Gov. candidate Hafer visits campus groups

Hafer stopped by the University campus during a four-hour layover at Philadelphia International Airport. During her 30-minute talk to about 30 students, she outlined the focus of her upcoming gubernatorial campaign. Hafer said that she supported a grass-roots effort to increase funding for family planning and a "pro-choice school system," in which schools receive government subsidies for busing so that parents can select their children's schools by academic programs, not only proximity. New Jersey has such a system. She also reminded the audience that although she supports abortion rights, she does not approve of abortion. She added that a woman seeking an abortion should not be required to notify her spouse or parents of her decision. The Republican candidate also took the opportunity to criticize Governor Robert Casey, her Democratic opponent in the November 6 election. She called recently passed abortion restrictions and the cutting of family planning and education funding "ironic." Hafer also called Casey an "old boy-network" politician who does not know how to deal with Philadelphia's financial crisis. Citing the recent lowering of the city's bond rating, Hafer said that if she were elected governor, Philadelphia would be the first problem she would tackle. She suggested that a program designed in the early 1980s to bail out distressed municipalities, such as failing steel towns in the Pittsburgh region, could be invoked to rescue Philadelphia. Hafer, the auditor general in charge of all state spending, including the prison system, suggested that the state could use the 47,000 inmates in the state's penitentiary system to combat shrinking employment. After the speech, Wharton sophomore James South said that Hafers grass-roots backround in the public health care system would "fit in well with President Bush's thousand points of light ideal." College Republicans secretary Joannie McDermott said that "Hafer has got wonderful ideas for rebuilding Pennsylvanias economy. She really provides a great alternative to Bob Casey."

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