Gore's "war room"
A campaign memo outlines the vice president's extensive battle plan.
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By Jake Tapper
Nov. 11, 2000 | TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- On Friday, Gore spokesman Douglas Hattaway told CNN, "The campaign is over." And while, technically, the campaign to elect Al Gore president has officially been disbanded, a new campaign has replaced it to win the increasingly vicious contests in the courts and the court of public opinion.
Gore has moved with speed and seriousness to deploy a staff here and in key spots in both Florida and Washington, where this new campaign is being waged. Replacing the official Gore campaign, which ended Friday, is the Gore Recount Committee, a separate entity allowed by federal laws that provide campaign committees an opportunity, if necessary, to fund a group to work on recount efforts.
And based on a draft memo from Thursday obtained by Salon that outlines the committee's various functions, as well as conversations with members of the Gore Recount Committee, this group means business. The memo even talks about a "war room," after the famous command center of the Clinton administration immortalized in the documentary of the same name.
Committee officials insist they're just a short-term operation, saying their canvassers have told them that the election should all be over by this time next week, that after the hand-counting of the ballots in the heavily Democratic Palm Beach, Broward and Volusia counties, Gore should win.
But since, they argue, no one knows exactly what the overseas absentee ballots will bring, the infrastructure they're setting up right now could allow activities beyond the last deadline for votes in the primary -- the last day for absentee ballots, Friday, Nov. 17. This could allow the Democrats to continue to wage a political, legal and public relations battle based on the "uncounted" Palm Beach County "butterfly ballots." Or, as Bill Daley, Gore's campaign chairman and co-chair of the recount committee, alluded to in a press conference Thursday, it could allow the Democrats to challenge other voting controversies in parts of Florida where questions remain over whether ballots were fairly counted.
"Al Gore won the popular vote, and he's ahead in the electoral college vote," says Mark Fabiani, who ran the communications team for the Gore campaign and will do so for the recount committee. "It's clear from all the evidence that he won the most votes in Florida. We're determined to have those votes counted in a speedy and correct manner ... Hopefully, it's not going to be a very prolonged battle. We hope with a speedy recount, Al Gore will be ahead this time next week."
But what if he's not? Will the recount committee seek a revote in Palm Beach County, claiming -- as they have already alleged -- that the ballots are illegal?
"We're taking this one step at a time," Fabiani says.
With the short-term target in mind, but a long-term war a possibility, the Gore recount committee has dispatched key members of the Gore campaign -- working with others from the Democratic National Committee -- to Palm Beach, Tallahassee and Washington. The infrastructure and organization of this team, not to mention the funds necessary for its day-to-day operation, underscores how tenaciously Gore intends to challenge the results of the controversial, razor-thin and still as yet uncertified victory of Gov. George W. Bush in Florida.
The operation will be co-run by Daley and former Secretary of State Warren Christopher. Though both men returned to Washington for the weekend, they will continue to be based, initially, in Tallahassee, where the three-person elections certification committee -- which consists entirely of officials who endorsed Bush -- is supervising the state's automatic recount.
The War Room
The "war room," as it is referred to in the memo, will be run in Washington. The shop will be headed by Gore campaign manager Donna Brazile, as well as other senior advisers: campaign chief of staff Chip Smith, Daley's chief of staff David Lane, Daley deputy chief of staff Graham Streett, Daley assistant Molly Buford and former deputy chief of staff/campaign rapid-response staffer Monica Dixon.
Lastly, David Ginsberg, head of the Gore campaign's research operation -- infamously referred to once by Brazile as its "slaughterhouse" -- is heading a small staff in Washington that will conduct research to back up claims for their case and to refute ones made by Bushies, who no doubt have a similar operation set up.
"War room" responsibilities, according to the draft memo obtained by Salon, include "monitoring press, writing talking points, writing press statements, outreach to elected's and community leaders, coordination of communications strategy, and monitoring state operations in Iowa, Wisconsin, Oregon, and New Mexico" -- states where the Bush campaign could begin challenging Gore victories
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