohol and has See BULLARD, Page 12 By Joshua Ray Levin Rich Birkett, the Republican candidate for the State House of Representative's 53rd Dis- trict, has been politically active since he first came to Ann Arbor in 1970. At that time, he was an activist against the war in Vietnam; currently he works with Amnesty Interna- tional. In 1986, Birkett launched an unsuc- cessful campaign for State Senate and has vowed to keep running for office until he's elected. Birkett stands out as a strong civil libertarian in social issues and a conservative on financial issues. He has pledged never to support a tax increase although he said he would support renovations in the tax system and would call for a taxpayer's "Bill of Rights," which would shift the burden of proof of tax liability from the taxpayer to the government. Birkett is strongly committed to challenging the use of intrusive governmental procedures such as electronic surveillance devices, sobriety checklanes, forfeiture laws, and what he con- siders the unconstitutional confiscation of property based on the possession of illegal drugs for personal use. Other planks of Bir- kett's platform include reducing the influence of special interest groups in government and preserving the autonomy of cities to determine fines for possession of controlled substances. Birkett has intriguing views on several stu- dent issues. When asked if he supported in- creased funding for the University, Birkett re- sponded that "the University would have to show clear need for additional revenue." Birkett places the responsibility on University admin- istrators to show that the state money which By Fran Obeid With University tuition hikes becoming an annual ordeal, financial aid has become a pressing concern for students. U.S. Senator Donald Riegle has addressed this concern by co-sponsoring and voting for increased funding for several financial aid programs. These programs include the Pell Grant Pro- gram, Guaranteed Student Loans, State Student Incentive Grants, and the Work Study Pro- gram. Even with a 100 percent liberal rating by the watchdog group Americans for Democratic Action, "Riegle has extensive support out of both Michigan and national business communities," said campaign manager Kevin Gottlieb. The senator is a "strong advocate of the free enterprise system and of capitalism... and an enthusiastic supporter of entrepreneurial activity," Gottlieb added, terming Riegle as an "economic moderate." Riegle has voiced his objections to the space-based Strategic Defense Initiative and has voted for all amendments to reduce its funding. In campaign literature, he states: "Creative arms control is clearly a more reliable and in- expensive method of dealing with strategic problems than relying on the development of new weapons capabilities, which only con- tribute to the destabilizing arms race." Besides his outspoken stance on "Star Wars," Riegle has co-sponsored legislation that demands that the United States not violate the SALT II Treaty as long as the Soviets remain within the treaty's guidelines. Riegle has also appeared on national news- By Noah Finkel race, fort If elected to the U.S. Senate, Republican through e Jim Dunn says he will not accept honorariums The rea or speaking fees. He says he will not accept a handful campaign contributions from any corporation war chest which is regulated by a committee on which he race, Rieg sits. And he says he will vote to reform cam- paign financing laws "to reduce the depen- dence... on special interests." Small wonder, since Jim Dunn currently has only $350,000 with which to run his cam- paign compared to the over $4 million in campaign funds which Democratic incumbent Don Riegle has amassed. Two weeks ago, Dunn lost his suit against the Republican National Committee which al- legedly promised Dunn nearly $640,000 but then backed away from the deal. Opinion polls show Riegle with as much as a 4:1 lead, and if Dunn hopes to win the Sena- torial election, money is crucial. "I'm 100 percent convinced I'll win - if I can get the message out," he said. And it looks as if Dunn will only be able to "get the message out" if he can raise the money needed for an advertising blitz. Normally, a candidate with little money can become known through the free media - re- in the pc ports by newspapers and television news unknown ;hows. But the media has virtually ignored the Birkett the University receives is being properly used to benefit students and not the administration. See BIRKETT, Page 13 Riegle casts, criticizing Reaganomics and denouncing administration officials. See RIEGLE, Page 12 PAGE 8 WEEKEND/NOVEMBER 4, 1988 WEEKEND/NOVEMBER 4, 1988