OCR Text |
Show Fair exposes office hopefuls The Union Ballroom was the scene for political discussions and debate as the Candidate Fair exposed ex-posed state and local candidates and representatives of Nixon and McGovern to the University. Booths, speeches, red, white and blue banners and political charges and counter charges highlighted the day-long event. The event was sponsored by Participation72 and the Hinckley Institute of Politics to "orient the students with Participation '72 and to allow them to get acquainted with the candidates." Gerrit Steenblik, one of the organizers of the fair said, "The Fair was a great success, not just because of the tremendous student interest, but because all the candidates can-didates discussed the issues and their positrons. Not one of the debates degenerated into namecalling." Steve "Philo" Johnson, Democratic co-chairman of Par-ticipation72, Par-ticipation72, said, "I'm pleased. But I was disappointed that Waddingham couldn't make it. I think the Attorney General's race is more important than University students realize, in terms of residency for out-of-state tuition and their participation in the political process." Several legislative candidates set up booths and talked to the students, but most of the action was on the podium with face-to-face confrontations between the major state candidates. The largest crowds of the day were around the noon hour when Gov. Calvin Rampton and his opponent, Nicholas Strike, had their debate at 10 a.m. Rep. Sherm Lloyd and Wayne Owens followed at noon and Richard Richards for Nixon and Chuck Nabors for McGovern debated the presidential race at 1 p.m. The format of the program was a short speech by each candidate, followed by a question and answer session from the audience. Candidates Can-didates usually parried comments back and forth in a debating style. Other candidates involved in the program were the commission candidates. Wards Cameron, Jim Kirkwood, Ralph McClure and Pete Kutulas. Attorney general candidates can-didates Vernon Romeny and a representative for Thorpe Waddingham Wad-dingham and secretary of state candidates Bill Dunn and Clyde Miller also participated. The crowd generally favored the Democratic candidates in the questions asked, although both parties were well represented. The questions asked of the candidates were considered by both sides to be fairly thoughtful and generally tried to get to the candidates stand through the rhetoric of the speeches. This was the largest gathering of candidates scheduled for the rest of the campaign. |