CAMPAIGN ’88 : Quayle Reserves Islands
The Republicans won Lady Liberty’s hand for the traditional Labor Day kickoff of their presidential campaign, but the Democrats will try to steal their thunder with a visit to neighboring Ellis Island two days earlier.
Sen. Dan Quayle, the GOP vice presidential nominee, beat the other candidates in reserving both Liberty and Ellis islands in New York harbor for campaign ceremonies all day Monday, the official Labor Day holiday.
“They were there first,” said Edie Shean-Hammond of Boston, a spokeswoman for the National Park Service, which is custodian of both politically popular landmarks.
Liberty Island is the site of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island is where millions of European immigrants were processed for entry into the United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Dukakis reserved Ellis Island for a Saturday morning appearance with his mother, the former Euterpe Boukis, who arrived there from Greece as a young girl in 1913 with her immigrant parents and sisters.
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