Former Pennsylvania U.S. Senators Rick Santorum and Harris Wofford will be state cochairs of ONE Vote ’08, a national advocacy group pressing presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain to address poverty and global disease, including AIDS, during in the upcoming campaign, The Philadelphia Inquirer reports (philly.com 7/1).
McCain and Obama have already committed to combating AIDS and malaria in poor countries and say they would visit Africa if elected.
“When there is common ground between the candidates on a good issue like this,” said Wofford, “ it’s very important that it not be relegated to the periphery just because it’s not controversial.”
According to the article, the group calls for more specific AIDS–poverty-fighting proposals from McCain and Obama and has enlisted Santorum and Wofford to help prod them.
Taylor Royle, a spokeswoman for ONE Vote ’08, says, “We want them to talk to their friends, to the press and to the campaigns directly about why this is important. We want them to talk in public and behind the scenes.”
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"When we act like HIV is something shameful, is it any wonder why people who don't have the virus think it IS something shameful? It's not. It's just a damned virus. ANYONE can get it. Anyone who has unprotected anal or vaginal intercourse, that is."
