Students attending Political Action Week on Wednesday endured the clamor of the Campanile’s carillon, just able to hear the occasional remark by the guest lecturers, who strained to be heard above the din.

State Rep. Lisa Heddens, D-Ames, was followed by former gubernatorial candidate Ed Fallon, followed by alumnus Basil Mahayni, of Ames, and little-known presidential candidate Karl Krueger.

Fallon started and ended his speech with staunch support for former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C.

“John was the first candidate to come out with a health care plan,” Fallon said.

Fallon’s plug for Edwards was interrupted by Bernie Gerstein, former professor of chemistry, who brought up the USA PATRIOT Act and Military Commissions Act of 2006 and the suspension of habeas corpus that came with them.

“I asked John Edwards when he was on campus – you were at that meeting – and he speaks passionately about it, but you know there are sufficient conditions for something to happen – and necessary conditions,” Gerstein said. “A necessary condition for democracy, so says Thomas Jefferson, is that we have habeas corpus. I would hope that you would encourage John Edwards to speak about that without being asked about it.”

Andrew Schmitz, junior in agricultural engineering and president of the Political Science Club, closely questioned Fallon about his stance on certain farming techniques.

“Let me try and address that and see if anyone else has a question,” Fallon said. “Let me be fair and let me see if others have questions or comments. Anyone else? Questions? All right, well, we can talk about this off-mic.” Mahayni spoke about some of the changes that he felt need to happen with respect to student activism and rampant complacency. He also encouraged students to question Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., closely on Friday.

“If he’s going to be your president for the next four years, don’t you want to give him a piece of your mind?” Mahayni said.

Krueger also made an appearance, explaining his candidacy for president, and stressed that there were more people running for president than the popular ones that the media focuses on.

Richard Ozbun, junior in marketing, said he was impressed with what Fallon was saying about Edwards and he was excited about seeing Obama speak on campus Friday. He said the major issues for this year’s presidential candidates were going to be global warming and the war in Iraq. He said he attended Political Action Week because he liked to keep up with politics.