As the President of the ISU College Republicans and an organizer of the outstanding event held for the daughters of President Bush held last week on campus, I would like to respond to the Sept. 14 letter in the Daily.

First, I would like to lay out some facts:

1) This was an event for supporters of (and volunteers for) President Bush. It was a thank-you and an opportunity to get young Republicans motivated in this stretch of the election.

2) The person in question was not whom this event was for. I distinctly remember him as the same person who came up to me at last semester’s ClubFest and decided to blast me for about half an hour on President Bush’s policies. I entertained him until he got tired and he left. He was certainly not a volunteer for (or a supporter of) President Bush based on his treatment of my club and me.

3) The person in question somehow got his name on the ISU College Republicans list that we used to invite people to the event. We do not know how, but we guess he signed up on one of our lists — misrepresenting himself in order to sneak into events such as these.

4) This person has also made trouble for guest speakers for the Water Quality Club on campus. I was told that whenever their club actually is able to get guest speakers they are harassed by the person in question and that makes it difficult for them to get guest speakers. Whoever is in the White House — I know I certainly would not want to be the person who let the president’s daughters get harassed. I would have been remiss in my duties as an organizer of this event to let this happen.

5) When pressed, the person in question took out a reporter’s notepad and said something about doing an article for the Daily. I knew the Daily was already in the press room, so when I pressed him he said he was not with the Daily but doing a sort of freelance work. If he had not tried to sneak in, misrepresent himself or have had a history of harassing speakers, he could have easily contacted me as a freelance writer and gotten into the press room. However, since it simply took so much time to get through all the mess, the press room was closed by the time we tried to move him there.

6) I gave this person an opportunity to write a specific record of his problems at the event that I could pass up the line to see if he could be helped and he simply rebuffed my efforts.

To put it simply, I am not a mean person (despite what you may have heard). I am willing to work with most anyone who wants to have a constructive part in these events, either as press or audience members, but I need the truth. I need honesty and a willingness from people to understand just what the College Republicans are trying to do — in this case hold a private event for supporters — not someone with the history or agenda this person had. So if anyone has any more problems with the College Republicans feel free to contact me at [email protected].

Louis Kishkunas

Junior

Political Science