Final campaign blitz is on across Iowa

With just hours before the polls open on Election Day, politicians are making a last-minute push for votes. Cedar Rapids was the city at the center of activity from both parties this morning. Democrat Senator Tom Harkin and Democrat Governor Tom Vilsack began before dawn, shaking hands with workers changing shifts at the Quaker Oats plant.Vilsack says 108-thousand Democrats have already voted by absentee ballot, just over double the number of Republicans who’ve opted for early voting. Harkin is touting the Democrat party’s absentee ballot effort, too.As the sun rose, about five-thousand Republicans streamed into a rally in Cedar Rapids featuring President Bush. Bush urged the party’s “grassroots activists” to turn-out the vote, because the election’s “pretty tight.”Bush said we have a duty as Americans to support our democracy, and an obligation to express ourselves in the voting booth. Bush was surrounded by the top Republicans on tomorrow’s ticket — gubernatorial candidate Doug Gross, U.S. Senate candidate Greg Ganske and the five Republicans running for Congress. Ganske rallied the troops. (begins with crowd)Ganske attacked his opponent, Tom Harkin, for trying to have it both ways on issues. Ganske says Harkin as a Senator wants to ban the sale and manufacture of guns, but says Harkin the candidate invites him to go pheasant hunting with him. Ganske says it’s a good thing after all the nasty adds Harkin aimed at him, that Harkin didn’t invite his mother to go hunting.Bush was in Cedar Rapids to boost Congressman Jim Leach’s campaign, but Leach took a professorial tone when it was his turn at the microphone. Leach said campaigns involve rival ambitions, but are most of all a celebration of ideas and civic ideals. Leach said as the campaign draws to a close, candidates are obligated to recall Lincoln’s injunction to appeal to appeal to the “better angels of our nature.”Leach’s Democrat opponent, Julie Thomas, says Bush came because Leach is clearly in trouble. Thomas, who’s a pediatrician, is optimistic about her chances. The crowd of five-thousand Republicans, lead by Leach, sang First Lady Laura Bush “Happy Birthday.”