Bush vs. McCain Tests Toughness

0 Comments | Insight on the News, March 13, 2000 | by Jennifer G. Hickey

Bush and McCain fight it out with hard-hitting ads, while union leaders and Democratic activists plan the defeat of the GOP and Republican leaders in Congress advance their agenda.

As part of its Vanishing Voter Project, the Joan Shorenstein Center at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government has been monitoring voter attention to the 2000 campaigns. Nearly 27 percent of Americans now are paying "a great deal" of attention to campaign coverage, which is an increase from the 19 percent in the first poll in November 1999. Nonetheless, a majority (51 percent) of Americans are paying less notice and are able to recall a campaign news story only from the previous day. Given the media coverage of the campaign to date, that may be a good thing.

Exemplifying the campaign coverage was the last Republican presidential debate in South Carolina, moderated by CNN "infotainer" Larry King. Instead of focusing on issues, King concentrated on JonBenet-type topics, such as negative campaigning and Bush's visit to Bob Jones University, which used to advertise itself as the world's most peculiar.

The scrapping turned on accusations made by McCain concerning Bush's alleged negative advertisements and push-polling. Having enjoyed a boost from his criticisms of the Bush record, McCain had pulled his comparison ads off the air to try to claim the high ground. But Bush didn't bite. In the debate, the Texas governor held up a flier that falsely claimed Social Security "will start going bankrupt" under Bush's economic plan and, also falsely, declared that Bush "wants to federalize education, giving more power and control to Washington `educrats.'"

When McCain denied it originated from his campaign, the governor noted the "Paid for by McCain 2000 Inc." notation on the flier. The following day, McCain admitted his campaign issued the "comparison" sheet.

In contrast to the huge media focus on Bush's hard-hitting television ads, little attention had been paid to McCain's flooding of South Carolina mailboxes with dubious fliers and mailings, a fact missed by King. Especially interesting was the McCain flier that declared: "Democrats and independents CAN vote in Saturday's primary!" Allowing crossover voting in the Republican primary by people who are not Republicans enabled McCain quickly to translate his "New Hampshire bump" into a dead heat in the Palmetto State.

McCain was the beneficiary of a decision by the national Democratic Party to move back the date of its own South Carolina contest, freeing voters to cast votes in both the Republican and Democratic races. Then a bizarre lawsuit was filed by Democratic state Rep. Todd Rutherford and James Fitts, a South Carolina resident, against the South Carolina Republican Party. Rutherford and Fitts alleged the GOP violated the Voting Rights Act by not opening polling places in black, rural areas where almost no Republicans reside. These Democratic polling places were ordered to open for the GOP primary, putting them in play as they were not in 1992 and 1996.

Rutherford then took to the pulpit to urge the Democrats of his congregation to pull the lever in the Republican primary for McCain, whom he called "the weaker candidate." The intention was to embarrass the GOP leadership, primarily Bush backers, but when McCain started to draw authentic support among Democrats he altered his stance, urging votes for Bush. "When a lot of this started, McCain was way down in the polls and it looked like we just needed, to defeat Bush -- or at least prolong the contest," the troublemaking state legislator admitted before the Feb. 19 primary.

Similarly, in Michigan, state Rep. LaMar Lemmons of Detroit laid down the gauntlet in his baffle with Republican Gov. John Engler, a Bush backer. Trying to humiliate the Michigan GOP and Engler, Lemmons' mischief-making took the form of an ad hoc group called Democrats Out to Get Even With Governor Engler, or DOGG. The DOGGs held meetings across Detroit to gin up support for McCain, and Lemmons also delivered his anti-Engler message from the pulpit of the New Bethel Baptist Church. This was followed by distribution of fliers saying: "DOGG Engler. Vote for McCain." Lemmons said the idea is to "get [Bush] bloodied up and weakened from this effort, [and] we certainly intend to do so."

Indeed, the surge experienced by McCain in the polls as well as in the endorsement race -- former candidate and Family Research Council president Gary Bauer threw his support behind McCain -- had as little to do with a faltering Bush campaign as with a strengthened McCain shop. The Democrats' interloping was as calculated as Democratic activists and their friends in the liberal press could make it. And the slash-and-burn tactics will not be confined to the presidential primaries. "We see this as a watershed year, when control of the White House, the House and crucial gubernatorial and state legislative races will be decided," AFL-CIO president John Sweeney warned during the annual meeting of the organization's Executive Council. The choice, he proclaimed, is between helping working families (read: Democrats) or facing a "roll back to the antiworking-family, corporate-dominated policies of Reagan and Bush and so many other politicians." Apparently, there is a reason he is not known as "Subtle Sweeney."