Jordan steps into politics with Bradley endorsement
By Laura Meckler
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — His airness
Michael Jordan, the most mar
ketable athlete to ever pitch a
product, is trying to give Bill
Bradley a lift in his first political
endorsement ad. It’s also a test of
whether Jordan can pitch politics.
Bradley, a former New York
Knicks star, already has collected
endorsements and cash from his
basketball buddies. But the new
Jordan ad may be the most prized
dividend from his days on the
court as he seeks the Democratic
nomination for president.
Jordan, who retired from the
Chicago Bulls as a superstar, takes'
in some $69 million each year
selling sneakers, soft drinks,
cologne and underwear. He stars
in ads for long-distance phone
companies, batteries and hot
dogs. If Bradley had to pay market
rate for his services, he couldn’t
afford them.
But Jordan and Bradley are
friends, and that persuaded the
sports icon to make the ad, said
Kristen Ludecke, Bradley’s
spokeswoman.
‘‘Michael Jordan is so well
known across the country that he
is able to introduce Bill Bradley to
a very wide audience,” she said.
The 30-second spot shows Jor
dan declaring his support for
Bradley based on his commit
ment to health care for children,
gun control and other issues. It
will air in more than a dozen
states, including many holding
primaries on March 7, a critical
date in Bradley’s race against Vice
President Al Gore.
The Gore campaign professed
to have no fear about the ad.
“We’ve got Shaquille O’Neal.
He’s bigger,” said spokesman Ghris
Lehane. The Gore camp also noted
that the vice president has an en
dorsement from Jordan’s mother.
Sixteen states hold primaries on
March 7, including California and
New York, but Bradley’s campaign
refused to say where or how fre
quently the ad would run. It also
would not release a script or video
of the commercial until Friday.
Jordan’s endorsement, taped
two months ago, is being used at
an important point in the Democ
ratic race. Bradley lost to Gore in
both Iowa and New Hampshire
and must do better to maintain
the viability of his candidacy.
But it was far from clear
whether Jordan’s support will
translate into votes.
“The return is huge because so
many people will follow his lead,”
said Lesa Ukman, editor of IEG
Sponsorship Report, which tracks
sports marketing. She guessed the
endorsement was worth more than
$10 million in commercial terms,
though she said, “No amount of
money could pay for this.”
By way of comparison, Bradley
has raised a total of about $27 mil
lion for his campaign.
Ukman suggested Jordan may
persuade young voters, particu
larly black men and people living
in cities with NBA teams, who
otherwise might not vote. Gore
has considerably more support
than Bradley does among blacks,
though Bradley is courting young
people.
Either way, research suggests
celebrity endorsements do not
translate into votes, said Frank
Greer, a veteran Democratic
strategist who is not affiliated
with Gore or Bradley.
“No matter how heroic a figure
he is, no matter how popular a
sports figure, no matter how much
I like him, the question is, ‘Why
should I listen to Michael Jordan
as to who should be my next pres
ident?’” Greer said. If celebrities
could sell candidates, they’d be in
ads all the time, he said.
Still, Jordan’s commercials will
help viewers remember Bradley’s
name, said Brian Murphy, editor
of Sports Marketing Letter, which
covers the business of sports.
“The question is, ‘Can Michael
Jordan sell Bill Bradley to Ameri
ca?’ ” Murphy asked. “The an
swer is no endorser can, not even
Jordan, not even Babe Ruth.”
The endorsement also is a
tricky one for Jordan, a new part
owner of the Washington Wizards
basketball team, who has never
gotten involved in politics before.
A decade ago Jordan declined
to endorse Democrat Harvey
Gantt, a black man making a
strong run at Sen. Jesse Helms in
Jordan’s native North Carolina.
Jordan explained to an author that
he wasn’t into politics and didn’t
know the issues. With an eye to
ward his Nike show contract, he
once said: “Republicans buy
shoes, too.”
Bradley, meanwhile, has won
endorsements from many other
former top players. In November,
he raised $1.5 million at a star
studded Madison Square Garden
fund-raiser featuring his former
Knicks teammates. Bill Russell,
the retired all-star Boston Celtic,
also made ads for Bradley that
urged voters in Iowa and New
Hampshire to get to the polls.
