Romney campaign bus makes stop at CMU Wednesday afternoon

Students walk outside of a Mitt Romney campaign bus during a stop promoting the republican presidential candidate Wednesday afternoon outside of Charles V. Park Library.
(Jeffrey Smith / Staff Photographer)

About 17 people ventured to Lot 27 Wednesday afternoon to get a glimpse of one of Mitt Romney’s campaign buses.

While Romney was not present on the campus of Central Michigan University, a few of his representatives were on board, including Michigan Victory Communications Director Kelsey Knight. The bus was parked on campus 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

“We’re here in an effort to splash how strong our grassroots efforts here in Michigan,” she said.

In Michigan, Romney’s representatives primary effort was recruiting supported for “Super Saturday,” a monthly event aimed to gauge the amount of Romney support in the area, Knight said.

“Super Saturday is when volunteers go door to door and focus on getting the word out for the Romney campaign,” Knight said.

In total, Romney has five buses that tour the nation, Knight said. Romney also has a campaign jet, which was built in Michigan. Governor Romney’s state headquarters are located in Lansing.

Romney should appeal to Michigan residents, she said.

There are 22 campaign centers in Michigan, called “victory centers,” Knight said.  President Barack Obama  has 11 similar campaign hubs in the state, she said.

Policies and student interest

Knight also hit on some of Romney’s campaign focuses: “changing the economy is a huge point for Gov. Romney’s campaign. He is 100 percent (focused) on getting jobs back and lowering the debt and strengthen jobs in the process.”

Knight also said Romney wants to help students who just graduated “to make a clean transition from school to jobs.”

Romney’s campaign message  and signage appealed to some students on campus.

Avery Wyer said he plans to vote for Romney because he doesn’t like President Barack Obama, but doesn’t necessarily agree with Romney’s policies.

“Romney is more wise in a business sense,” said Wyer, a Warren sophomore.

Megan Gill, chair of the College Republicans of CMU, said she has been looking forward to seeing the bus, and has future plans for CMU prior to the November election.

“I am really excited (because) it shows Michigan is going to be a huge factor in this election,” Gill said. “(The) RNC is planning on participating on Super Saturday, and we plan on knocking on doors in Isabella County. This shows a really big push for students to volunteer for Romney and his campaign.”