Actor, ex-mayor go stumping

Webb puts on old shoes; actor talks Latino values

Peter Marcus, DDN Staff Writer

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

DRAGGIN’ OUT THE OLD SNEAKERS — Former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, right, pulls out the sneakers he wore when he campaigned in 1991 before he hit the streets to stump for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. To the left is Maggie Fox, wife of U.S. Rep. Mark Udall,

An actor and an ex-mayor took two very different messages on the presidential race to the streets of Denver yesterday.

Mexican soap opera star Eduardo Verastegui spoke to the media on why the Latino community should back Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., for president, while former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb dusted off his old sneakers and hit the streets trying to drum up support for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.

Verastegui said yesterday that abortion is a tragedy that Obama would allow to continue if elected president.

Campaigning for McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Verastegui stood outside the Sacred Heart Catholic Church on Larimer Street in the Five Points neighborhood arguing that the Latino community’s values lean toward McCain. He said the majority of Latino people are strongly religious and opposed to abortion, which conflicts with Obama’s pro-choice message.

“More than 200,000 Latino babies have been killed every year in this country,” Verastegui told the Denver Daily News. “The life issue, for me, is very important.”

Verastegui said his passion for a pro-life world came about after his starring role in “Bella,” a 2006 movie in which a once-confident soccer player’s life transforms after becoming intimate with a pregnant waitress. He said the movie — with its influence on family values — helped to inspire many women to go through with their pregnancies.

“You don’t have to even be smart to see that abortion is wrong,” said Verastegui.

Immigration reform

He also believes McCain’s record of voting for immigration reform policy that emphasizes amnesty also appeals more to the Latino community. Citing the legislation McCain introduced in 2007 with Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., that would have allowed millions of illegal immigrants in the United States to apply for citizenship, Verastegui said Obama does not have a credible record on the subject.

Sneaker campaign

Meanwhile, Webb also campaigned yesterday in the Five Points neighborhood, resurrecting his “sneaker campaign” in the name of Obama and Democratic Colorado senatorial candidate Congressman Mark Udall from Eldorado Springs.

He said he won the election for mayor in 1991 by pounding the pavement and canvassing door-to-door. The former mayor dusted off the same sneakers he wore in 1991 in which he covered over 300 miles canvassing various Denver neighborhoods by foot. With only 21 days left until the election yesterday, Webb said the number holds a magical quality, joking that it was with 21 days left until the election that his campaign ran out of money in 1991, but still managed to win the election.

Not a racial issue

Webb said the historic election this year is about more than separating groups by race and color.

“This is a whole new multicultural generation, people, that judge people on character and on merit,” said Webb to a room full of Obama supporters before canvassing the Five Points neighborhood with the group. “You’re going to see people of all colors, of all shapes, working and walking for a method that says we’re going to make America a better country.”

“The only people that have a hang-up with race are primarily the old ones that are still trying to hold onto the old ways,” he continued. “It’s anachronistic, it’s out of place, it’s out of time and they’re time is about up.”

Later, however, Webb pointed out the significance the election has for once oppressed cultures.

“America has crossed a new crossroads when someone like Barack Obama, who came from modest means, when he and his wife have the demonstrative ability to be collective president of the United States, and for that we can all be a part of history,” said Webb. “In filing the Constitution in 1808 that said it would abolish slavery, we will have lived up to that creed, because not only is it abolished, but for many of us ethnically that came over in chains, we can go back as mayors, and now as president of the United States.”

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