Presidential collectiontons

<p>As the economy keeps everyone on pins and needles, one stockbroker has stuck with the presidential race.</p><p>"This has kept my mind off the stock market in the past month," John Clark said.</p><p>Clark is an avid presidential campaign memorabilia collector and began his campaign collection when he bought both a Nixon and a Kennedy button at the North Florida Fair in Tallahassee in October 1960, he said.</p><p>"It's a love for history and interesting politics," said Clark, who lives in Tallahassee. "As a kid, I collected as a pack rat. As I got older and I realized how much stuff I had, then I wanted to expand upon it and actually preserve history."</p><p>"Buttons, Badges and Bumper Stickers" is an exhibit that includes items from Clark's private collection and introduces viewers to the world of campaign memorabilia. The exhibit is on display in the University of Florida's Smathers Library second floor exhibit gallery until Dec. 15.</p><p>"I collect every political campaign item that there is," Clark said. "And just about everything has had a politician's name on it at some point."</p><p>A can of ginger ale that says "Gold Water" (after Barry Goldwater) and an old campaign torch that was used in the late 1800s as people would parade up and down the street to "light up the night" are just a few of the items in Clark's collection.</p><p>"One of my favorite pieces in this display is the 'Kick Out Depression' button that has a donkey kicking a elephant," Clark said. "You can actually pull a string attached to the donkey so that it kicks the elephant. Buttons like this portray a message, but now buttons are more of a slogan."</p><p>The UF exhibit only displays about 10 percent of Clark's entire collection, which is valued at more than $125,000, he said.</p><p>Clark said he chose to display his collection at UF because of the wide audience it can reach.</p><p>"I'd like to have more people collecting," he said. "Hopefully, this will help. And because it is an election year, people would be more interested in it now than two years from now."</p><p>While the exhibit contains campaign memorabilia from candidates who ended up in the White House, it also reminds us of the forgotten or unsuccessful bids by Al Smith, the first Catholic candidate, James Cox, founder of Cox Communications, and Goldwater.</p><p>The exhibit also showcases campaign firsts through pins and badges, the evolution of bumper stickers from meta license plates to window stickers, and the rise of negative campaigning.</p><p>"There's more people wearing political buttons than I've seen in 30 years, but buttons aren't really used in campaigns now," Clark said. "Campaigns now put their money into television and computer appeals."</p>