With the presidential hopefuls for 2000 starting to line up, moderates in both political parties are maneuvering to influence the outcome.
The Democratic Leadership Council, a moderate group that counts Bill Clinton and Al Gore among its founders, recently held a high-profile Washington conference that attracted the party's expected White House contenders. The DLC's GOP counterpart, aptly named the Republican Leadership Council, is also busy, although garnering less media attention.
The RLC and its affiliated Foundation for Responsible Government spent more than $2 million on races around the country this year, "much of it," the Newark Star-Ledger reported, "targeted against hard-line conservative" candidates in GOP primaries.
Buoyed by its successes in those races, the paper went on, the RLC is "using the GOP's unexpected loss of five House seats to further press its case that the party no longer can cede control to social conservatives who favor a morality agenda over an emphasis on conservative fiscal policies."
RLC chairman Lewis M. Eisenberg: "I think compassionate, common-sense conservatives seem to be making some strides in trying to unite the party. . . . The party can definitely expand its appeal and win nationally [if it] moves away from a narrow social agenda." But GOP conservatives say the party is not faithful enough to their agenda. Christian Coalition Executive Director Randy Tate: "It's a mistake for anyone to be pointing a finger at conservatives and walking away from some important moral issues for this country." (Newark Star-Ledger, 12/6)
In the Paint
Former college and pro basketball star and U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., stepped closer to a presidential bid on Dec. 4, when he announced that he's forming an exploratory committee.
Bradley compared the committee to a preseason training camp: "This is the time when you get your team together, you see how you relate to each other, you work out some plays. The regular season is when you form an official campaign." But Bradley also makes it clear that he is serious: "I can't conceive of anything that would derail me at this stage."
Although he offered no specific policy proposals, Bradley "said he wants to work on what he called the `agenda of obligations' Americans have for one another. He said there are too many children in poverty, too many people without health care, too many middle-class families just getting by with parents each working several jobs." (The [Hackensack, N.J.] Record, 12/5)
More Bradley: "I want to provide the kind of leadership that doesn't stand in the spotlight, but that calls attention to the actions of millions of Americans who shine every day." (The Boston Globe, 12/5) Both Bradley and his aides "made clear that he already has decided to run and will begin assembling the means to do so." (Los Angeles Times, 12/5)
Bradley's announcement that he would set up a committee prompted instant analysis. Stuart Rothenberg of Roll Call on Bradley's appeal: "This is a guy who came to Congress, to the Senate, as a neoliberal. . . . And yet he is talking about kids in poverty and health insurance. Is he a neoliberal? Is he a moderate? Is he going to try to run to the left of Al Gore, which we have assumed? I'm not sure exactly what his message is." (Inside Politics, CNN, 12/4)
Ronald Brownstein of the Los Angeles Times: "Very strong in Hollywood; very close ties to Michael Eisner, a very powerful individual in Hollywood. All of those stockbrokers in New York who sat courtside 20 years ago are now very eager to raise money for him, and that is a real base." But "Bradley is not really anywhere in terms of Iowa and New Hampshire. He's going to have go in and build that, and it's a daunting task." (Inside Politics, CNN, 12/4)
New Jersey GOP analyst Roger Bodman: "He has to go outside the traditional cycle, go outside the traditional box, if you will, and become more of a candidate that goes as [Minnesota Gov.-elect] Jesse Ventura did, and touches a certain segment of society that's not the traditional organizational segment. Bill Bradley has the capacity to do that. He has a certain star quality, he was obviously an NBA star, and if he's able to touch the pulse of the electorate in the Democratic Party, he could do it." (New Jersey Network, 12/4)
Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart: "Democrats tend to look towards the challenger, the outsider, while Republicans tend to look to the establishment. From that point, Bill Bradley would have a better chance of competing against a sitting vice president on the Democratic side." (The Boston Globe, 12/5).
