October 18, 2000
Page A8
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The Democratic Contender
Dem ocrats all over the country are
breathing a sigh o f relief. Since telling
the world “1 am my own man.” it seems,
V ice President A1 G ore is now "the
m an”— a true contender in the race to
the W hite House— at last
W hat took him so long?
For several months preced­
ing the successful Democratic National
Convention in Los Angeles, the name
‘' A1 Gore’ ’ was synonymous with many
tilings (boring, wooden, wonky, to
nam e a few); but "presidential" was
rarely on the list. And, although there
was never a question that he is a more
seasoned politician than his rival Gov.
G eorge W. Bush, why, his party won­
dered, was he performing so abys­
mally on the campaign trail?
Part o f the problem was his
struggle to distinguish him self from
President Bill Clinton. Despite a con­
stant stream o f alleged scandals and
sexual peccadilloes, there is always an
undeniable magic in the air whenever
"Slick W illy” is around. But more im­
portant, the Clinton administration can
claim m ajor victories such as unprec­
edented economic highs and unem­
ployment lows. A1 Gore played a major
role in all that, but none o f the magic
rubbed o ff on him Instead, he was
spent a lot o f time denying a taint o f
impropriety.
In the week before the Los
Angeles convention, when Gore trailed
in the polls by 10 or more points, he
nam ed C o n n e cticu t S en ato r Joe
Lieberman as his running mate. The
announcement, considered bold by
some, brought G ore more to the center
and prov ided cover against the moral­
ity issue.
He must now distinguish
him self from G ov. Bush. “ ILiere is a
fight now. The polls are more even,”
says Howard University political sci­
entist Alvin Thornton. "A nd Gore
appears tobe flexible, agile andkiss-
able.”
W inning ov er working people and
tamiliesOne way in whichhe has worked
to distinguish him self is his concern
for working people and families. The
vice president knows that education is
o n eo f their major concerns and, like his
opponent, has made the issue a large
part o f his message. So, where does he
stand?
“Gore wants to invest whole­
sale in the infrastructure all the way
dow n to the local level, helping school
systems rebuild their buildings, re­
duce class size, hire and retain teach­
ers,” Thornton says. “The Republican
approach, as it always has been, is to
provide, at best, block grants to states
and the states will decide how to use
those moneys.” The democratic party,
he adds, believes there should be a
“national floor under which no child or
school district should be allowed to
fall, and the federal gov em inent ought
to play a role in that.”
How the national surplus
should be spent is another area in
which Gore and Bush fundamentally
differ. Gore has often called many ofhis
opponent’s economic ideas risky, par­
ticularly his individual investment ac­
count program for Social Security.
"Bush proposes to divert 16 percent o f
the trust fund moneys into the stock
market. I think that is a m istake,”
charges Gore.
“Instead, I want to protect Social
security and then give a very generous
new tax incentive to encourage sav­
ings on top o f social security so indi­
viduals who have found it difficult to
save in the past will get a monetary
benefit from doing so and the lower
and low middle income groups will get
the largest incentives. Those are the
groups we know need to make the most
gains.” He is also against any tax cuts
for the rich.
W illiam Spriggs,
policy and research director o f the
W ashington Urban League also has
problems with Bush’s plans.
“How do you finance that?” he
asks. “You say there’s a $2.3 trillion
Social Security surplus and most be
locked aw ay for only Social Security.
So now when you take the m oney out
for these individual accounts, then
you don’t have a $2.3 trillion surplus.
H e’d have to figure some w ay o f get­
ting it back in and needs sm oke and
mirrors to explain how he makes up for
the money that people are taking out o f
the system.” G iven the size o f B ush’s
tax cut, there will be no m oney to put
back into the system. "H e has to cut
benefits or h e’s not going to have a tax
cut. T here's not enough money on the
table.”
Over the next two years, Gore would
plan a $ 1 increase in the m inim um
w age, w hich he says w ould benefit
1.3 million African Americans. He also
plans to expand the am ount o f earned
incom e credit that goes to fam ilies
with three or more children. “ I believe
that w ages should reflect the needs
o feach individual household, includ­
ing the num ber o f mem bers and w age
earners in each household.
The Earned Incom e Credit gives a
tax break to low -incom e w orkers
based on fam ily size and w age earn­
ers, and is a great w ay to target tax
relief for fam ilies who need it.” His
num ber one priority, he says, is to
m ake certain the nation keeps its pros­
perity going and the econom y grow ­
ing “to create good jobs, not ju s t for
the few but for all o f our people.”
Reaching out to A frican A m eri­
can s
G ore also differs w ith B ush on
issues that target A frican A m ericans
such as affirm ative action. “1 strongly
support affirm ative action and think
it is still needed,” he says. D espite the
conviction w ith w hich he declares
his support, m any people w ere left
w ondering after he chose Lieberm an
as his running mate. Some m em bers
o f the C ongressional Black Caucus
and other A frican A m ericans ques­
tioned his view s on affirm ative ac­
tion. H ogw ash, say sC B C chairm an.
South C aro lin a’s Rep. Jim C lybum .
“T he best w ay to tell w hat a person
w ill do is to look at w hat he or she has
done,” he charges, citing Lieberm an’s
w ork as a young college student on
voting and other issues during the
civil rights era.
A t the N A A C P ’s national
convention this past sum m er, G ore
took a stand on racial profiling and
has also spoken out against hate
crim es. “T alk d o esn ’t cost m uch,” he
said. “T he true test is jo in in g our
battle to ban racial profiling, speak­
ing out and acting. A s president, 1 will
end racial profiling in the U nited
States o f A m erica.
