Contenders jockey for Gore's endorsement
URL:http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2002-12-16-dems_x.htm
By Susan Page and Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — Former vice president Al Gore made the transition from presumed candidate to power broker on Monday, saying that although he won't seek the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination, he is likely to endorse one of the candidates who does.
Gore's announcement Sunday that he was out of the race set off a scramble among the likely contenders for the support of his fundraisers, backers in key states such as Iowa and New Hampshire and Gore himself.
Within hours, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman had contacted Gore by phone or instant pager to praise his public service and ask for his support.
Gore was alternately serious and self-deprecating as he discussed his decision not to run at a news conference in Raleigh, N.C., where he was on a tour promoting two books he wrote with his wife, Tipper. "It's not just my support," he said, deadpan, when asked about his endorsement. "I'm very influential with my wife and children. And, take it from me, a half-dozen votes could make a difference in the presidential race."
In fact, his decision to forgo the race frees Gore's considerable support among African-American leaders, labor chiefs and Hollywood celebrities. It may even prompt some unexpected contenders to jump into a race that has become more fluid with the exit of the front-runner.
Gore said he hadn't decided whom to endorse. His supporters and financiers are expected to scatter. Even Lieberman, his 2000 running mate, said he's not taking anything for granted.
"I'm not concluding automatically that I have anyone's support," he told reporters on Capitol Hill. "If I run, I'm on my own out there. And I take it to be my responsibility to earn the support of Al Gore and as many other Democrats and Americans as I possibly can."
The field is already crowded. Kerry and Vermont Gov. Howard Dean have fundraising committees. Lieberman and Missouri Rep. Richard Gephardt are expected to announce their candidacies in January. Senate minority leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Edwards are deliberating about entering the race, and the Rev. Al Sharpton says he plans to run.
"It's wide open," former Iowa Democratic chairman Rob Tully says. The Iowa caucuses, followed by the New Hampshire primary, open the contest in January 2004. Some analysts predict the final two contenders or even the nominee will be clear by the next primaries, in South Carolina and Virginia, tentatively set for Feb. 3, 2004.
In the political world, that might as well be tomorrow.
By midday Monday, three presidential prospects had tried to reach film director and Gore stalwart Rob Reiner, some of them calling twice. "This is one of the largest donor communities to the Democratic party," Reiner adviser Chad Griffin says of Hollywood. "I assume the potential candidates see this as a huge opening."
Reiner, on location shooting a movie, couldn't take their calls.
Donna Brazile, who was Gore's campaign manager in 2000, returned from a trip to a mall Sunday to find 23 messages on her voicemail. Brazile, who is particularly influential in the black community, was called by Lieberman and Gephardt as well as advisers to Edwards, Kerry and Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd. "It's going to be an interesting race," she says.
Tom Hendrickson, who was Gore's North Carolina finance chairman in 2000, spent Monday with Gore at a press conference and book signing in Raleigh. If hometown candidate Edwards gets in, Hendrickson says, he'll be with him. "I've known John for 15 years now. He's someone I think an awful lot of, and I think he's got a great future."
The contenders didn't wait for Gore's decision. They have been seeking support among his backers in case he decided not to run. Lieberman and Edwards are among those who have been keeping in touch with Gore supporters who promised to switch to them if Gore opted out.
In states with early contests, most candidates have been laying groundwork for months and, in Gephardt's case, years.
Tom Henderson, chairman of the Polk County Democratic Party in Iowa, says he talked to Gephardt last week, and "his staff calls probably once a week."
Gore said he made his decision over the past week while he was in New York rehearsing for an appearance on NBC's Saturday Night Live. He had a chance for long conversations with his wife, Tipper, and their grown children. He said he came to "closure" on what he called "probably the most difficult decision that I've ever made."
"There wasn't a single epiphany," he said. "It was more a balance of all the different factors, and a slow dawning on me that this was the right decision."
He said he worried that a rematch with President Bush in 2004 would inevitably become a rehash of 2000. In that contest, Gore won the popular vote but lost the Electoral College after a 36-day recount in Florida and a controversial 5-4 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.
Now, he said, he plans to continue working with the technology investment firm MetWest and teaching at colleges in Tennessee. "What else I'll do, I don't know," he said. "It's exciting at the age of 54 to have the opportunity to consider a lot of new things in life."
Meanwhile, the 2004 contenders have full schedules. Lieberman leaves this week on a long-planned trip to the Persian Gulf and Middle East that will spotlight his credentials as a defense hawk. Edwards delivers a speech on homeland security Wednesday at the Brookings Institution, a think tank in Washington. Kerry holds a fundraiser in New York today.
In Manchester, N.H., Alderman Mike Lopez, who had been supporting Gore, is looking over all those possibilities and more. He has met with most of them, some several times. "I understand that Wesley Clark might be interested," he says. "He's a newcomer, a four-star general. I think he'd bring some great credentials with him, just like Eisenhower." |
