With only seven days remaining until Election Day, the campaign trail is becoming something of a spectacle as schedules grow more packed, and tensions flare. Two rallies, one planned and one cancelled, illustrate the point.

President Clinton is coming to Greater Nanticoke Area School District (near Scranton in the northeast) tomorrow to campaign for embattled incumbent Paul Kanjorski in the 11th district. But parents aren’t happy, because the kids are being dismissed early as a result of the partisan rally:

A recorded message sent to parents in the Greater Nanticoke Area School District on Friday has Republicans upset.
The 58-second pre-recorded message sent Friday alerted parents that the school district would have an early release on Tuesday.
The message delivered by District Principal Joe Long also says in part that “former President Clinton will be coming to our high school gymnasium in the afternoon to campaign for Congressman Paul Kanjorski.” …
School board member Tony Prushinski said having former President Clinton come to speak is a once-in-a lifetime event. He pointed out even if former Presidents George Bush, George W. Bush or Jimmy Carter wanted to speak in the area, it would be an honor to host them.
Kanjorski’s campaign spokesman Ed Mitchell said they would have preferred the students remain on campus to attend the event and learn more about politics. [emphasis added]

A rally led by Vice President Biden and planned for Wednesday, meanwhile, has apparently been cancelled. Biden was to campaign for Bryan Lentz, the Democrat seeking to replace Joe Sestak in the 7th district in the southeast in Delaware County:

The rally in honor of Lentz, a State Representative candidate in Pennsylvania’s 7th Congressional District, had been publicized and scheduled for Wednesday morning. It was to be open to the public.
“Radnor Township School District was honored to receive a request from the White House to host the Vice President of the United States for a talk on education,” according to a statement by the school district. “The school district will be pleased to do so after the November elections when there will not be the same heightened appearance of partisanship as that which accompanies the final days of a national election.”
But George Badey, chair of the Radnor Democratic Committee, said it has been cancelled because of what he called “petty, partisan reasons” and that it is “nothing short of outrageous.”
“I would never dare suggest a Republican figure not [visit the school],” Badey said. “How dare they tell the Vice President of the United States ‘you’re not welcomed in our school’,” he said of the Republican majority school board, whom Badey blames for the cancellation. [emphasis added]