Democrats hold rally on campus

As Massachusetts voters head to the polls today, they will choose the winner of one of the most heated gubernatorial elections in recent state history. With recent polls showing Democratic gubernatorial candidate Shannon O'Brien neck-and-neck with Republican candidate Mitt Romney, even a few hundred votes may mean the difference between another four years of Republican leadership or the chance for the Democrats to recapture the corner office after a 12-year hiatus.

This possibility was on the minds of a number of local politicians Sunday night when Massachusetts Democrats held a rally on the Tufts campus. With just 48 hours until the election, the Democrats pulled out all the stops to rally votes for O'Brien and her running mate, Chris Gabrieli _ an effort in which student votes have become increasingly important.

As of yesterday, 11 percent of Massachusetts voters remained undecided about who they would choose as governor, according to The Associated Press. Though students do not vote in large numbers, they could make the difference in this election's outcome. There are 48 colleges in the Boston area, and the Democrats are hoping that students, who tend to vote for liberals, could sway the election just by showing up at the polls.

The politicians at Sunday's gathering _ which was organized by Tufts Democrats _ focused on issues intended to resonate with college students, and even encouraged students to skip class to garner democratic support in the last hours before the polls close.

Speakers at the forum included former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich, former State Senator Warren Tolman, US Representative Barney Frank (D-MA), and State Representatives John Slattery and Marie St. Fleur.

The issues covered ranged from gay rights, discussed by Frank, to the possibility that a Republican governor might support the death penalty in Massachusetts, a prospect Slattery said he did not want to face. "What we need is a governor willing to stand up on principle," Slattery said.

St. Fleur discussed issues that the audience was particularly responsive to, including minority concerns, the negative effects of housing vouchers, and the necessity of rehabilitation programs for the 20,000 inmates who are released every year in the state. St. Fleur often prompted standing ovations from the crowd.

The democratic leaders campaigned passionately for the democratic candidates in today's election. Tolman, who discussed the environment, called O'Brien's plan to reduce emissions by 2020 "visionary." O'Brien's republican opponent, Romney, didn't even have an environmental plan on his website until two weeks ago, Tolman said.

The rally's political participants were acutely aware of the crucial role that students might play in today's election. "We are 48 hours away from the end of an election whose stakes are very high," Tolman told the Daily. Students' "futures are going to be affected by their votes in this election. Look what happened in Florida. Every vote counts. This is a very tight election."

Reich urged the already-supportive audience members to be careful with their vote. "A vote for anyone else, even a progressive third-party candidate, as a practical matter _ that is a vote for the Republican Party and we cannot afford that," Reich said.

Reich was most likely referring to Jill Stein's bid for the governor's office on the Green Party ticket, which has produced headaches for Massachusetts Democrats over the past month. Since Romney and O'Brien are so close, O'Brien's supporters worry about a repeat occurrence of the "Nader effect," wherein third party candidates gather support from voters who would otherwise support the Democratic candidate. "Have you learned your lesson yet?" Reich asked the audience.

Though the Democratic leaders said they were not anti-Stein, Tolman said that Democrats were targeting progressive communities where she was likely to attract a significant number of votes.

Stein's poll numbers have ranged from four to seven percent, according The Associated Press. Libertarian and independent candidates have also chipped away at the major candidates' poll numbers, though neither one has obtained five percent of voters' support.

The rally's pairing of Reich and Tolman might have been especially resonant with students, since both had such large student support in their primary races. Stein's campaign is also aimed at capturing the student vote.

Stein said on Sunday night that given her campaign's reliance on word of mouth, student support could be crucial. Her campaign has focused on idealistic issues that are often important to students, including the environment and clean elections laws.

Stein held an event at Harvard yesterday for Boston-area students. Though she has never campaigned at Tufts, Stein has frequently visited state and community college campuses, where she has emphasized the importance of the student vote since "young people... haven't signed off on their ideals yet."

The Democrats have presented a united front to counter the threat of Republican victory. Although Reich and Tolman both ran against O'Brien in the democratic gubernatorial primaries _ and Slattery competed with Gabrieli for the position of lieutenant governor _ all three are now supporting O'Brien and Gabrieli.

"It shows that this party has a set of cohesive goals," junior Liz Richardson said, an O'Brien campaign intern who helped organize the rally on campus. "I think that a lot of people are afraid that this third party and Jill Stein are going to take a lot of votes."

Just a few months ago, Reich, Tolman, and Slattery were all running negative ads against O'Brien and Gabrieli. Now, however, they have rushed to support the democratic team. "It is important that we all understand we are on the same page together," Reich said.

Sunday's rally was held in Barnum Hall, in a room capable of seating over 200 people. However, sparse advertising of the event meant that only about 60 people showed up, and politicians were almost as numerous as students. Attendance was boosted somewhat by the presence of residents of Medford and Somerville.

"I thought there was a poor student turnout," senior Steve Krubiner said. "But it was a good idea to try and get out the swing vote."