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October 27, 1999
(The ^ a r tla n b © bseruer
National
News
Candidates’ First Impressions Resonate
71 Percent Looking
For Candidate
Who Can Relate
T he A ssociated P ress
The night began poorly for A1 G ore
and got worse. W hen 12 M aryland
citizens, all D em ocrats, talked about
politics for several intense hours, the
vice president couldn’t catch a break.
They decided G o re’s rival for the
Democratic nomination, Bill Bradley,
was genuine, soulful and interesting.
T hey found Republican G eorge W.
Bush to be an engaging fellow.
G ore m ade no hum an connection at
all.
"I see only prob lem s,” m uttered
Stanley A xel, 61, a Social Security
A dm inistration analyst, throw ing up
his hands.
T old w hat the group said about him ,
G ore was exercised. "I d o n ’t know
how to react to that and I d o n ’t know
who they are or w hat they saw or
w h e th e r th e y w e re le a d in g
questions,” G ore said, pushing his
chair back from the table in a b rie f fit
ofpique during an interview with The
A ssociated Press.
F ocus g ro u p s are n o t sc ie n tific
sam plings o f public opinion.
Peter Hart, a D em ocratic and m edia
p o llste r w ho b ro u g h t th e cro ss-
se ctio n o f M a ry la n d D em o c rats
together, rem em bers focus groups
that co ncluded fu tu re p resid e n ts
Ronald Reagan and G eorge Bush
w ould not am ount to anything.
In stea d th e se e n c o u n te rs g au g e
visceral reactions - sometimes helping
to identify qualities people want in a
ca n d id a te. C am p aig n s use them
w idely, some o f them treating the
findings as "sacred text,” as Reform
Party candidate Pat Buchanan put it.
At H art’s session, it was easy to
forget G ore is leading his race with
Bradley.
"Not really presidential material, ’’said
K evin W estreich, 40, an insurance
c la im s e x a m in e r w h o a rriv e d
undecided. " W e c a n d o b etter.’’ The
media watched behind one-way glass.
T he group found itself attracted to
Bradley, especially after w atching
video clips o f his and G o re’s Oct. 9
speeches to a D em ocratic dinner in
Iowa. The seven w ho arrived leaning
to G ore or undecided left thinking
Bradley was their man.
Bradley stood solem nly behind the
lectern, reading glasses perched low
on his nose and his voice barely a
singsongy step above a monotone.
"To m e he projects integrity,” said
Je rry S ch u n ic k , 6 1 , a w ed d in g
photographer. "T h at’s w hat I see in
this man. I just get that feeling.”
G ore roam ed the stage and gestured.
”1 think he even has a choreographer
for his hands,” said Ruth Collison,
54, a hom em aker and freelance artist.
Reesa Luger, 53, w ho until this night
supported Gore, agreed. ” 1 felt like he
was acting som ething that som eone
had w ritten for him to say. ’ ’
G ore said that speech and other recent
o n es h av e b e e n w ell re c e iv e d ,
especially since h e ’s been "getting
rid o f som e o f the habits I picked up
as vice president,’ ’ including pausing
before he speaks.
Coroner reports
Shepard hit 20 times
"E verybody and his brother and sister
that I talk ed to w ho saw those
speeches had the same reaction,” he
said, that "what I w as saying m ade
sen se.”
Hart said that in presum ing Bradley
would be a good leader, the group
was grasping at "the thinnest reeds
possible,” including his basketball
career.
Y et he said o f Bradley, a form er New
Jersey senator: "The first handshake
he has with the A m erican public is a
pretty firm o n e.”
Hart was surprised at the warmth
show n for Bush. If he "can keep it
light and friendly and easy, he is
going to have a m ajor advantage, ’ ’ he
said. "People are com fortable with
him.”
A recent Pew poll underscored the
importance voters place on the human
connection.
In it, 7 1 percent said a candidate’s
ability to relate to average people was
ofprim e importance - more important
than any voting record, religious
in v o lv e m e n t
or
c h ild h o o d
experiences.
Pew found that G o re’s perceived
personal shortcom ings are a m ajor
reason people give for not wanting to
vote for him.
H art’s group fleshed out findings like
those.
B u sh th e R e p u b lic a n w a s th e
can d id ate these D em ocrats m ost
w anted to spend a w eekend with.
"Plenty to chat and talk ab o u t,” one
said. G reat family, said another.
A Bradley w eekend? ’’R elaxed and
low -key,” offered N oel Sills, 24, an
account executive. "He w ould w ant
to know a lot about you, ’’ said Axel.
Ventura Mixed on Run for President
The governor’s spokesman John W odele was traveling
w ith Ventura, but refused to com m ent on the contents
o f the interview or hand the phone to Ventura, who was
sitting next to him.
“ I don’t see any reason for me or any one else to expand
on what he said,” W odele said. “W hat he said is what
he said.”
W odele later said, “I f you can read this interview and
arrive at the conclusion that h e’s going to be president
a year from now, you’re in political la-la land.”
