President Clinton's second visit to Michigan in two weeks is scheduled to take place right next door to Ann Arbor.
Clinton will visit Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, in the district of Rep. Lynn Rivers (D-Ann Arbor), who is running in a tight race for re-election this season, campaign officials said yesterday.
"(Clinton) wants to help Congresswoman Rivers and a stop in her district will help her, hopefully," said Leslee Fritz, spokesperson for the Michigan Democratic Party.
While preliminary arrangements were being set last week, some expected the University to be the destination for Clinton's next campaign swing through the state. The event was to be a repeat of Clinton's 1992 campaign speech on the steps of Rackham before a crowd of thousands. In an interview Friday, Rivers said he would be returning to campus.
"This is such a juicy campus," she said.
Clinton will forgo a campaign rally and speak to a conference organized by Microenterprise of Michigan, an organization that promotes business enterprise for women, at EMU's Bowen Field House. The speech was a "pre-existing event," said Clinton/Gore campaign spokesperson Craig Sutherland. There may be an opportunity for students to attend the address Wednesday afternoon, but final scheduling is still in progress, Sutherland said.
Both Clinton and GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole have made frequent visits to Michigan throughout the campaign. Dole last appeared to Michigan voters during a bus tour last week that included a stop at the Republican Governors Association's economic summit with Michigan Gov. John Engler.
"Michigan tends to be a battleground state. We get to see the major players," Rivers said.
Rivers said that while a presidential visit "tends to raise the level of enthusiasm" in a district, the local candidates often get cropped out of any high-profile coverage.
"Most of the coverage were the pictures of him," Rivers said of Clinton's visit to Westland last month.