Jordan, who was traveling to
Oakland, Calif., for the NBA All
Star weekend, could not immedi
ately be reached for comment
Thursday. Bradley will also be at
the game, meeting with several
former All-Stars.
Supreme Court considers ruling
Punishment or treatment? That
is the question the Supreme Court
is being asked to decide in a chal
lenge to Washington state’s sexual
predator confinement program.
If the Special Commitment Cen
ter at the state prison on McNeil Is
land is found to be punishment,
say lawyers for Andre Brigham
Young of Tacoma, he should be re
leased because he already has
served his sentence.
In their appeal of a 9th U.S. Cir
cuit Court ruling, lawyers for
Washington state argue that the
program is treatment.
The case could affect the other
110 sex offenders in the program,
and a ruling by the high court
could have implications for the 16
states that authorize civil commit
ment of violent sexual predators
after they have completed their
prison terms.
Young, now in his 50s, was con
victed of raping four Tacoma
women in 1962, some at knife
point. He was convicted of a rape in
Auburn in 1976 and of another rape
in West Seattle woman in 1985.
Last year the appellate court
found he had not been given a fair
hearing in state courts on whether
the program was punitive or thera
peutic and ordered a hearing for him
before a federal judge in Seattle.
The state’s appeal to the
Supreme Court on Jan. 14 coun
tered that the appellate ruling con
flicted with state Supreme Court
rulings in a case involving another
sexual offender who, like Young,
was committed to the center indef
initely.
Young also should be barred
from claiming he is being held un
constitutionally because of the
conditions of confinement, state
assistant attorney general Sarah
Sappington said.
The Associated Press
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Web sites try to shield
themselves from hackers
By David E. Kalish
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — Alarmed by a
rash of hacker attacks on some of
the most popular Web sites, big
Internet companies rushed to for
tify their computer systems
Thursday in a high-tech game of
cat-and-mouse with the vandals.
Taking advantage of an appar
ent lull in major disruptions, big
Web companies and government
agencies stepped up training of
technicians in detecting unusual
activity. Others installed ad
vanced software filters to detect
and block suspicious data.
No major new attacks surfaced
during the day Thursday, after a
three-day spree that briefly shut
down Yahoo!, eBay’s auction
site, ETrade’s on-line brokerage,
the ZDNet technology news site
and others.
Technicians at Yahoo!, the
Web’s most visited site, raced to
install special filters to monitor
Internet traffic and weed out as
saults, spokeswoman Diane
Hunt said. Yahoo! was crippled
Monday by a bombardment of
data.
Several leading Web compa
nies refused to divulge their
high-tech precautions for fear of
inviting more attacks.
Envisioneering, a small high
tech consulting firm in Seaford,
N.Y., said it programmed its
computers to turn away mes
sages from anonymous sources.
' On Tuesday, hackers apparently
commandeered Envisioneering’s
computer servers as a launching
pad for attacks on popular Web
sites, said Richard Doherty, the
company’s president.
“When we put up all those
shields, then they stopped,” Do
herty said.
Companies that have been
spared so far also took precau
tions.
Prodigy Communications
Corp., the big Internet service
provider, stepped up training of
the 100 technicians at its data
center in Yorktown, N.Y., which
has more than 400 powerful
computers handling Web sites as
well as Internet traffic for 2 mil
lion subscribers.
“The fact is, this is the kind of
attack that once started, it’s going
to cause some damage,” Prodigy
chief technology officer Bill
Kirkner said. “The big question
is whether you can stop the dam
age and how quickly you can get
the systems back up. My confi
dence is not in my systems, it’s
in my workers.”
The Pentagon said that all of
its computers with Internet ac
cess will be checked to make
sure they are not used as unwit
ting agents in the attacks. Hack
ers can hide certain vandalism
tools known as “daemons” on
hundreds or even thousands of
other people’s computers and
then trigger them to launch si
multaneous attacks on a single
target.
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Friday, Feb. 11th, Suite 300, EMU. 2-4 PM
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