Ninety- nine years of editorialfreedorn
Vol. IC, No. 45 Ann Arbor, Michigan - Wednesday, November 9, 1988 Copyright 1988, The Michigan Daily
BUSH'
BEATS DUKAKIS 54-46%;
POLLACK,
PURSELL CLOSE
Election
Round-up
Bullard keeps
House seat
State Rep. Perry Bullard (D-
Ann Arbor) easily won re-election
to his ninth term as the
representative from the 52nd
District. He staved off challengers
Rich Birkett, a Republican, and
Scott Jones, from the Workers
Against Concessions party.
"Considering the guy two
years ago lost 65-35, I'll be
happy with anything better than
that," Birkett said.
Robb wins in
Va. Senate
Former Virginia Governor
Charles Robb, a Democrat, was
elected to the Virginia senate,
defeating Republican challenger
Maurice Dawkins. Robb becomes
the first Democratic senator from
that state since 1972.
Voters retain
Md. gun law
Voters were giving Maryland's
.tough handgun law a surprisingly
big lead in early returns yesterday,
in a contest both sides saw as
crucial to impending gun control
debtes in other states.
With 10 percent of the
precincts reporting, support for
the law banning cheap handguns
known as "Saturday Night
Specials" was ahead 61-39.
Sen. Weicker
falls in Conn.
Incumbent Republican Senator
Lowell Weicker, a liberal senator
from Connecticut lost to
Democratic challenger Joseph
Lieberman in a close race.
Weicker was supported by liberal
groups such as labor unions,
women's groups and even Coretta
Scott King.
Iowa keeps
'Gopher' on
board
Fred Grandy, better known for
his role as 'Gopher' in TV's "The
Love Boat" won re-election to the
U.S. Congress from Iowa. He
will begin his second term in
January.
Dens still
hold Senate
Democrats will retain control
of the U.S. Senate, although late
results show that they might gain
one seat. Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.)
will step down as majority leader.
ILadysntith Black Mamnbazo add a
whole new meaning to the word
IsPcathamiya.
See Arts, Page 7
House
hopefuls
await
results
BY MICHAEL LUSTIG
As of press time last night, State
Sen. Lana Pollack held a slim lead
over U.S. Rep. Carl Pursell in their
battle for Pursell's Congress seat.
Pollack had 49,352 votes, while
Pursell had 46,424 of the 47 percent
of the vote counted by 12:45 a.m.
Pollack came to her reception at
the Howard Johnson's on Ann
Arbor's Carpenter Road at 12:25, and
said, "We simply don't know what
the results are going to be."
This deflated some of the
enthusiasm of several hundred
volunteers and supporters had earlier
been told that Pollack was leading
Pursell by nearly 20,000 votes.
Pursell reacts to close vote.
See Story, Page 3
Aides blamed the over-reporting of
vote totals on computer
malfunctions. After speaking,
Pollack said she was going back up
to her room to "wring my hands."
"Stay tuned," she told the crowd.
Pollack received strong support
from the Ann Arbor area, leading the
University area nearly 3-1. She was
also doing well in Jackson.
But Pollack, who has served in
the Michigan Senate since 1982, was
not faring so well in western Wayne
County. She said votes from a mix
of precincts, including Wayne
County and Ann Arbor, hadn't yet
been counted, so she refused to make
any predictions on the final tallies.
She did, however, appear
confident. She smiled broadly as her
supporters greeted her with applause
and chants of "Lana, Lana!"
"I am always cautious," Pollack
said.
To lighten some of the tension,
Marcia Federbush, a supporter, pulled
out a small keyboard and sang "a
dirge" she wrote to the tune of
Chopin's Funeral March. The refrain
went, "It's clear that George Bush
doesn't care about you."
No one paid much attention to
President-elect Bush's acceptance
See House, Page 2
Associated Press
George Bush has reason to celebrate; he will be sworn in as our nation's 41st president come
January. Bush triumphed over Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis in Michigan and across
the nation, winning 57% of Michigan's popular vote.
Early results show
Bush
carries
Mich.
voters
BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
U.S. Vice President George Bush
won a landslide victory in the
Presidential race over Massachusetts
Gov. Michael Dukakis last night.
Bush beat Dukakis in Michigan,
winning the state's 20 electoral
votes and continuing a Republican
dominance of the state's presidential
elections that stretches back to 1972.
"Obviously, it feels good," the
president-elect said as he received the
nation's verdict in Houston.
At press time last night, Bush
had 355 electoral votes, not counting
Illinois, California, or Hawaii.
Bush planned a morning news
conference for today and then a
triumphant return to Washington.
He received a late-night call of
congratulations from President
Reagan, as did vice president-elect
tabulation.
Victory came shortly after 11
p.m. yesterday.