In a separate interview T uesday, Ventura sent a different
signal about the presidential contest.
“ I ’m the natural candidate to do it, but I d o n ’ t w ant to do
it. You gotta w ant the job. I d o n ’t want the jo b : it’s that
simple. I do not want the jo b ,” Ventura said.
M innesota Planning A gency director Dean Barkley,
who recruited Ventura to run for governor, said Ventura ’ s
com m ents to the Harvard Current ran counter to any
discussions he had with him.
“ In all o f our discussions, he has always expressed the
clear-cut desire not to get involved in the presidential
race. I haven’t heard anything different,” Barkley said.
“H e’s clearly told me that h e’s not interested in running.”
Ventura, however, has recently expressed some interest.
In an interview conducted in early October and published
Sunday, V entura told a New York Times M agazine
reporter, “I know I should be the candidate. But what do
I do? I’m betw een a rock and a hard place.”
The Associated Press
Reform Party Gov. Jesse Ventura says he w ould consider
a presidential run next year if M innesotans m obilize
behind him.
The governor made the com ment Tuesday in an interview
with Harv ard Current magazine. Ventura has previously
said he did not w ant the jo b o f president, w ould not run
and planned to fulfil l his com m itm ent to serve a four-year
gubernatorial term begun in 1999.
“If I tum around and run for president then I lied to all
the people o f M innesota,” he said. “ So unless you can
get M innesotans to say, 'G o ahead, G overnor Ventura,
run for president, we give you our backing .."
An interview er asked w hether V entura w ould run if
M innesotans m obilized fully behind him.
“I’d consider it, but then again I got to w ant the jo b and
I ’d have to consider it with my family and I d o n ’t know
if my family w ould want m e to do that.”
He continued, “ If you can m obilize M innesota to do it,
then, you know, there w e are.”
The magazine interview er asked, “W hat do you mean,
'There we are’?”
Ventura responded, “T hat w ould open the door for the
possibility o f it. But by no m eans am I telling you I would
do it.”
The interview er asked, “ But there is a possibility, a
hope?”
V entura,“Y eah.”
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A ssociated Press
A gay W yom ing college student was beaten on the head w ith fists and a blunt
instrum ent and could have been in pain for hours after he w as tied to a fence
and left to die, a coroner said Tuesday.
Dr. Patrick A llen o f the Larim er County, Colorado, coroner’s office testified on
the second day in the m urder trial o f A aron M cK inney, 22, accused o f first
degree m urder, kidnapping and robbery in the 1998 beating death o f M atthew
Shepard, 21.
"Som e o f his injuries w ere caused by fists, but the skull fractures were caused
by a blunt instrum ent consistent with the gun," Allen, w hose office perform ed
the autopsy, told jurors.
Police say M cK inney and his friend Russell H enderson, both 21 at the tim e of
the crim e, lured Shepard from a Laram ie bar and beat him with a .357 magnum
before tying him to a fence on a road outside o f town.
"W hen M atthew Shepard was tied to the fence could he feel pain? Could he
be thirsty? C ould he feel cold?" A lbany County District A ttorney Cal Rerucha
asked the physician.
"Yes, he m ay have felt pain because he may never have com pletely lost
consciousness," Dr. A llen said. Shepard was found by a passerby some 17
hours after the attack, and died five days later on Oct. 12,1998 in a Colorado
hospital that serves the region.
T w o w om en ju ro rs w ept q uietly w hen they view ed graphic autopsy
p hotographs.
The prosecution on T uesday w as tying to counter defense argum ents that
Shepard, a U niversity o f W yom ing student, did not suffer w hile tied to the
fence after the beating because he w as unconscious.
The brutal nature o f the attack on Shepard, w ho had a slight build and was
openly gay, has received w orldw ide attention and sparked renew ed calls for
anti-hate crim e legislation in the United States.
T he defense has not denied M cK inney’s role in the attack, but said his
background o f child abuse coupled w ith the fact he was under the influence
o f drugs and alcohol w hen he met Shepard provoked a rage.
The prosecution has portrayed M cK inney, a high school dropout, as a "cold
blooded savage" w ho ignored S hepard’s pleas for mercy.
M cK inney could face the death penalty if found guilty. His lawyers are trying
to convince the ju ry that M cK inney could not have form ed the necessary
intent for first degree m urder, w hich is needed for the death penalty.
The defense argum ent is a variation on the "gay panic" defense w hich the gay
com m unity finds offensive.
"This hom osexual panic (theory) is introduced to m itigate the responsibility
o f the killer. Som eone is approached by a hom osexual then they sort o f lose
it and therefore they are not responsible for what they do," Jeffrey Montgomery,
a gay activist w ho is m onitoring the trial, said.
In A pril, H enderson pleaded guilty to m urder and kidnapping and was
sentenced to two life prison term s. He is expected to test i fy at M cKinney ’ s trial.
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