The antipoverty
campaign founded by U2 rocker Bono and others is
investing $30 million to pressure the presidential
candidates to focus on the oft-forgotten issue, with
its leaders arguing on Monday that helping the poor is
a national security issue.
Dubbed One Vote
'08, the bipartisan political push aims to get President
Bush's successor to commit to taking concrete steps to
combat hunger and disease while improving access to
education and water across the globe.
''People do not
go to war with people who have saved their children's
lives,'' former Senate majority leader Bill Frist told
reporters at a church in the nation's capital.
Frist is cochair
of the effort to mobilize activists to pressure the 18
or more presidential aspirants through the media and
grassroots work. The other cochair also is a former
Senate majority leader, Democrat Tom Daschle of South
Dakota.
''Some of the
most vivid memories of our experience [in Congress] didn't
happen in Washington; they happened in Africa,'' Daschle
said. ''It is incumbent on all of us to recognize that
this must be a key part of national domestic
security.''
Created in 2004
by rocker Bono and the country's leading antipoverty
groups, the One organization counts 2.5 million members from
across the political spectrum and all 50 states. The
organization has attracted high-profile support from a
wide range of celebrities, including Brad Pitt and
Matt Damon. Until now, the focus has been on raising
awareness of global poverty and encouraging activists
to lobby Congress to devote more money to the cause.
Now the mission
will include mobilizing activists. Among the donors: the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
For months,
scores of volunteers wearing black-and-white One T-shirts
and carrying placards have been attending presidential
debates and some campaign events by Hillary Rodham
Clinton, Barack Obama, and other Democrats as well as
Republicans such as John McCain and Mitt Romney.
Activity will
only increase in the coming months with town
hall-style events, mailings, a celebrity bus
tour, and TV advertisements.
For now, the
focus is on the early primary states of Iowa, Nevada, New
Hampshire, and South Carolina. But the effort eventually
will be expanded to the more than dozen states holding
contests on February 5, and will continue through the
general election.
At least one
candidate, Democrat John Edwards, has focused on combating
poverty; Edwards headed an antipoverty center in North
Carolina in recent years.
In the fall, the
group will ask candidates to sign a pledge and embrace a
platform that lays out concrete steps to:
-Fight
HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria;
-Improve
child and maternal health;
-Increase
access to basic education, particularly for girls;
-Provide
access to clean water and sanitation;
-Reduce by
half the number of people worldwide who suffer from hunger.
(Mary Clare Jalonick, AP)