The Daily Illini again is wielding its liberal influence on our politically diverse campus. Like the eighth grader flashing his pack of Marlboro’s (everybody’s doin’ it … ), your front-page headline, “Poll: State’s voters lean toward Kerry,” on Sept. 20 is trying to muscle undecided University students into electoral submission. By simply reading the DI, one would not know several recent presidential polls have been conducted in Illinois, and in fact, the race is extremely close.

For example, Survey USA reported last week that President Bush only trailed Sen. John Kerry by four points (49 to 45 percent) in Illinois with a margin of error of ñ 4 percent, prompting an Illinois fund-raising visit by Vice President Dick Cheney and a flurry of political commentary regarding the future of our 21 electoral votes.

The same poll also confirmed steady numbers in the Illinois Senate race between Republican Gaffe Machine Alan Keyes and Barack Obama. Survey USA reported that Obama still held a 41-point lead – consistent with earlier polls – leading many to believe that its rating as the most-accurate polling service in 2000 will hold true for 2004.

However, the most exciting statistic gave John Kerry a slim six-point lead among the 18- to 34-year-old age group.

Students for Bush groups across the state are working to win over college campuses, and these numbers prove their efforts are not in vain.

Time is running out for John Kerry as red states turn darker and blue states are again considered “the battleground,” but the media will not have you know it.

This election year, vote your conscience, not your age group, and most certainly not for who The Daily Illini thinks you should.

Chuck Prochaska

President, College Republicans

sophomore in LAS