Democrats attack Bush record in Texas in new video
By LAURA MECKLER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON -- In a new attack on Gov. George W. Bush's record in Texas, the Democratic National Committee is releasing a 10-minute video aimed at undercutting the Republican presidential nominee's claims on health care, education, the environment and low-income neighborhoods.
The video features a half-dozen Texans who detail the problems and argue that as governor, Bush has done little to fix them.
"We've got 1.4 million kids without health insurance in Texas. That's not a few children. That's a massive problem," pediatrician Krenie Stowe says in the health care section. "Governor Bush ... doesn't care about health care. I don't think it's a priority of his. I think tax cuts are a priority of his."
Democrats plan to release the video at 90 news conferences in 23 states, most of them today. It dovetails with a series of DNC television ads that have attacked Bush's Texas record on health care, the environment and other issues, and with a "Texas Truth Squad," a group of Texans who travel the country to assail the Bush record.
Democrats hope the video will both persuade undecided voters to support Democrat Al Gore for president, and motivate those who already support Gore to get to the polls. Bush supporters have been more enthusiastic than Gore's backers in recent days.
Many of today's news conferences were being headlined by high-profile Democrats on the same day Bush began visiting battleground states with most of the nation's Republican governors in tow.
Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo was releasing the video in Des Moines, Iowa; DNC Chairman Ed Rendell was in Milwaukee; and Bill Bradley, who ran against Gore in the primaries, was in Louisville, Ky.
The DNC also was making the video available over satellite, hoping that local TV stations show clips on their news programs, and it was being e-mailed to thousands of people on the party's distributions list. Volunteers who knock on doors before Election Day planned to carry the video with them and offer to show it to voters. And local Democrats were inquiring about buying time on local cable access stations to broadcast it in swing states.
"This is Texans in their own words," said DNC spokeswoman |
