Campaign Wrap: More endorsements for Bush
January 12, 2000
Web posted at: 5:09 p.m. EST (2209 GMT)
WASHINGTON -- Republican front-runner George W. Bush received endorsements Wednesday from two more GOP senators, and prepared a television commercial responding to criticism of his $483 billion tax plan.
Bush is readying a new television commercial that accuses millionaire publisher Steve Forbes of running a negative campaign.
The ad is a response to a TV spot that Forbes is airing in early voting states. Forbes' ad accuses Bush of breaking a no-tax pledge during his tenure as Texas governor. It is tentatively scheduled to air this week in Iowa, with the Bush campaign waiting to make sure Forbes' spot airs as widely as promised.
In a draft of Bush's ad, the Texas governor says his campaign would be free of "cynical and negative politics," and hints that Forbes has not done the same without actually naming Forbes. "My opponent has chosen to run a negative campaign," Bush says, according to an adviser who read from the draft.
Bush is hoping to remind Iowa voters of Forbes' 1996 negative ad campaign that wounded Bob Dole, who went on to become the eventual GOP presidential nominee, but lost to President Bill Clinton in the general election.
The Bush campaign also has internal polling data indicating Forbes is vulnerable to accusations that he is going negative. The Bush campaign has been ready to charge Forbes with running a negative campaign if he became critical of Bush.
Forbes had already received attention by making the tax-cut accusation during the latest GOP presidential debate Monday night in Michigan.
Bush also faced questions Wednesday about a critical ad that never aired. A college student who was volunteering for Bush's New Hampshire campaign said the campaign asked her to criticize the tax plan unveiled by Sen. John McCain on Tuesday. The woman is now volunteering for McCain.
On Wednesday, Bush said the woman never should have been asked to criticize the Arizona senator. "The ad will not run," he said. "I'm going to treat my friend and opponent with respect. He deserves to be treated with respect. He's a buddy, but he's not right on the tax plan."
While campaigning Wednesday in South Carolina, Bush found a new item to criticize in McCain's tax-cut plan, saying a proposal to double the child tax credit would be compromised by the lack of an exemption from another tax that is already on the books.
"The alternative minimum tax was designed to make sure rich folks don't zero out their taxes, but this plan, in not exempting the $1,000 child tax credit from the alternative minimum tax calculations, has the reverse effect from its intentions," Bush said, adding some people could even end up paying more taxes.
Bush said his proposal to double the child tax credit from $500 to $1,000 also provides money for the exemption.
Bush added to his arsenal of endorsements Wednesday when GOP Sens. John Ashcroft of Missouri and Connie Mack of Florida endorsed him. Ashcroft, a former two-term Missouri governor, said Bush, currently in his second term as Texas governor, "will make a great president because he won't just govern America, he will lead America." Ashcroft prepared his own presidential bid, but decided not to run shortly before his scheduled official announcement.
Ashcroft said America deserves a president with the "moral character to lead." He appeared with Bush during two campaign stops in South Carolina, where McCain is striving to catch up to Bush ahead of the state's February 19 GOP presidential primary.
Mack gave his endorsement during a Washington news conference, where he described McCain's tax plan as "tepid."
Democratic presidential hopeful Bill Bradley on Wednesday fired back at criticism by Vice President Al Gore of his record on agricultural issues by receiving the endorsements of a former Agriculture Secretary and other prominent experts in the field.
Bradley admitted he knew little about agriculture when he began campaigning in Iowa -- the site of the nation's first presidential caucuses -- but said he's a quick study.
"I've had the best teachers in the world -- family farmers in Iowa," Bradley said. "This campaign is based on straight talk, and that includes acknowledging what I didn't know."
Bradley was endorsed by Robert Bergland, who was agriculture secretary for former President Jimmy Carter. Bergland said Gore should answer questions over the consequences of the unpopular Freedom to Farm law.
"This administration approved that bill, they signed it into law," Bergland said. "This administration has known for years that measure needed to be fixed."
Bradley voted for the farm measure when he was in the U.S. Senate representing New Jersey, but said that vote was based only on assurances that it would be altered and additional assistance for farmers provided.
"They said there would be a safety net," Bradley said. "There has been no safety net. The administration did nothing about it. Al Gore did nothing about it. His silence is an indictment."
Bradley acknowledged that the campaign between himself and Gore is sharpening as the January 24 Iowa Caucus approaches.
"We're in the fourth quarter," said Bradley, a former professional basketball player. "We're headed down to when people are going to make a decision. It's important they understand the differences. It's important to understand the level of commitment, it's important to understand who has been there and who hasn't. That's what choices are all about."
In addition to getting Bergland's backing, Bradley collected the endorsement of state Sen. Jack Kibbie, a farmer from Emmetsburg, Iowa, and Willard Cochrane, a farm economist in the Kennedy administration. .
Bradley also responded to a Boston Globe article about a 1994 letter he wrote as a senator to a federal agency on behalf of a company whose top officers were political contributors.
"That was a letter on behalf of a constituent saying 'please make a decision.' It was not a big deal," Bradley said.
Bradley said there might have been other times that he had sent letters interceding on behalf of constituents who might have been donors. Republican candidate John McCain has faced questions about letters that he sent to the FCC and other federal agencies on behalf of donors, but he also said he was asking for the agencies to act, not trying to influence the decisions they were making.
Both McCain and Bradley, in an appeal aimed at independent voters, have made campaign finance reform an important part of their campaign.
Gore met with undecided Democratic voters in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, on Wednesday and faced some tough questions about his electability. Craig Wood, 52, told Gore that he was "concerned that your ability to win the election is reduced by your association with the Clinton scandal."
Gore asked Wood to consider "the complexities" of his successful working relationship and personal friendship with Clinton, who was impeached in 1998 on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice pertaining to his affair with a White House intern.
"I wouldn't have done that," Gore said of Clinton's actions, adding he wants voters to see him as his own man. "I'm running for president on my own, as who I am, on my vision, on my agenda."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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