Just Vote '96 Tour pushes for Tucson's Democratic votes

By Alicia A. Caldwell
Arizona Daily Wildcat
November 4, 1996

Tanith L. Balaban
Arizona Daily Wildcat

At the Clinton/Gore Just Vote '96 Tour Saturday, Henry Cisneros, secretary of Housing and Urban Development, tells the crowd the importance of voting for the Democratic Party in the election on Nov. 5.

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With Election Day only 72 hours away, the Clinton/ Gore campaign made yet another push for voters in Arizona.

Saturday afternoon, the Clinton/Gore Just Vote '96 Tour stopped at the Kino Veterans Memorial Community Center, 2805 E. Ajo Way. The tour was designed to cover the southwestern United States, including stops in Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Arizon a and California. The tour participants emphasized the message of getting all registered voters out to the polls, and specifically getting Arizona voters to vote Democratic in the Nov. 5 election.

If President Clinton takes Arizona, it will be the first time since 1948, that the Democrats have won the state.

Tucson tour stop participants included Secretary of Transportation Federico Pena, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros, comedian Jeff Valdez and several local area candidates, most notably, Congressman Ed Pastor.

While the participants spoke to the 200-person audience regarding the importance of voting, Cisneros spoke to the Arizona Daily Wildcat with regards to some of the issues playing a role in this year's campaign.

The issues included the topic of a recent New York Times six-piece article that exposed an extreme housing problem in New York City.

"It is evidence of a housing shortfall. We need to do something and right now we are working with the City of New York," Cisneros said.

While Cisneros agreed that a problem did exist with the location in question, he also said the reason for those problems was due in part to the Republican Congress.

"Congress hasn't helped. They have cut housing assistance by 20 percent in the budgets for 1995, '96 and '97," Cisneros said.

He also discussed Clinton administration solutions to the problem, which had been developed, but Congress cut.

"Housing vouchers are a certificate which allowed a person to pay 30 percent of their income to a landlord and the government would pay the difference and then they would be able to get affordable housing," Cisneros said. "Congress has elimin-ated the pro gram for the first time in its 20 year history. We had asked for the usual number of about $70,000 but we did not get any."

Cisneros gave these problems as evidence Americans are tired of the Republican Party and the cuts they have proposed and implemented.

"The American people know the truth. The president refused to go along with the proposed Republican budget and they shut down the government. The country could see the problem," he said.

Cisneros said the Just Vote '96 Tour's goal is to get voters to the polls and to vote Democrat. He also said the Latino voters would have a large impact on the election due to a record number of Latinos registered to vote.

"The Republican strategy backfired by attacking Latinos. They stretched themselves too far," Cisneros said.

In his speech to the crowd, Pena presented his views on the Democratic strategy in Arizona.

"We want to get record numbers out to vote. If record numbers come out and vote Democrat then we will win Arizona," Pena said.

Many of the participants made claims that the Demo-crats are the party of the working man, the working woman and the working family. They also said Clinton was the man to lead the American people and the country in the right direction.

Others made claims that the Republicans made a contract on America not a contract for America.

Lisa MacSpaden, Arizona Clinton/Gore press secretary, said, "We don't put anything in the bag. A new Arizona Republic poll says that we are 12 points up in Arizona. But we will continue as if we were 10 points down."

The tour stop concluded with a local mariachi band playing as the participants spoke one on one with the audience and signed autographs.


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