Nelson Eisman forum
Two hours with the Green Party's candidate
Karl Sternitzky
Issue date: 10/25/06 Section: News
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The UWM Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) hosted the forum on as a way for students to get a flavor for the only third party candidate running in this year's gubernatorial election.
A dozen people showed up for the event, many of them journalism majors and members of the SPJ. Also, a handful of students just trying to get to know the third party candidate.
Originally, the event was supposed to feature all three candidates in an informal debate setting. However, when The SPJ contacted the Republican and Democratic parties the powers that be decided that Mark Green and Jim Doyle could not make it.
According to the SPJ's President Bradley Wooten, Republican Party candidate Mark Green was interested in doing the forum. Members of his campaign then said that the candidate would only show up if the governor agreed to be there as well. Green then backed out when Jim Doyle's campaign called and said it was not possible to make it.
Eisman, however, jumped at the chance to speak to the students of UWM. He gave an informal two hour speech during which he took many questions. The bulk of his speech was about his views on many of the campaign issues for this election. He also spoke out about his opponents and their corporate funded election campaigns.
The event was held in room 191 of Mitchell hall. Eisman's campaign manager, Steve Herrick, helped set up the candidate's table of campaign information, or as Eisman liked to call it, his political swag. The gubernatorial candidate then took the time to tell those present about the benefits of the swag as he passed out buttons to all present.
After he had passed out a significant amount of promotional materials he began to tell those present about his plans for Wisconsin. He calmly walked up to the chalkboard and wrote a dollar sign on it, he then slowly circled it for emphasis.
The first issue he talked about was the campaign financing issues that have clogged the airwaves during many recent major elections. He said that the gubernatorial race in Wisconsin alone cost more than $35 million. His problem with the campaign finance scandals are that they detract attention from more important issues, also, it seems that the candidate with the biggest budget for their campaign is the one that more often than not comes out the winner after the votes have been cast.
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