SPLIT TICKET

Boston Globe
April 8, 2003

Rock 'n' roll is known for its "battle of the bands", but 2004 presidential politics may trigger a battle within a band. Senator John F. Kerry has enjoyed the support of Stephen Stills, of Crosby, Stills & Nash fame, as he has campaigned for the Democratic presidential nomination. Stills even got off his sickbed last month to sing at a Kerry fund-raiser in San Francisco. Last night the other two-thirds of the band, David Crosby and Graham Nash, were in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to attend a reception on behalf of Howard Dean, the former governor of Vermont and a rival for the Democratic nomination.

Kerry was making his own campaign appearance in Cedar Rapids yesterday, and when he returned to his hotel, he found the hotel driveway blocked by a van bearing a Dean bumper sticker. It was waiting for Nash and Crosby to come out of the lobby.

The split allegiances prompted one Kerry aide to make reference to the band's former member, Neil Young.
"I guess the fight is to see who can get Young", the aide said.