Al,
Kerry needs a 527 to make up lies about Bush:
Bush Leads Kerry 49% to 46% in Los Angeles Times Poll (Update1)
Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. President George W. Bush leads Democratic rival John Kerry 49 percent to 46 percent, which is within the margin of error, among registered voters in a Los Angeles Times poll.
The poll of 1,597 adults, including 1,352 registered voters, was conducted nationwide from Saturday to Tuesday and has an error margin of 3 percentage points. Last month, Kerry, 60, a four-term U.S. senator from Massachusetts, led Bush by 2 percentage points in a Times poll.
When independent candidate Ralph Nader is included in the race, Bush leads Kerry 47 percent to 44 percent. Nader, 70, was supported by 3 percent.
The poll found that 48 percent of those surveyed had seen advertisements by a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which accuses Kerry of lying to receive medals for his military service in Vietnam. An additional 20 percent said they had heard of the ads.
Eighteen percent of those polled said Kerry had misrepresented his war record, while 58 percent said Kerry had fought ``honorably'' and deserves the medals he won. Half of Republicans polled said they believe Kerry lied about his war record, while Democrats said 10 to 1 that Kerry served honorably.
Bush, 58, is more popular among his base, with just 3 percent of Republicans saying they would vote for Kerry. Fifteen percent of Democrats said they intend to vote for Bush.
To win the presidency, a candidate must gain majorities in enough states to collect at least 270 Electoral College votes, which are apportioned among states based on population. That tally, rather than national vote totals, determines the winner.
State by State
A review of state-by-state polls and historical voting data by Bloomberg News shows Bush ahead in 19 states, including Texas and Idaho, with 153 electoral votes. Kerry leads in 12 states, including New York and New Jersey, with 179 electoral votes. In 19 states that have 206 electoral votes, including Ohio and Wisconsin, the most recent polling results are within the margin of error.
The U.S. presidential campaign is being dominated by controversy over ads by a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, which is financed by Republican party friends and financiers of Bush's campaign.
The group ran ads earlier this month in Ohio, Wisconsin and West Virginia making unsubstantiated claims that Kerry didn't deserve the three Purple Hearts for being wounded and the Silver and Bronze Stars for valor awarded by the U.S. Navy for his service in Vietnam. They cite their own recollections of events to dispute Navy records from the time the medals were approved 35 years ago.
Dispute
Vietnam veterans who were with Kerry when he earned his medals also refute the Swift boat group's allegations. Kerry is backed by Chicago Tribune editor William Rood, a former Swift Boat officer; Jim Russell, a former Navy lieutenant; and Jim Rassmann, a former U.S. Army Green Beret. Independent investigations by the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and Time magazine also support Kerry's account of events.
Rood, who commanded a Swift boat alongside Kerry, said in a bylined story Aug. 21 that the ads were ``untrue'' and ``come from people who were not there.''
Russell, who also served with Kerry, said veterans attacking Kerry's bravery are wrong and weren't in position to know what happened when Kerry earned his medals. ``The real answer is: only people on his boat know,'' Russell said Aug. 23.
Former Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska, who lost part of his leg in Vietnam, condemned the advertisements. Kerrey, now president of New School University in New York, said Bush should put a stop to the political ads, the New York Daily News reported yesterday.
Complaint
Kerry filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission last week alleging the group is illegally coordinating its ads with the Bush campaign.
U.S. law bars coordination between candidates and independent organizations such as the Swift Boat Veterans, known as 527 groups for the section of the Internal Revenue Service code that grants them tax-exempt status. The groups aren't subject to campaign spending restrictions that candidates must follow.
An election lawyer for Bush's campaign resigned yesterday after disclosing he advised a Vietnam veterans' group running commercials that attack Democratic challenger John Kerry.
Benjamin Ginsberg, 53, an attorney from the Washington firm of Patton Boggs LLP, said in a letter released by the Bush campaign, he had ``become a distraction.'' Ginsberg said his work was ``entirely within the boundaries of the law.''
Resignations
The Bush campaign said Aug. 21 that former Air Force Colonel Ken Cordier worked with the Swift Boat Veterans while serving on Bush's National Veterans Steering Committee. Cordier, who resigned from the campaign, appears in a commercial for Swift Boat Veterans. The Bush campaign didn't know in advance that Cordier was working for both.
The Swift Boat group listed 10 financial backers in its June 30 filing with the Internal Revenue Service. More than 10,000 new donors gave more than $450,000 in the last two weeks, McCabe said.
Seven of the 10 supporters listed with the IRS are Republicans, according to PoliticalMoneyLine. Among them is Bob Perry, the largest political donor to Republicans in Texas, who provided $100,000. Perry and the maximum individual donation of $2,000 to Bush's campaign. Perry, chief executive of closely held Perry Homes in Houston, declined to be interviewed.
Bush political adviser Karl Rove told the New York Times through a spokeswoman that he and Perry were longtime friends, though they had not spoken for at least a year. Rove and Perry have been associates since at least 1986, when they both worked on the gubernatorial campaign of Bill Clements, the Times said.
John O'Neill, a member of Swift Boat Veterans, debated Kerry on the Dick Cavett Show in 1971. O'Neill was enlisted by President Richard Nixon and then-White House counsel Charles Colson, who later went to prison for his role in the Watergate scandal that led to Nixon's 1974 resignation.
Senator John McCain, a Republican from Arizona and former Vietnam prisoner of war, two weeks ago called the Swift Boat group's ad dishonest and urged the White House to condemn it.
McCain plans to ``express my displeasure'' to Bush, according to an interview published in the New York Times today. McCain also said he would continue to campaign for the president.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Jesse Westbrook in Washington at jwestbrook1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Glenn Holdcraft at gholdcraft@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: August 26, 2004 08:26 EDT |
