Rendell Tells Students their Votes Count

“I have a very simple question for you,” Don Hilliard asked students and other attendees at the Democratic campaign rally featuring Gov. Ed Rendell yesterday afternoon, “Have you had enough yet?”



Hilliard is running for a seat in the 5th district of the U.S. House of Representatives. 



Rendell also stressed the importance of students’ votes as he assressed a crowd of about 300 people at the HUB yesterday afternoon.  “The Penn State vote can carry a tremendous margin,” Rendell told the audience, referring to the small amount of votes he lost by in Centre County during the last election. 



Rendell’s speech began on the topic of higher education in Pennsylvania.  He said his administration added an additional $38 million to the grant pool for PHEAA.  He also explained what many frustrated students, parents, and tuition-payers at large wanted to know: why does Penn State keep losing funding from the state?

 

“State-related schools have had to take a hit because of the large deficit I was left with when I took office,” Rendell explained.  He continued that he believes his administration is giving Penn State a tremendous amount of capital support. 



Still focusing on college students and recent graduates, Rendell told the crowd that the job market in Pennsylvania is better than it has ever been, boasting more jobs than the commonwealth has ever had in its history. 



Another focus of Rendell’s speech, representative of his entire administration and campaign, was his goals for the environment. 



“By 2015, we want a billion gallons of fuel that comes out of our pumps in Pennsylvania to come from alternative energy,” the governor said.  He also explained that he hopes to increase the use of wind energy and develop other alternative fuel and energy sources. 



Today, Rendell’s GOP opponent, Lynn Swann, will make a campaign stop at the business expo.