NORTH KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Cathy Weigel probably never thought she'd hit a jackpot of sorts when she donated $50 to Democrat John Kerry's (search) presidential campaign. Weigel turned out to be his 1 millionth online supporter, and that campaign milestone came with the promise of a telephone call from the candidate himself.
Weigel nervously awaited Kerry's call on Tuesday. But once they were connected, a broad smile crept across her face and calm set in as they discussed his effort to unseat President Bush.
"International security is a big thing, and we have trashed our reputation really bad," she told Kerry, who telephoned from his new campaign plane en route from Washington, D.C., to Portland, Ore. "That's important to me."
Weigel said Kerry asked her to attend his inauguration.
"If he wins, by God yes, I'm going," she said, before adding: "When he wins."
Before the call, Weigel said she had never given money to a political campaign before this year, but that Bush's handling of the war in Iraq motivated her to log on to Kerry's campaign Web site on Monday night. She was the 1 millionth person to register at the site as a supporter.
"If George Bush wins in November, I've got to move to Canada or something," Weigel said while she waited for Kerry to call. "I just cannot stand the way things are going."
A Bush spokesman dubbed Missouri, a swing state, "Bush country" and noted the president's narrow victory in 2000 and expressed confidence in a repeat performance in November.
"The president has received tremendous support from Missouri, both in terms of money and manpower, and he's very warmly received every time he comes here," said Rep. Kenny Hulshof (search), R-Mo.
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