Time's Margaret Carlson: "The year 2000 is going to be the year of the boring candidate, the anti-Clinton. No more sex scandals, nothing like that. So Bill Bradley, in that department, the `boring' department, can give Al Gore a run for his money. He does have a slightly dreamy quality about him, but he nonetheless is a kind of wooden character." (The Capital Gang, CNN, 12/5)
Ashcroft's Leanings
David Goldstein of The Kansas City (Mo.) Star reported that Sen. John D. Ashcroft, R-Mo., will announce his presidential campaign plans on Jan. 5 in his hometown of Springfield, "and aides indicated it is likely that he will enter the race." Missouri law "allows Ashcroft to delay filing for his re-election to the Senate until after he either wins or loses the GOP presidential nomination." (12/6)
Ashcroft: "I've said to supporters that if I make the decision to seek the presidency, I am going to need them to help me. But I have not indicated any certainty that I have made a decision, because it has yet to be made. I'm going to be conferring with my family and spending some time in serious consideration and prayer before I make an announcement." (Associated Press, 12/4)
Ashcroft has "flown more than 100,000 miles to attend 128 events in 33 states," lining up support for his potential bid. GOP consultant Charles R. Black Jr.: "The most important constituency is the conservative movement. There are probably a dozen serious candidates who could consolidate that support. I think Sen. Ashcroft has done better than anybody." (Springfield [Mo.] News-Leader, 12/7)
Rudy Watch
After several trips to Iowa and New Hampshire that stirred talk about a bid for the White House, New York City's Republican Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani is showing signs of instead running in the 2000 race to fill the seat of retiring Democratic Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan.
A recent New York Times Magazine profile fueled more speculation about Giuliani's plans. The magazine reported, "There is no question that the pugnacious Mayor from the Northeast has become Republican chic. The hottest speaker on the party's fund-raising circuit." GOP strategist Ron Kaufman: "I don't care where you are in the spectrum of the party, you say, 'Man, I'm glad this guy is part of our party.'" But Republican commentator William Kristol said, "What's his message? It has to be more than 'I'm a moderate, I play well in New York and I'm a terrific mayor.'"
Dole '96 Press Secretary Nelson Warfield on Giuliani as a possible vice presidential nominee: "Assuming that Giuliani can deliver New York, you'd have to do a very hard analysis of whether you can withstand the backlash from the Right for picking this liberal New Yorker. Don't you get as much with a [New York Gov.] George Pataki?" (12/6)
Quayle's New Digs
The Arizona Republic reported that Dan Quayle "could be launching" his White House 2000 bid from Phoenix, Ariz., in the near future. Quayle "moved his political machine, Campaign America, into expansive offices . . . to accommodate his growing staff." And last month, Quayle "rented a townhouse in north Scottsdale for use by out-of-town consultants." This activity is "heightening speculation that" Quayle "is gearing up to launch" a White house bid early next year. In the 1998 elections, the Quayles traveled to 35 states and made 175 campaign stops. (12/4)
Bye-Bye, Buttons
Here's one more demise you can blame on television. Campaign buttons, "those once-ubiquitous artifacts of American politics, could be headed to the endangered-species list." An aide to defeated Sen. Alfonse M. D'Amato, R-N.Y. said, "Every dollar you spend on a button is a dollar you can't spend on TV." D'Amato's camp distributed "only a handful," and the winner, Rep. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., "had no buttons at all made for his campaign." Buttons and "other traditional campaign trinkets," such as combs and hats, nail files and fans, "have been shunted aside in many of today's cash-fueled elections." At least in major campaigns, the "tradition is kept alive" by small-time independent entrepreneurs who "peddle political trinkets on the streets outside conventions and other big campaign events." (Associated Press, 12/7)
Quotables
"This would put our economy in the tank, it could destabilize the entire world." --House Judiciary Committee member Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., on the consequences of House passage of impeachment articles (Fox News Sunday, 12/6)
"She's been the one shining scintilla of class in the whole Administration."--Mary Matalin on Hillary Rodham Clinton (WomenCONNECT Politics Daily, 12/4)
"No wonder it's coming to an end, then."--MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, upon being told his was the "most civilized chat show on television" (The Big Show, 12/3)
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