Howard Dean held his first campaign event of Thursday in the gloriously restored 120-year-old Grand Opera House, a national historic landmark in downtown Oshkosh, Wis., where an audience of a couple of hundred people greeted the candidate and his wife, Judy.
“Isn’t this place fantastic? You all did a great job here,” Howard Dean said as he took the stage to ask Wisconsin voters to help keep his struggling campaign alive in Tuesday’s primary. “I feel like singing, this is such a beautiful place. But I won’t. CNN would probably play it 633 times.”
As the Democratic hopeful looked out over the audience, he didn’t know that the Grand Opera House is haunted. Locals tell the story of the ghost of a former stage manager who died of natural causes roaming the lobby, seating and stage areas of the old theater during rehearsals and performances.
No sightings of the ghost were reported during the candidate’s speech. But in an eerie coincidence for a campaign that has had its share of bad karma, Oshkosh residents say the apparition’s name is Howard the Ghost.
–Rick Pearson
CALM RESTORED OVER CAUCUS
A coalition of African-American groups on Thursday dropped its threat to challenge in court the results of Saturday’s Michigan Democratic caucus.
Several organizations complained that six of 134 caucus sites in Detroit were moved on voting day, without notification to voters. They argued that voters were disenfranchised, and some called for the resignation of the state party’s executive chairman, Mark Brewer, who extended voting by two hours to accommodate those who had trouble finding a caucus site.
Several days of anger, though, were smoothed over and the groups said they intend to concentrate on voter turnout in November.
–Tim Jones
