From: AIDSVote96@aol.com
Date: Tue, 20 Feb 1996 08:47:59 -0500
Subject: Activists quiz Senator Lugar on AIDS

ACT UP Presidential Project
call 603.641.9592 or 202.986.0435
for immediate release     February 19, 1996 

AIDS activists go to Lugar Town Meeting
Steve likes Dick!
Senator pledges to study AIDS Commission Reports and announces support for
clean syringes

 Senator Dick Lugar, a candidate for the Republican Presidential Nomination
impressed AIDS activists with positive statements about the epidemic at a
town meeting held in Concord, New Hampshire on Sunday, February 18th.
 Dan Sundquist, a resident of Manchester, New Hampshire and an advocate of
needle exchange and access in the Granite State, said this about Indiana's
Senior Senator.  "Dick Lugar is a refreshing change from 'politics as usual'
for this AIDS activist. The Senator responded with straight-forward answers
to a wide range of questions. Included in these questions was a request for
his position on the National Commission on AIDS Reports regarding increased
availability of syringes to drug injectors.

 That recommendation called for repealing the drug paraphernalia laws
regarding syringes to allow increased availability of clean syringes to drug
injectors. It also calls for lifting of the federal ban on funding of needle
exchange programs.  In 1992 President Bill Clinton promised ACT UP members
and the AIDS community that he would implement all the recommendations of
National Commission Report.  Instead, Clinton has spent the last three years
dodging the issues around needle exchange and access.

 Sundquist continues, "Senator Lugar responded with alarming frankness and
candor in stating that even though giving drug injectors needles raises the
difficult, secondary issue of drug abuse and treatment, he would answer 'in
the affirmative".
 Steve Michael, the HIV positive AIDS activist challenging Bill Clinton in
several key primary and caucus states also participated in the town meeting. 

 "I like Dick." states Michael, " He knew I was ACT UP and didn't hide from
me or my questions.  I told the Senator that people with HIV and AIDS felt
betrayed by President Clinton.  Many of us were shopping for an alternative
to Clinton.  I told him about the 1992 promises that were made to us and
asked him whether he supported the recommendations of the Commission Report I
also asked him to tell me why people with AIDS should vote for Dick Lugar."

 Michael adds, "Lugar responded that he was aware of the report, had glanced
at it, but had not read it completely.  He indicated that he would read it
and welcomed the opportunity to discuss it at a later date." 

 "Lugar said that he was an early supporter of the Ryan White CARE Act and
that while he understood the importance of Ryan White, he knew that there was
much more to AIDS than Ryan White.  He discussed the need for expanded
research and treatment opportunities as well as improving access to new drugs
and therapies through a streamlined FDA (Federal Drug Administration)
approval process, indicates Sundquist.
 Michael notes that, "Lugar' statements received a healthy  round of applause
from the largely Republican crowd in attendance, which should be a message to
Clinton and the other Republican candidates that AIDS is not an issue to shy
away from.

 After the town meeting ended, Lugar, Michael and Sundquist discussed AIDS
further.  Michael promised to proved the senator with a copy of the National
Commission reports, as well as the NAPWA (National Association of People with
AIDS action agenda for 1996 and supporting documentation to back up the need
for a Manhattan/Apollo-style project to cure AIDS.  Lugar indicated that
after his staff had reviewed the information, a follow up meeting would be in
order.

 Lugar's encounter with ACT UP and comments supporting needle availability
were reported in New Hampshire's second largest newspaper, the Concord
Monitor.

 "The unprecedented access to candidates during the New Hampshire primary
gives AIDS activists a chance they don't normally have, to openly discuss
AIDS issues with powerful people.  Lugar may not win the White House, but he
still has four years remaining of his Senate term, notes Wayne Turner of ACT
UP.