Pushing buttons

AUSTIN, Texas -- A 43 thousand mile journey came to an end Tuesday for Sarasota, Fla., resident Curtis Jacobson.\nIn 97 days he visited 41 states, "most of them twice," selling campaign buttons. All day Tuesday, he and a handful of employees braved wind, rain and cold at stands on the streets of Austin, Texas, to sell Bush/Cheney pins during Bush's rally at the capital.\nJacobson started following the Bush campaign on a whistle stop train tour from Arizona to Seattle after the Republican national convention. A self-proclaimed Republican with a Democrat attitude, he and his employees followed both campaigns.\nHe didn't pick a favorite candidate by watching a debate or examining a platform.\n"I gotta have Bush win," Jacobson said. "Because I'm here, and I've got 8,000 buttons."\nJacobson got into the button business during the '96 presidential race. Friends introduced him to button wholesalers and he realized presidential campaigns would provide a healthy market. Many of the buttons are designed at a plant in Versailles, Ohio. But Jacobson personally designed the ones sold in Austin on Tuesday night, which sported glossy photos of Bush and his running mate Dick Cheney, or phrases like "Annoy a liberal. Work hard -- be happy," "Make Barbara the first mama," and "George W.: Scrubbing out the Oval Office."\nAfter three months of chasing politicians all across America, Jacobson spent $7,000 in fuel, put 30,000 miles on a rental van, accumulated five speeding tickets, six parking tickets, and a healthy income: having sold 25-30 thousand buttons at $3 and $4 each. While Jacobson enjoyed Democrat rallies more for featuring musical acts like Bon Jovi and Melissa Etheridge, he said he typically sold more at Republican rallies than at Democrat rallies because Democrats are spent out from the last two presidential campaigns.\n"Republicans won't buy any buttons going into a rally because they're all dressed up," he said. "But when they leave, they're all pumped, and that's when they start buying."\nAlong the campaign trail, Jacobson made his way through 16 employees, who he said quit on a regular basis because they wanted a life. Amongst those 16 employees were his 17-year-old niece who followed the campaign for two weeks in August. With him Tuesday were a Penn State\nstudent, his sister, Deb Watts, and her husband. Watts came to Austin to show her support for Bush and the Republican party. The 42-year-old Watts has voted Republican since she was 18.\n"I thought it would be exciting to be right in the middle of things when George W. Bush becomes president," Watts said.\nAt press time, it was unknown whether Watts' words would be prophetic. If Bush did go on to make a victory speech Tuesday night, Jacobson came prepared with "Re-elect Bush in 2004" pins. Regardless of the election's outcome, Austin was the last stop for Jacobson who, after 62 campaign rallies, will soon vacation for a week in Belize.\n"I want to sleep in a bed that's not moving," he said.