lmaher@uokvax.UUCP (06/16/84)
#N:uokvax:2400042:000:2551 uokvax!lmaher Jun 16 00:26:00 1984 <4 of 7> A NEW DAY FOR NEW YORK is Democratic candidate Linda Day's slogan. Day is in her 30's, and has no previous experience in government. What she does have is overwhelming personal charisma. Her campaign is one of mass support, mostly financed by individual contributions from enthusiastic supporters. She is at her best at mass rallies, and the number of volunteers she gets allow her to campaign on a grass roots level. Since the Democratic Party Organization is using its limited funds on more important races, and isn't entirely sure anyway that they want her to win, she can't afford the kind of widespread TV ads Stone uses, but she makes up for it with skillful use of the news, and has never failed to sway any crowd to her side with a personal appearance. Her ability to charm a crowd was the subject of a 60 Minutes segment shortly after the primaries. From complete obscurity, she rose to defeat the favorite in the primary, and is providing a real threat to Stone's campaign. The episode of 60 minutes ended with a shot of her rallying a crowd, then turning to Mike Wallace and proclaiming "The Voice of the People will be heard." She has a tendency towards visionary ideas for the revitalization of the state, and a populist disdain for politics-as-usual. A week before the primary (which was held last April, game time), she was shot, and has spent the rest of the campaign in a wheel chair. Since the primary, two more attacks have been made on her life, neither successful (obviously). Fans have compared her to Roosevelt, and foes have compared her to George Wallace; she laughs off both comparisons, preferring to stand or fall on her own merits, so to speak. She feels Hero Registration is a bad precedent, forcing people to register themselves solely because of some difference from the norm. Even if it would be successful in reducing supervillian crime, it would be too high a price to pay in privacy and liberty. Heroes that currently want to work with the police can do so without official registration. What happens to those heroes who refuse to register, for fear of what might happen if their true identities were disclosed? Will they be classed as criminals? Hunted down and forced to register? Tattooed? Imprisoned and studied, as villains are now, so the government can understand what makes them work? And for what crime? Just because they exist, and are different from us? Never, says Day.