PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION Bush campaign staff bars petition group

Volunteers at the office will accept the overtime petitions in the future.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
NILES -- Cathy Stoddart was fighting to hold back tears after she was denied entrance to the Bush-Cheney campaign headquarters in the Eastwood Mall.
"I really didn't think there was anything wrong about delivering petitions," the Mingo Junction, Ohio, resident said Tuesday as she stood on U.S. Route 422, across from mall property. "I guess my government is not what I thought it was."
Stoddart, a registered Republican, was one of about 20 representatives of various locals of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Organizations who tried to visit the local campaign office. The group's intent was to deliver postcards for President Bush, asking him to revamp federal overtime rules approved by him and Congress earlier this year.
The postcards had the signatures of more than 5,000 people, mostly Ohio residents, concerned about the changes earlier this year in overtime rules.
Turned away
The group of people, some of whom were wearing orange T-shirts with the phrase "Hands off overtime pay," instead was turned away -- bundles of petitions in hand -- by mall security and management.
Saying it was a "tenant issue; they don't want you here," security officers escorted the group outside. The protesters then moved across the street and briefly demonstrated, holding signs and waving to passing cars.
"I don't know what to do with these petitions now," Stoddart said.
Volunteer workers inside the campaign office briefly locked the doors and called in Kathi Creed, Trumbull County chair of the Bush campaign.
Creed said volunteers had no warning that the protesters were coming and handled the situation the way they saw best at the time.
"It didn't look like just a few people coming in to drop off petitions to them," she said. "They looked organized and like they might give a little bit of harassment."
Creed said if one or two individuals were to return and drop off the petitions, volunteer workers at the campaign office would gladly accept them and agree to pass them on to the president.
"That will be our policy from this moment on in cases like this," she said.
The situation
New rules affecting overtime pay took effect Aug. 23. Labor leaders say the rules affect overtime pay for as many as 6 million people, including finance, accounting and public relations workers, funeral directors and nurses.
Government officials contend a revision to the Fair Labor Standards Act, first passed in 1939, hadn't been revised in more than 50 years and contained outdated language.
AFL-CIO members were visiting a number of Bush-Cheney campaign offices, primarily in Ohio, to deliver similar petitions.
slshaulis@vindy.com