Democrat gets all-star support at rally

UC IRVINE — Cindy Sheehan couldn’t make it as planned to congressional candidate Steve Young’s rally on Monday afternoon, but she sent her best wishes — along with her scratchy voice.

The antiwar protester, who demonstrated outside President Bush’s Texas ranch after her son was killed in Iraq, had been scheduled as the featured speaker at Young’s campaign stop by the administration building at UCI. Sheehan ended up staying home with the flu, but the more than 100 spectators gathered on the steps didn’t leave disappointed. As Sheehan rasped out her support for Young, actress and Democratic activist Mimi Kennedy held her cell phone up to a microphone for the crowd to hear.

“I just think that we should all vote for peace and work for peace and support people who are doing that,” Sheehan said in a short question-and-answer session with Kennedy that the audience punctuated with cheers.

The hour-long rally was the latest public appearance for Young, who is running for Congress in the 48th District against incumbent John Campbell and Libertarian Bruce Cohen. With both pro- and anti-Democrat signs waving in the audience, the candidate brought an all-star group of supporters and urged onlookers to remind their friends to vote on Nov. 7.

Even as many are predicting a Democratic triumph next week, however, Young stressed the need for bipartisan support in solving America’s problems. At one point, he even asked the crowd to applaud his protesters, noting that dissent was an essential American right.

“America is in peril right now, and it is time for us to come together and stand — be we Republicans, be we Democrats, be we socialists,” he said.

Also speaking at the rally were actor Ed Asner and his wife Cindy, Progressive Democrats of America leader Tim Carpenter and UCI Young Democrats co-president David Lorango. During an improvised speech, Lorango took issue with a sign in the crowd reading, “How many more soldiers will you dishonor, Cindy?” The remark, he said, would better be targeted at President Bush.

“I see the president of the United States not attending a soldier’s funeral,” Lorango said. “I see the president of the United States cutting troops’ funding so they don’t have the equipment they need.”

Second-year student Chelsea Smith, who held the sign, said afterward that she stood by her slogan.

“I have very strong feelings against Cindy Sheehan’s cause,” said Smith, 18. “Her son volunteered twice for the war. I think she’s disgracing everything her son was willing to fight for.”

Ellen Radovic, a lawyer who lives in Irvine, said she was happy to hear one of her heroes speak — even in disembodied form.

“I’m sorry she was ill and wasn’t able to come, but as an activist, I understand,” she said.