I ’ll w ork to bring all o f our people
together.” A ccording to his cam ­
paign, G ore has also been a strong
supporter o f hate crim es legislation.
A s a senator, he co-sponsored legis­
lation that w ould docum ent and iden­
tify w hen and w here hate crim es o c­
curred, and as vice president, he
fought for the 1994 C rim e Bill w hich
included the hate crim es sentencing
enhancem ent A ct, increasing sen­
tences by about one-third. “This is,
even w ith the R epublicans, one o f
those kinder, gentler things you can
do w ithout giving aw ay a lot o f re­
sources,” says U niversity o f M ary­
land political scientist Ron W alters.
W ith regard to racial profiling, he
adds, “G ore w ill be able to get a law
passed, but the question is what. It’s
one thing to pass a law against the
principle, but unless you have som e­
thing like, each year states have to do
a do a statistical count o f people w ho
have been stopped and the racial
factor, [racial profiling] will continue.”
W a lte rs b e lie v e s th a t
G o re’s approach to these and other
issues that concern black A m ericans
w ould be very sim ilar to the Clinton
adm inistration’s. “ It w ill be pretty
m uch the same. 1 d o n ’t think we can
mess with affirmative action anymore
other than to end it,” he says, “The
C linton adm inistration w eakened it
because o f the courts, so he adjusted
it so it w ould still be legal.”
The conventional w isdom
am ong political pundits is that a G ore
adm inistration w ould provide the na­
tion w ith pretty m uch “m ore o f the
sam e,” m inus the scandals, it is
hoped. “ I think G ore will try to follow
a lot o f the C linton m ode in term s o f
style o f governance. He w ill be con­
sultative but will w ant to m ake the
final decision and w ill be m uch like
Bill C linton in term s ofknow ledge o f
detail,” says W alters. In the end, it’s
a battle for the middle. “ I think G ore
w ill w in th a t b a t tle ,” p re d ic ts
T hornton.
State Voters’
Pamphlet
Is Largest in
Oregon’s History
O re g o n ia n s are n o w r e c e iv ­
in g th e s ta te V o te r s ’ P a m p h le t
c o n ta in in g in fo rm a tio n o n b a l­
lo t m e a s u r e s to b e v o te d on
d u rin g th e N o v e m b e r 7 G en e ra l
E le c tio n . T h e firs t v o lu m e o f
th e P a m p h le t is th e la rg e s t p ro ­
d u c e d in O r e g o n ’s h is to ry at
3 7 6 p a g e s , h o w e v e r, w ith n ew
fe a tu re s fo r 2 0 0 0 , it a ls o th e
m o s t u s e r frie n d ly .
“ A lth o u g h th e V o te r s ’ P a m ­
p h le t r e s e m b le s th e E u g e n e /
S p rin g f ie ld w h ite p a g e s ,” S e c ­
re ta ry o f S ta te B ill h a v e trie d to
m a k e it e a s ie r to r e a d .” “ T a b s ”
o n th e n o n - p a r tis a n in f o rm a ­
tio n e x p la in in g th e p ro p o s e d
b a llo t m e a s u re a n d h as p la c e d
a fu ll ta b le o f c o n te n ts a t th e
b e g in n in g o f th e b o o k . “ W e
a re try in g to m a k e it e a s ie r fo r
v o te rs to g e t to th e fa c ts a b o u t
th e m e a s u re b y lo o k in g at th e
c o n te n ts , th e n h a v in g th e o p ­
p o r tu n ity to ta b to th e im p a r­
tia l in f o r m a ti o n ,” B ra d b u r y
s ta te d .
T h e V o te r s ’ P a m p h le t h as
s e rv e d as an e le c tio n g u id e fo r
v o te rs s in c e 1903. It c o n ta in s
in fo rm a tio n a b o u t v o tin g in the
N o v e m b e r 7 e le c tio n , a lis t o f
c o u n ty e le c tio n o f fic e s , a fo rm
to re q u e s t a v o te r re g is tra tio n
c a rd a n d in f o rm a tio n p e r ta in ­
in g to a s ta te w id e m e a su re s .
V o lu m e tw o o f th e sta te V o t­
ers ’ P a m p h le t, c o n ta in in g c a n ­
d id a te in fo rm a tio n , w ill b e d e ­
liv e re d th is w ee k .
B y s ta te la w , th e S e c re ta ry
o f S ta te ’s O ffic e h as lim ite d
e d itin g a u th o rity a n d d o e s n o t
h av e th e a u th o rity to c h e c k
c a n d id a te s ta te m e n ts an d m e a ­
su re a rg u m e n ts fo r a c c u ra c y
o r tr u th f u ln e s s p r io r to th e ir
p u b lic a tio n in th e V o te rs ’ P am ­
p h le t. B o th v o lu m e o f th e P a m ­
p h le t ca n be viewed through links
from the O regon V otes w eb site,
w w w . oregonvotes. com.
Libraries To
Serve As Ballot
Drop-Off Sites
For the first tim e ever, voters will
be able to drop o ff their ballots for the
fall election at M ultnom ah County
libraries.
“T he library is pleased to offer its
custom ers this service," says direc­
tor ofLibraries G innie Cooper. “It fills
our libraries ’ role as com m unity cen­
ters.” M ultnom ah C ounty libraries
will accept ballots from Saturday, Nov.
4, through 8 p.m . on Election Day,
T uesday, N ov.7. A lthough libraries
w ill be open until 9 p.m . on Election
Day, polling will close at 8 p.m. and we
w ill not accept ballots after that time
...But only if you vote
V O T E D E M O C R A T - N O V E M B E R 7TH
Paid for by the Washington State Democratic Central Committee
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