Those Scientists just won't let up on Mr. Bush...


Nature
Published online: 04 August 2004; | doi:10.1038/430595a

Nobel laureates spearhead effort to put Kerry in the White House
Geoff Brumfiel & Emma Marris

Researchers hit the campaign trail for the US presidential election

Washington - A group of high-profile researchers is to hit the campaign trail on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry.

Planners hope that the group, known as Scientists and Engineers for Kerry, will turn researchers' anger over the Bush administration's treatment of science into a major political force. In the run-up to the election, they will attempt to recruit scientists across the country to deliver speeches on Kerry's behalf and to campaign for his election.

"It's very hard to anticipate, but I think we're going to get a very strong response," says Henry Kelly, president of the Federation of American Scientists in Washington, who is working independently from that organization to spearhead the group. Kelly, who helped put together a recent letter from 48 Nobel prizewinners endorsing the Kerry campaign (see Nature 430, 4; 2004), believes that the group of researchers will be far larger than any ever brought together on behalf of a presidential candidate. [...]

It is difficult impossible to tell how much of an effect this will have, but with an election as close as this one promises to be, any effect at all could make a difference.