Bush drew on a watered-down
version of the Reagan coalition
yesterday, attracting some Democrats
to his side, while Dukakis won the
support of voters who felt excluded
from national prosperity, exit polls
said.
Bush's experience weighed in his
favor, the polls said, and his
candidacy appeared to be boosted by
affection for his boss, President
Reagan.
Bush will be the first U.S.
President since Martin Van Buren to
win the presidency while serving as
Vice President.
Dukakis campaigned even as the
vote totals mounted. "It's a fight to
the finish, a cliffhanger," he said. "It
reminds me of 1960," when John F.
Kennedy and Richard Nixon battled
down to the finish, Dukakis said
before concluding a final round of
interviews.
Bentsen said on ABC that
Republicans "did a job on Michael
Dukakis with the negative ads... And
they distorted his record, to a
See Bush, Page 2
Proposal
BY VICTORIA BAUER AND LISA WXINE R
After weeks of heated debate and emotionally charged
ads, early results indicated that Michigan taxpayers voted
to stop funding abortions for poor women through
Medicaid.
With two percent of the votes tabulated, 35,225 or 61
percent voted to pass Proposal A, while only 22,097 or
39 percent voted against the proposal.
Though Ann Arbor residents voted strongly against
the proposal, the more conservative western and northern
regions voted in favor of it, said Molly Henry of the
People's Campaign for Choice.
"There is a strong possibility that we are going to
lose," Henry said.
Washtenaw County Right to Life was confident the
early results signified an imminent win, said
spokesperson Robert Houbech.
Besides garnering "an awful lot of grass roots
support," Houbech attributed their early success to
unexpected support from voters on the lower socio-
economic level as reported in a Detroit News poll.
"(We were) very surprised. The very people you would
victory
have thought would have felt the most threatened showed
much support," said Houbech.
Both camps thought a much larger voter turn-out than
expected - about 70 percent nationally - would help
them win. When voter turnout is very low, those that
that vote are traditionally more conservative, said Henry.
"I think (voter turn-out) will be good for us," said Rae
Ann Houbech, spokesperson for Washtenaw County
Right to Life. "I think we have a majority of the state...
the particularly big turn-out was in the Western part of
the state, which has always been more pro-life."
Both sides said Proposal A may have drawn an
unexpectedly high number of voters to the polls. "I've
been hearing so many things about people being
apathetic about the Presidential election," said Henry. "I
think (Proposal A) definitely had something to do with
the large turnout.
Both sides spent a total of $3.8 million.
The proposal occupied center stage on Michigan's
political scene and attracted national attention as one of
the three abortion issues on state ballot around the
country. The others were Colorado and Arkansas.
Long lines irk
student voters
BY TARANEH SHAFI
Local officials predicted a tradi-
tionally low turnout at the polls
yesterday, but University students
proved them wrong.
At East Quad late yesterday after-
noon, the line of students waiting to
cast their ballots stretched down
halls and around corners. By early
evening students were sprawled on
the floor studying as the expected
wait swelled up to three hours at
many campus polling sites.
Ann Arbor city election clerk
Herb Katz said some voters at the
Michigan Union might have to wait
until midnight to vote. Even though
the polls closed at 8 p.m., state law
mandates that people who were in
line by closing time would still be
able to vote.
Across the state, as well as in
Ann Arbor, voter turnout was
stronger than expected. "This one is
heavy. It's heavier than '84," Katz
said. He thinks that because the bal-
lot incorporates a variety of interests
Students, however, were irritated
by the seemingly never-ending lines.
One student is even planning to file
a complaint with the city on behalf
of the student body. LSA junior
Zachary Kittrie, chair of the Michi-
gan Student Assembly's External
Relations Committee, said he spoke
with the Ann Arbor City Clerk's
office about the problem.
Officials admitted that the Ann
Arbor City Council has not
modernized the voting system and
that the city faces the same problem
of over-crowded polling precincts
every four years, Kittrie said.
"I think this is reprehensible -
completely irresponsible of the city
council," he said. "There is no pos-
sible explanation for hundreds of
students who couldn't vote in their
presidential elections because of time
constraints," Kittrie thinks that this
situation would not be allowed in
non-student wards.
But Election Clerk Katz said vot-
ers were spending more time in the
Mainstream n nedias coverage of
Sotdeib anriciiectio ns cealethe
false diion between nti-
al ist and conservative parties.
Se Opinion, Page 4
ROBIN LOZNAK/Daily
Would-be student voters wait in line to exercise their constitutional rights yesterday;
Michigan Union. Lines at polling places all around campus, including Stockwell,
Lloyd, and East Quad were of unprecendented length. Voters at East Quad had to wait
three hours to cast their votes.
at the
Alice
about
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