Des Moines Register: Farm policies in Iowa split Gore, BradleyBy DAVID YEPSEN
Register Staff Writer
December 21, 1999
Web posted at: 1:18 p.m. EST (1818 GMT)
Vice President Al Gore and former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley battled over rural policy Monday in their quest for votes in Iowa's leadoff presidential
caucuses next month.
Gore, in a telephone interview with Iowa reporters, stepped up his farm
attacks on Bradley, saying the New Jersey Democrat "has an anti-family-farmer record" while "I have fought for family farmers throughout my career." Bradley told Des Moines Register reporters and editors Gore's charges "are predictable."
Rural voters make up a significant segment of the likely Democratic caucus voters. According to the Des Moines Register's Iowa Poll, 41 percent of the likely Democratic caucus-goers will come from farms or towns of fewer than 5,000 people. Twenty-four percent of the likely Democratic caucus participants say they are in farming or an agriculture-related business or industry.
Gore told Iowa reporters it was wrong for Bradley not to attend a debate
on agriculture issues Wednesday night in Ames. He said "it's
unfortunate" because so many family farms are hurting.
"Freedom to Farm has become freedom to foreclose," Gore said. He said, "We ought to repeal significant portions of it" because "the lack of any flexibility in the safety net is a serious defect.
"It is simply not working," Gore said. He said he would include a new
conservation reserve program, increase the amount of on-farm grain
storage, push for tougher enforcement of antitrust laws and take "a more
comprehensive approach to rural development" if he becomes president.
"Family farmers are under siege today, and I want to fight to restore that
way of life," he said.
Gore also said he wants to expand the markets for ethanol, a corn-based
fuel. Bradley "was the leading opponent of the ethanol program" when
he was in the U.S. Senate. "Now he's changed his position after 18
years of doing everything he could to eliminate the ethanol program."
"He said in Iowa he doesn't pretend to know agriculture," Gore added.
"That did not come as a revelation to the people who were in the
trenches" fighting for farmers, Gore said.
Bradley, during his meeting at the Register, dismissed Gore's charges.
"We're going to have two debates in Iowa in January," Bradley said.
"You can't have a debate in Iowa without agriculture being a major part
of it. So we're going to debate agriculture in Iowa."
As for the charge he doesn't understand agriculture, "people said that
about FDR, too," Bradley said. He said Franklin Roosevelt "got a guy
named Henry Wallace (an Iowan) to come in and help him understand
agriculture."
"In my own case, I know I'm from New Jersey," he said. While he was
raised in Missouri, "I'm from New Jersey and don't have the depth of
experience - even though the last year has been a tremendous
educational time for me" as he campaigned in Iowa.
His background as an urban senator "doesn't mean I won't be good for
agriculture. Do I understand the role agriculture will play? Do I
understand the difficulty people are facing and the forces they are now
confronting, and the answer there is 'yes,' I do."
He said rural issues include the concentration of power in the
meatpacking industry, the "disappearance of world markets because of
the mismanagement of the international economy" and "the need to have
a much more targeted farm program aimed at family farmers and not big
agribusiness.
". . . I think I do understand the dynamics" of rural America, and "when
you are president you are president of all the people, and clearly one of
the most productive sectors of our economy is agriculture. I would reject
that as a charge," Bradley said. "It's predictable he'd make the charge."
Bradley has said he changed his mind on ethanol from his days in the
Senate and now supports tax breaks to encourage development and use
of the fuel.
Bradley Monday also said his heart troubles don't disqualify him from
serving as president. He said he has an irregular heartbeat that is
regulated with medication.
Recently, Bradley had to cancel some campaign stops because of the
condition.
"Millions of Americans have it," he said. "I've been very straightforward
about what it is, and allowed the press to talk to all the doctors who've
cared for me. Before I embarked on this I had a heart-to-heart with all
the doctors and asked them is there anything here that would impede me
from doing the job that I'm seeking to do?"
Bradley says the doctors said it would not be a problem.
"Certainly it's not something that I actually think about every day,"
Bradley said.
What's in bottle Bradley carries?
When former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley stopped by Monday morning
for a meeting with Des Moines Register reporters and editors, he was
carrying a water bottle with a dark orange drink in it. Bradley said his
driver, Michael Walsh, "occasionally picks me up in the morning and
he'll have carrot juice, and I love carrot juice."
Bradley said he started drinking carrot and apple juice combinations
when his wife was being treated for breast cancer and he was making it
in a juicer for her. "But you've got to drink it within the first hour after it
comes out of the juicer," the candidate said.
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