East Bank area state House candidate Ben Bowman returned to his old stomping ground last night, knocking on doors in Territorial Hall asking for student votes.
Republican Bowman, who used to live in the hall, said the 3,500 students living in residence halls comprise a sizable percentage of the votes he would need to win.
While some students displayed signs asking political candidates to refrain from knocking on their doors, most were polite and attentive as Bowman handed out fliers and reminded students that the University has preregistered them to vote.
He also took e-mail addresses to send out reminders on the day before the election for students to get out and vote.
At each stop, Bowman told students incumbent candidate Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis, has been in the state house for 28 years and emphasized the need to get a student voice into the state Legislature.
But while students did listen to Bowman, few said they recognized him as a House candidate. Most had no questions for him either, which didn’t surprise Bowman.
He plans to visit each room twice and said questions are more common the second time around.
University freshman Aliza Thompson said it’s good for Bowman to get his name out because “if any political stuff comes on TV, I usually just switch it off.”
She agreed with other students that most freshmen are not aware of East Bank politics.
Freshman Kate Nelson said Bowman’s knocking on doors shows he cares about college students; fellow freshman Becca Koslov, though, said if he was good, his name would be out already, and he wouldn’t have to go door-to-door.
Yesterday Bowman talked to students in front of Territorial Hall and said the response was positive. In the weeks before the election, he plans to visit all of the East Bank residence halls at least once.

Sam Kean appreciates comments at [email protected]