Actor michael j Fox Backs Culver

Chet Culver got some star power for his run at Terrace Hill Monday. Actor Michael J. Fox campaigned for the democratic candidate for governor and stem cell research in Des Moines. At least 1,000 people showed up at Drake University to hear Michael J. Fox speak at a rally for democratic gubernatorial candidate Chet Culver. "I'm supporting candidates who support all stem cell research in races where their opponents simply don't," says Fox. Fox lives with Parkinson's disease and appears with democrats and republicans to encourage support for stem cell research which he believes could cure his and many other debilitating diseases and conditions. This includes the spinal injury 20 year-old Lee Harris suffered in a motorcycle accident. "Me and many others like me are being forced to go overseas to find some of the same treatments that - if these bills were passed and the research was done - could be done here in the United States," says Harris. "The hope would be that someday - someday this kid - someday he just gets to go to school and act like a normal kid," says Adam Todd who suffers from epilepsy. "The future has been stalled by a lack of belief in science and our leading researchers and a lack of action. Forgive me, but it's time to get back to our future," says Fox. Chet Culver also spoke at the rally. He says he supports lifting a 2002 Iowa law that bans stem cell research. Culver's republican opponent Jim Nussle wants to keep the 2002 ban. Nussle does support research using stem cells from adult tissue and blood from umbilical cords.