“It’s great to be in southwest Wisconsin on this great campus,” Gov. Jim Doyle said in his speech in Ullsvik Hall Oct. 14. “You get the sense that a new day is dawning, and you can go out and make a change today by going out and voting.”

Photograph by Kate Olsen
Gov. Jim Doyle spoke in the Nohr Art Gallery in Ullsvik Hall Oct. 14. Doyle encouraged students to vote early so they can volunteer their time on election day.

Doyle came to UW-Platteville to encourage students to take advantage of their ability to vote early, and to encourage students to support Barack Obama for president and Phil Garthwaite for the state assembly.

“Go out, vote early and take enormous pressure off the polls,” Doyle said. “Then you can go out on election day and encourage others to vote.”

Doyle said he wanted to get as many people out to vote, regardless whom they will vote for.

“Our view is that the more people we get out to vote the better chance we have,” Doyle said. “Karl Rove politics are directed to divide people so that you can win. We want to bring people together so we can come out as a unified country that can go out and get things done.”

With only three weeks left until the election and Obama’s lead growing in state polls, Doyle wanted to remind Obama supporters not to get overly confident.

“Don’t believe the polls; I have yet to see someone elected based on public opinion polls,” Doyle said. “Go out and vote. If we have a strong turnout I have no doubt that Wisconsin and the U.S. will choose change.”

Doyle said that re-electing Garthwaite to the state assembly was also important for the state to continue reforming the health care and educational system.

“Before Phil was elected I was in a real battle with the republican legislature,” Doyle said. “He led a real resurgence in the Wisconsin legislature, and we had enough votes to change the agenda. We were able to extend Badger Care so every child has health care and he pushed for the G.I. Bill of Rights that promised to provide education to veterans.”

“Republicans wanted to slash university funds by $100 million and slash the growth agenda,” Doyle said. “Because of Phil and others we have been able to restore fundamental aspects of the legislature.”

Student Sen. Kevin Opgenorth asked Doyle how students could suffer if they didn’t re-elect Garthwaite.

“Republicans play a tricky game of freezing tuition and cutting funding,” Doyle said. “They want to cut basic support for the universities by $60-70 million and the only way to make that up is by raising tuition or cutting programs that decrease the quality of education.”

Students in attendance responded positively to Doyle’s message.

“I think the speech was very effective and will influence a lot of people to get out and vote,” Zach Gevelinger, a sophomore political science major said. “We have to be bi-partisan. We can’t run on fear, we have to run on hope.”

“The governor made a lot of good points,” Natalie Talbott, a junior political science major said. “It motivated me to go vote now and get others out to vote on election day.”