NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate provides the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Wednesday, May 16th, 2012

Baumgartner comes to WWU, response is lukewarm

Michael Baum­gart­ner, cur­rent State Sen­a­tor (6th‑R) and oppo­nent to Maria Cantwell, came to West­ern Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty today to talk to stu­dents with slight­ly gram­mat­i­cal­ly incor­rect cam­paign material. 

A few stu­dents stopped to talk, but most stu­dents were hud­dled around the very enthu­si­as­tic evan­gel­i­cal preach­er yelling to stu­dents in Red Square or were tar­gets of three Mor­mon mis­sion­ar­ies spread­ing their mes­sage across the square (who are nor­mal­ly viewed as quite both­er­some by stu­dents). All this activ­i­ty was quite a sight, and Baum­gart­ner was rel­e­gat­ed to one cor­ner of the square.

Approach­ing Baum­gart­ner to ask him about his views, he talked about end­ing the war in Afghanistan (actu­al­ly a good way to speak to stu­dents) and about sup­port­ing edu­ca­tion (but noth­ing about his sup­port for the Zarel­li bud­get which would have cut 30 mil­lion from high­er edu­ca­tion. He spoke a lot off fluff, but not much more.

Even if Baum­gart­ner came on a more nor­mal day, the response would­n’t have been any more warm. The pol­i­tics of West­ern aren’t favor­able to a can­di­date of his ide­ol­o­gy, and Baum­gart­ner’s spon­sor­ing of a bill which hurts repro­duc­tive rights, among oth­er issues, will not sit well with stu­dents. Bet­ter luck next time.

Update: The Stranger has their own take on Baum­gart­ner’s vis­it to campus.

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  1. […] You thought *I* had gram­mar issues. Gram­mar gone bad can hap­pen any­where and thanks to NW Pro­gres­sive for this story. […]

    Ping from Untitled Hannie Post » hannie's musings 10 :: May 18th, 2012 at 11:44 AM
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