CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis. – Hoping to gather enough support in northwestern Wisconsin to turn the state his way in November, President Bush said Wednesday he will push for extra education benefits for National Guard members and reservists.
Men and women who have “put their jobs on hold” to serve their nation deserve support in return, Bush told hundreds of supporters.
Bush said he would increase monthly education benefits for National Guard members and reservists who have been on active duty for more than 90 consecutive days.
The proposal came with the race between Bush and Democrat Sen. John Kerry extremely close in Wisconsin. Bush lost the state by fewer than 6,000 votes four years ago.
The Kerry campaign said there have been problems with pay and other matters for National Guard troops during the Bush administration. Spokesman Phil Singer said, “We need a president who is committed to protecting National Guard and reservists every day, not just in the days before the election.”
Bush was making his fifth visit of the year to Wisconsin, matching Kerry’s count.
Appearing at a container manufacturing company, Bush pitched his agenda of tax relief and free trade – a vital issue for Wisconsin farmers – as the path to the future for the state as well as the rest of the country. He urged the crowd to persuade their friends and neighbors to register to vote.
“We have created the conditions for economic growth,” Bush said while on the third campaign bus tour of the state. “I want to continue to open up markets.”
The unemployment rate in Wisconsin is 5 percent, Bush pointed out, compared with 5.5 percent nationally.
Bush is trying to capitalize on what some analysts see as a political realignment in northwestern Wisconsin that could put the state in the president’s column in November.
In May, the president campaigned in the Mississippi River farmlands that eluded him in the 2000 election. In July, he rode a bus through the heavily Republican western suburbs of Milwaukee and addressed a campaign rally in Green Bay, where the electorate is more evenly split.
Northwestern Wisconsin, the setting for Wednesday’s trip, appears to be open to Bush, some political analysts say.
While Democrat Bill Clinton won the area twice, “this is rural, small-city and it doesn’t seem to have the demographics of Democratic counties,” Marquette University political science professor John McAdams said.
Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairwoman Linda Honold rejected the notion that the northwestern part of the state is trending Republican.
There’s a progressive tradition in Wisconsin, and “you don’t have people voting a straight party line,” Honold said.
Associated Press
President Bush greets supporters Wednesday in Chippewa Falls, Wis. Bush is on his third bus tour of the state since May.
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