With a close Massachusetts gubernatorial election quickly approaching, campaigning is fierce across the state as candidates attempt to scrounge up all available votes. Individual campaign donors are being heavily solicited by each of the eight candidates. Five of the eight candidates have visited Tufts this semester and contributions from Tufts professors and administrators total over $2,500 so far, with more than half of the money going to democratic candidate Robert Reich.
Provost Sol Gittleman, who contributed to Reich and Democrat Steven Grossman, says that donating is an individual decision. He stressed that the University has no official view on the election, and that it does not reimburse employee donations.
"Whatever money I've ever given I've written my own check for," Gittleman said.
Tufts' Executive Vice President, Steve Manos, concurred. He says that there are laws preventing schools from actively participating in elections, adding that schools are unlikely to become very involved regardless of any potential legal issues.
"There are limits to how much a university could lobby," Manos said "Universities just don't do that."
Other candidates receiving donations from Tufts professors include Grossman, deputy governor candidate Lois Pines, and Thomas Birmingham, who attended dinner at Gifford House following President Clinton's speech in March. Contributions toward non-gubernatorial races raise the total donations from individuals associated with Tufts to over $4,000.
Along with Gittleman, University College of Citizenship and Public Service (UCCPS) Dean Robert Hollister and Vet School Dean Philip Kosch represent Tufts administrators who have made campaign contributions. Kosch supports Romney, who has made balancing the budget without raising taxes or making service cuts a top campaign priority. Kosch and the vet school hope to avoid a $2.8 million state aid cut that was proposed by interim governor Jane Swift in January.
Although five gubernatorial candidates have visited Tufts this year, Gittleman sees the visits primarily as attempts to garner move votes, not donor solicitations.
But Political Science Department Chair James Glaser doesn't think candidates have a very good chance of netting many votes at universities, particularly those with large out-of-state populations such as Tufts. "It's not like there's a treasure trove of votes here," he said.
Tufts Democrats President Sarah Molenkamp agreed. "Obviously there are more votes at U-Mass then there are at Tufts," she said.
Glaser believes that most candidates have visited Tufts during the past semester in an effort to find campaign workers. "Students make wonderful staffers," he said. "That's the primary motivation for visiting colleges."
In fact, not every candidate that visited Tufts was actively campaigning. While Reich's appearance was strongly linked to his campaign, Molenkamp says that Grossman and Republican candidate Mitt Romney came to Tufts with an "'It's good to be a leader and a hero' kind of [message]." Along with candidate Warren Tolman, Grossman and Romney were guest lecturers at President Emeritus John DiBiaggio's class, Leadership for Active Citizenship.
Reich, an economics professor from Brandeis University and former labor secretary under President Clinton, campaigned on campus in January. Along with advisor and Tufts lecturer Michael Goldman, Reich expressed a strong belief in the voting power of students despite obvious voter residency barriers. After a late entry into the race, Reich was campaigning fiercely to get the 15 percent primary voter share he needed to appear in the primary in September.
Grossman, whose wife Barbara is Tufts' drama department chair, has visited campus numerous times. He first spoke at the unveiling of the Patches for Peace Sept. 11 memorial last November, advising students to keep open minds and find a "common ground" between different cultures.
Grossman returned to speak to DiBiaggio's citizenship class. He lectured on the need to engage more young people in the voting process, with suggestions ranging from Internet ballots to eliminating the "waiting period" between registration and participating in an election.
@S:Candidates gathering support for Sept. primaries
