Gore struggles for traction in native South

By CNN Senior White House Correspondent John King

OWINGSVILLE, Kentucky (CNN) -- Shaking hands in the bluegrass country of east-central Kentucky, congressional candidate Scotty Baesler is slightly out of step with the Democratic Party's dance card.

At community events around Owingsville, about 120 miles east of Louisville, Baesler isn't shy about his criticism of federal tobacco policies. A tobacco farmer himself, he's unhappy with the aid program that accompanies government anti-smoking campaigns.

The election bids of Scotty Baesler and other congressional candidates may be affected by Vice President Al Gore's standing in the South

"Like giving me a Band-Aid for getting my arm cut off," he said. "We are hurting right here in Clark County and all around."

Baesler is running in Kentucky's 6th Congressional District, hoping to reclaim a seat in the House of Representatives that he gave up two years ago to run for Senate. Observers are watching districts like his to see how the presidential race will affect the battle for control of Congress -- particularly around the South.

President Clinton carried five Southern states -- Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, Kentucky and Tennessee -- in 1992. In 1996, he won all of those but Georgia. But with little more than a month before the election, his chosen successor, Vice President Al Gore, holds a lead only in his home state of Tennessee.

Even that lead is tenuous, according to recent polls. Some even show Gore trailing in Tennessee, and Republicans relish the thought of an upset.

With Gore off campaigning elsewhere, the task of showing the Democratic flag in the Volunteer State has fallen to Jeff Clark, a long shot challenger to Republican Sen. Bill Frist.

"We want -- meaning Jeff Clark and Al Gore -- to provide prescription care through Medicare," Clark said in a recent meeting with reporters. "Bill Frist and George Bush want to turn it over to the private-oriented HMOs."

In Georgia, meanwhile, popular former Gov. Zell Miller is trying to hold the Senate seat to which he was appointed after the death of incumbent Republican Paul Coverdell. Miller has little to say about the national ticket, but his Republican opponent, former Sen. Mack Mattingly, isn't so shy.

"George Bush is leading, and he will beat the socks off Al Gore in this state," Mattingly boasted.

States like Tennessee and Arkansas were supposed to blunt the GOP boom in the South, but it hasn't worked out that way for Gore.

"Part of the reason is that Al Gore was raised in Washington D.C., not in Tennessee," said Republican pollster Whit Ayres. "But a larger part of the explanation is that Al Gore has not run as a New Democrat. He has run much more as an old Democrat."

"One of the most important things Bill Clinton ever said politically was 'I want to end welfare as we know it.' You haven't heard Al Gore say anything like that," Ayres said.

Some Democrats also worry that Gore hasn't come close to generating the kind of enthusiasm among African-American voters -- crucial to Democratic fortunes in the region -- that Clinton did.

But back in Kentucky, Baesler is working a quick plug for Gore into his stump speeches, and says things are looking up.

"I think he will carry this district," Baesler said. "Two months ago, I wouldn't know whether he would have any coattails or not, but now I'm not so sure he's not going to have some coattails."