Erin Brockovich coming to » PAGE 4 NU on Wednesday
SPORTS Men’s Soccer Cats fall in semifinal of Big Ten Tournament » PAGE 12
OPINION Watters Weighing energy options » PAGE 6
High 37 Low 26
The Daily Northwestern Monday, November 12, 2012
DAILYNORTHWESTERN.COM
Find us online @thedailynu
Council to consider land lease for center
No Legends for the fall
City officials to vote on rental fees for new NU visitors building By SUSAN DU
daily senior staffer
states and spending a billion dollars and figuring out at any given level of voting how many votes they needed from each one of those groups to win those states.” The campaign’s laser-like focus paid off: Obama captured every battleground state on his way to locking up more than 330 electoral votes on Election Day. Heilemann said he recalled bumping into White House senior adviser David Plouffe on the campaign trail Monday and feeling skeptical as Plouffe ticked off his predictions for the president’s performance in each key state. “Every margin that he gave me was within one point of what they got the next day,” Heilemann recalled. “I’ve got to say — I’m a cynical, jaded guy who’s done six of these presidentials and a lot more gubernatorial and senatorial elections. I’ve never seen people that confident, and I’ve never seen their confidence so totally bore out by the result. It was precision.” Heilemann said Obama’s strategy “blows apart” the political science theory that campaigns do not matter and election outcomes are often predetermined by economic indicators. He compared the Obama campaign’s ground game to a supercomputer and Romney’s operation to a few pocket calculators. Moving forward, Heilemann cautioned that the GOP cannot survive as a national party if it continues to
Northwestern’s proposed visitors center continues to draw community criticism even as the Evanston City Council nears final deliberation over leasing city property for its construction. The council is scheduled to vote tonight on a project agreement and proposed leasing contract for the land at the northeast corner of Sheridan Road and Campus Drive. The proposal that council members will review designates NU rental fees for building a fire access lane on city property as $10,237 per year, or $255,012.50 for the first 25 years of the agreement. NU has also agreed to make $280,000 worth of improvements in the public right-of-way as well as pay $1,500 for ongoing maintenance and $3,500 in capital costs, according to city documents. Nevertheless, several Evanston residents and some aldermen remain opposed to the construction of the visitors center, citing environmental and aesthetic concerns. TribLocal website reported Saturday that Ald. Judy Fiske (1st) reiterated grievances expressed at previous city council meetings that the visitors center would negatively impact the lakefront ecosystem. Additionally, she challenged the preliminary proposal of charging NU $1 per year for 75 years to lease the land. Fiske could not be immediately reached for comment. However, University spokesman Al Cubbage confirmed in an email to The Daily on Sunday that the updated leasing rate of $10,237 per year is correct and had been determined as the result of discussions between the city and University on Friday. The $1 per year rate appeared in the initial draft of the proposal presented to the council a few weeks ago and has since been modified, Ald. Don Wilson (4th) said. He called the current rate a “better, more appropriate” figure. “Generally speaking, if we have some kind of asset, we want to get something in exchange for it,” he said. “It would be my hope if they’re going to use part of our land that we would get something for that, something reasonable.” Wilson said he has received a
» See HEILEMANN, page 8
» See VISITORS, page 9
Kaitlin Svabek/Daily Senior Staffer
NOT QUITE ENOUGH Coach Pat Fitzgerald leads his team back into the locker rooms at the Big House after Saturday’s game against Michigan. The loss drops the Wildcats to 7-3 on the season and eliminates their hopes of winning the Legends Division, Fitzgerald’s top goal this year.
>> See page 12 for full story
Heilemann: Campaigns ‘relentlessly negative’ NU alumnus, political journalist talks 2012 presidential election By PATRICK SVITEK
“This campaign was one of the most relentlessly negative and disconnected from the real challenges the country faces in any race I’ve covered.”
daily senior staffer
MSNBC political analyst and “Game Change” co-author John Heilemann declared Friday that both President Barack Obama and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney ran presidential campaigns not up to par by either man’s standards. In an hour-long talk at the McCormick Tribune Center, Heilemann (Medill ‘87) told about 100 attendees that the candidates’ bids for the White House were “the most relentlessly negative” campaigns he has seen in two decades covering presidential politics. “They’re good men and serious guys, and they ran a campaign that really was not worthy of them — either one of them,” Heilemann said. “And they ran a campaign that wasn’t anywhere near worthy of the real challenges the country faces in terms of policy, in terms of the size of the challenges and … the immediacy of the challenges.” Heilemann grabbed national attention three years ago after he helped pen one of the most popular insider accounts of the 2008 presidential election. HBO later turned “Game Change” into a critically acclaimed
Police: Handguns, cannabis found in city residence
The Evanston Police Department recovered two handguns and more than 1,000 grams of cannabis Friday while executing a search warrant in
“The folks in Chicago were very clear in their minds that they had to do exactly to within this race... which was to make the race a choice and, in the process of doing that, to disqualify Gov. Romney as a potential commander-in-chief...” Photo ilustration by Tanner Maxwell/Daily Senior Staffer
movie focusing on Arizona Sen. John McCain’s selection of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate. Writing the blockbuster book put Heilemann in the front row for the political ascendancy of Obama, who has known Heilemann since the late 1980s. Heilemann recalled that the future commander-in-chief — “this tall, thin, striking AfricanAmerican guy” — asked to borrow a cigarette outside Harvard University’s law school library in their first encounter.
south Evanston. Officers executed a warrant for a drug investigation at about 1:15 p.m. at 819 Seward St., according to an EPD news release Saturday. The EPD investigation found that cannabis was being sold at the residence. Two men who live at the location were arrested and charged with
Serving the University and Evanston since 1881
Heilemann said the second coming of “Game Change” will not arrive until next year but still offered a bird’s-eye view of the grassroots machine that powered Obama’s re-election Tuesday night. He pointed to a consistent batch of swing states in which Obama’s brain trust was dedicated to turning out black, Hispanic, college-educated female and young voters. “They were looking at nine states, those four groups,” Heilemann said. “And they spent a year and a half doing nothing but camping out in nine
various drug and weapons offenses. Jemehl Davenport, 25, was charged with unlawful possession of cannabis with a previous conviction, as well as multiple counts of unlawful delivery and unlawful possession of cannabis, according to the news release. Davenport was arrested and charged with cannabis possession
twice in May, according to Jail Base, a website that aggregates booking records from law enforcement agencies. Tashwan Owen, 24, was charged with unlawful possession of cannabis twice, one additionally with intent to deliver. Davenport and Owen were also
charged with possession of a firearm without a Firearm Owner’s Identification Card, according to the release. Both are scheduled to appear Nov. 29 at the Cook County Circuit Court in Skokie. — Manuel Rapada
INSIDE Around Town 2 | On Campus 3 | Forum 6 | Classifieds & Puzzles 8 | Sports 12