Frost details campaign

U.S. Rep. Martin Frost held nothing back when he spoke to SMUjournalism students Wednesday afternoon. Frost talked openly to theclass, laying out the blueprints to his campaign strategy aftershowing a series of ads that will continue to air until theelection. He also made it known that he is targeting independentsand Hispanics to help in his re-election.

“He didn’t try to hide anything,” seniorjournalism major Chelsea Messer said. “You think politiciansare kind of sneaky, but he wasn’t.”

Frost is serving his 13th term representing the Dallas-FortWorth metroplex and currently represents the 24th district inWashington D.C.

Frost is campaigning against Rep. Pete Sessions after a newlyredistricted state map, drawn last year, set the tworepresentatives against each other. The map now includes SMU andthe surrounding Park Cities as well as lower incomeneighborhoods.

The new map has been a topic of controversy within theDemocratic Party that claims it favors Republicans and will resultin a lower number of democratic house representatives.

“Tom Delay was trying to eliminate the top Democrats fromCongress, and I think the state is well served by having top peopleof both parties,” Frost said of the majority leader.

Frost has criticized Delay for his lack of relations with theDemocratic Party. He said Delay was not willing to compromise withthe democrats in passing legislation and compared him to NewtGingrich for dealing only with Republicans.

Frost also spoke of several advertisements his opponent rancriticizing him for being insensitive. Frost defended a televisionad his campaign recently ran that he calls “dramatic.”The ad was similar to one President George W. Bush’s campaignran, but it criticized Sessions’ stance on air security asfootage of the attacks on the twin towers played in thebackground.

The congressman did not speak completely unbiased to the classwith an occasional reminder of the difference between he and hisopponent as he passed out stacks of his paper ads and mailers.

Frost is credited for writing the Amber Haggerman ChildProtection Act and is the house co-sponsor of the AMBER alert, aradio and television alert, named after an Arlington girl who in1996 was kidnapped and murdered. The broadcast system has assistedin reuniting abducted children with their families locally andnation-wide.

“Amber legislation is the most important thing I’vedone,” Frost said. “Clearly working on keeping thecountry safe from terrorism has been very important.”

Frost, whose wife is in the Army and was near the Pentagonduring the attacks on 9/11 said he takes the war on terrorism veryseriously.”

Frost voted for the $87 billion and to authorize thepresident’s decision to invade Iraq.

“We have made some mistakes,” Frost said. “Wedid not properly arm our soldiers.”

Frost said he was particularly interested in encouraging youngpeople to vote.

“So many things that we do directly affect yourlives,” he said. “Young people may not realize thatCongress can affect them, but we vote on how large the Pell grantshould be, and we recently voted on whether to bring back thedraft.”

Frost said he encourages students not to sit on the sidelines,to be independent and make their own decisions.

Frost graduated from the University of Missouri in 1964 withbachelor degrees in journalism and history and went on to lawschool before beginning his career in politics.