Advertisement Locally we were were visited by two prominent women and a man whose career is intimately entwined with the fairer sex.
While reruns of “Sex and the City” were no doubt airing on TBS and the movie still showing at the Rivoli, the real life Steve Brady was at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse on Saturday stumping for the Democratic ticket.
David Eigenberg, a former resident of the heartland, kicked off his inaugural advocacy tour in seven Wisconsin cities, including La Crosse and Madison.
While Eigenberg’s mom campaigned for President Kennedy, he said, the actor is a stumping neophyte.
“I lived well below the poverty line for most of my life,” he said. “I’ve been around a little bit. My experience in life has been one of making a lot of mistakes and going through a process of trying to redeem myself.”
With him were U.S. Rep. Betty McCollum, D-Minn., and Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America.
The trio — joined in La Crosse by state Rep. Jennifer Shilling — focused their forum on reproductive rights and equal pay.
Coincidentally, Eigenberg, Shilling and Obama all share Illinois ties, the two backers growing up in the suburbs of Chicago, where Obama worked as a community organizer on the city’s South Side.
As a self-described ardent Planned Parenthood supporter, the actor said he connected with Obama’s abortion rights message.
“He’s a man that is here not to pass judgment on his fellow brothers and sisters,” Eigenberg, 44, said.
McCullen argued that McCain repeatedly has voted down funding for violence against women programs and 125 out of 130 times he has voted against women’s health and privacy in the Senate.
“Barack Obama is, in my experience, the first candidate running for president that has stood up and not kind of waffled when he said ‘I am pro-choice’,” Keenan said.
With just 55 days until the general election, the three tried to mobilize the audience of about 30.
“If he’s going to win, we’ve got to go the extra mile, because it’s going to be a tough race,” Keenan said.
