Gore takes a long lunch with labor

Al Gore chose labor leaders over the DLC

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Vice President Al Gore was too busy to meet earlier this week with the pro-business Democratic Leadership Council, but he spent two hours Thursday with AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and about a dozen labor leaders.

The group met a block away from the White House at the Hay-Adams hotel, where Gore thanked them for their help in 2000. They met for lunch, and ate roast beef and chicken. The labor officials said they were glad Gore finally agreed to meet with them, but said they wished he had done it sooner: The former vice president responded that he previously was not focused on politics.

So did Gore intentionally schedule the meeting to contrast with his refusal to attend the DLC conference in order to shore up his populist image? "Let's just say it was a genius stroke of timing," one Gore supporter said.

Republican Katherine Harris ended her controversial term as Florida's secretary of state Thursday, saying she wants to focus more fully on her bid for Congress. As the state's top election official, Harris was a key player in Florida's 2000 presidential recount.

In a three-page letter to Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, Harris said she "foresees difficulty in maintaining the delicate balance" between her official role and the campaign. Harris made her resignation retroactive to July 15 in order to comply with a state law that requires candidates to resign public offices they currently hold under certain circumstances.

In his most animated attack to date, Bill Simon, the GOP nominee for California governor, has likened his Democratic rival, Gov. Gray Davis, with the sinister Mr. Burns from the TV show "The Simpsons." Burns is the conniving power plant owner who ran a failed campaign for governor. In a satiric e-mail, the Simon camp compares Burns and Davis, including their claims to fame and favorite scapegoat. Simon aides say they were inspired by a report that Davis received more than $70,000 from one of California's biggest polluters.

It looks like "Wheel of Fortune" host Pat Sajak is taking a pass on politics. As we told you Tuesday, the New York Post speculated that Sajak might consider running for office. But his publicist tells us Sajak is "as likely to run for political office as I am, which is not at all likely."

The ad war in the Texas governor's race heated up this week with both sides lobbing charges in a pair of new TV spots. Incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Perry's ad focuses on accusations of money laundering by a now-defunct savings & loan where Perry's Democratic challenger, Tony Sanchez, was chairman of the board.

The ad says: "Newspapers reported Tony Sanchez's bank laundered $25 million in drug money stuffed into suitcases, flown to Texas, and deposited in his bank. Can Texans really trust Tony Sanchez?"

In response, the Sanchez campaign tells viewers that Perry's spot is untrue: "Rick Perry is misleading you about something that happened almost 20 years ago. Tony Sanchez was never accused of any wrongdoing, and the bank was totally exonerated by the Department of Justice, two federal judges and the IRS."

In the New York governor's race, Andrew Cuomo gets a helping hand in an ad from his uncle-in-law, Sen. Ted Kennedy. The spot appears designed to emphasize Cuomo's liberal leanings by linking him to Kennedy, Martin Luther King III and Geraldine Ferraro. Cuomo is married to Ted Kennedy's niece, Kerry.

In Washington, Mayor Anthony Williams says that one way or another, he is running for re-election as a Democrat. Williams announced Wednesday that he will appeal a decision by the elections board that bumped him off the September 10 Democratic primary ballot. But even if the appeal fails, he says he is prepared to run in the primary as a Democratic write-in candidate. Williams says he is a lifelong Democrat and will not abandon his party. The elections board found that although Williams had more than enough signatures to get on the ballot, many were tainted by questions about whether Williams' supporters violated the law in gathering them.