Bush, Gore clinch nominations

With Southern victories in hand, candidates court independent vote Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore sealed their nominations Tuesday and turned their guns on

Wednesday, March 15th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

With Southern victories in hand, candidates court independent vote

Gov. George W. Bush and Vice President Al Gore sealed their nominations Tuesday and turned their guns on each other in a contentious preview of the fall presidential contest.

"We are halfway to our goal," Mr. Bush told cheering supporters in Austin. "Halfway to ending the Clinton-Gore era in Washington, D.C."

Mr. Gore called the Texas governor a captive of his party's right wing and successor to the policies of his father's White House.

"We came off a period in which we quadrupled our national debt, drove interest rates up, sent jobs overseas, put families under stress and drove the crime rate up," Mr. Gore told supporters at a victory rally in Tallahassee, Fla., a state he called a "key battleground" for November.

He also offered to forgo TV advertising financed by "soft money" - largely unregulated contributions to the political parties - if Mr. Bush would do the same.

With wins in six Southern states boosting their delegate count, Mr. Bush and Mr. Gore also sent signals Tuesday aimed at soothing the bruised feelings of their vanquished rivals and winning over the voters who backed them.

Republican John McCain and Democrat Bill Bradley abandoned their campaigns last week, draining the suspense from Tuesday's primary contests in Texas, Tennessee, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi and Oklahoma.

With the November ticket set, the party standard-bearers lost no time appealing to swing voters, especially independents attracted by Mr. McCain's message of campaign finance reform.

"Like John McCain, I bring the passion that comes from personal experience to this battle for campaign finance reform," Mr. Gore told talk show host Larry King on CNN.

Mr. Bush said he, too, has "a message of reform" and acknowledged the need to mend fences with Mr. McCain and his supporters.
"Step One in any good campaign is to unite our party," he said. "There are lots of areas of agreement."

On Monday, McCain adviser John Weaver talked with Bush campaign manager Joe Allbaugh about setting up meetings to bring the sides together. Various emissaries - including members of the U.S. Senate - have begun extending olive branches to try to unite the GOP for November.

Al From, president of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council, said McCain voters are "only the tip of the iceberg of independents" sought by both camps, referring to swing voters who will make up 20 percent of the November electorate.
Wooing independents

A poll released Tuesday suggests that Mr. Bush now picks up slightly more of Mr. McCain's independent-minded voters than Mr. Gore.

"They're the ones who decide this election in the end," said Mr. From.

But it's a delicate balancing act for the governor - largely because he differed with Mr. McCain in their fractious primary battle over the signature issue of campaign finance reform.

"I'm confident we can work together to enact reforms," Mr. Bush said Tuesday.
Tuesday's primary proved a watershed for both Mr. Bush and Mr. Gore, each of whom formally clinched his party's nomination in terms of delegates.

Campaign finance reform promised to be a major issue in the fall.

Mr. Gore has already embraced the issue.
He said last weekend that he has learned from his 1996 campaign "mistakes" - raising funds at a Buddhist temple and soliciting contributions from his office - and now would make campaign finance reform a central theme.

"Gore has taken a short-term beating from Bush," Southern Methodist University professor Cal Jillson said. "But it's smart for him to get the issue out now, inoculating himself for the fall, and because the issue motivated McCain voters."

Ties to Clinton

In his speech to supporters Tuesday night, Mr. Bush challenged his Democratic rival's credibility on the issue as he underscored the vice president's link to the Clinton administration.

"Al Gore can't solve campaign finance problems when he symbolizes them," he said. "He can't talk of rebuilding the military when his administration has dismantled our military. And he can't distance himself from the president when, for eight years, he's served as cheerleader-in-chief."

Rice University professor Earl Black said it would be difficult for the governor to adopt Mr. McCain's position on campaign finance reform - including a ban on individuals giving unregulated soft money to political parties - without confusing his base.

At the same time, analysts and associates of both GOP candidates say there are areas in which the two can agree.

Mr. Bush now says he favors limiting corporate and union soft money. He also wants unions to get the permission of members before spending dues on politics. But he characterizes unlimited independent expenditures by individuals as free speech.

Appealing to centrists

Mr. Bush also is viewed as the candidate most damaged by a grueling primary and the one who must repair his image with centrist voters.
In firming up the Republican base to cement his nomination, University of Akron professor John Green said, "He may have gone too far and not be able to scramble back to the center."

Others say he can regain the center ground by distancing himself from religious conservatives and returning to a compassionate conservative and a "unifier, not a divider" theme.

Democrats, meanwhile, believe Mr. Gore is well-positioned to win independents in November because of the economy and a political shift against intolerance.

Mr. From is advising Mr. Gore to "show his independence" by opposing labor unions on the question of normalizing trade relations with China, thus showing he is not captive to a group that supports him.

"The attraction of McCain was not just for campaign finance reform, but he wasn't part of the establishment, the system - he was challenging it," he said. McCain voters will be looking for "somebody who stands up and speaks his mind."

Staff writer Christopher Lee contributed to this report.