|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Rice Thresher
Phone:
|
by Mark Berenson Thresher Staff
Republican candidate George W. Bush came in second with 204 votes, or 28.1 percent of the vote. Finishing a strong third, with 163 votes, or 22.5 percent, was Green Party candidate Ralph Nader. Nader's 22.5 percent at Rice was about eight times more than what he averaged across the nation. Will Rice College senior Jason Hardy, president of Greens 'n' Rice, a student Green Party organization, was very pleased with Nader's showing. "The results are really encouraging," Hardy said. "The Green Party really resonates on college campuses." Hardy added that the organization will try to keep a visible presence to attract some of the Rice students who voted for Nader but are not already members of Greens 'n' Rice. Students had a wide range of reasons for voting for Nader. "I like Nader more than the other parties; I like the way the Green Party does things," Wiess College sophomore Jay Henderson said. Other students voted for Nader because they knew Texas' electoral votes would go to Bush. "Everyone in Texas is voting for Bush anyway, so even if I voted for Gore, Bush would have taken the state, and I might as well give Nader a shot," Lovett College sophomore Lee Cagle said. Wiess junior Megan Kemp, vice president of Rice Young Democrats, found the results very predictable. "It doesn't surprise me that the kids are leaning to the left," Kemp said. Kemp added that she was surprised by the visibility of Republicans on campus in the weeks leading up to the election. "The little bit [of Republicans] that there are are very active and very hardcore." Baker College senior Brian Werner, the second vice chairman of the Campus Republicans, said he was happy with the results as well. "Republicans don't make up a sizable proportion of the student population ... but I think we did very well for ourselves. I've always seen Rice as a huge wave of liberals," Werner said. In other elections that Rice students voted in, Democrat Ken Bentsen held on to his seat in Congress with 60 percent of the district's vote, despite a strong challenge by Republican Phil Sudan. Harris County voters approved the referendum to build a new sports arena by almost a 2-to-1 majority. The arena for the Rockets and Comets, to be located near Enron Field and the George R. Brown Conference Center, will be ready in time for the 2003-'04 season. There will be no new taxes to fund the building of the arena. Houston voters also approved, by a 3-to-1 margin, Proposition 2012, which allows contribution of portions of existing sales and use tax to the Olympic Games trust fund. Houston is one of six cities, including New York and Baltimore-Washington, D.C., vying to be selected in 2003 by the U.S. Olympic Committee as the United States' bid to the International Olympic Committee to host the 2012 Summer Olympics. The IOC will announce its decision in 2005. Voting in the Rice precinct was up slightly this year from the 1996 presidential election, when 683 people turned out to vote.
- back - |
|||
|
Search the Thresher pages:
This document may be distributed electronically, provided that it is distributed in its entirety and includes this notice. However, it cannot be reprinted without the express written permission of: The Rice Thresher, Rice University MS-524, PO Box 1892, Houston, TX 77251-1892, USA. The Thresher Online Project -- ethresh@listserv.rice.edu |
