California's movin' on up

Presidential campaign junkies are in a dither because the California race is moving up a few weeks in the 2000 primary calendar.

California Gov. Pete Wilson ended speculation about his support for the change on Sept. 28, signing legislation setting the state's presidential primary for March 7, 2000-less than a month after the traditional kickoffs in Iowa and New Hampshire. The new schedule could mean that more than half of the states and three-quarters of the U.S. population will have voted by early March.

Republican operative Ralph Reed called California's move the "most significant development in presidential politics" since the South created the regional "Super Tuesday" primary.

"It appears to benefit early front-runners with significant financial resources who can afford to buy the expensive television ads in the nation's most populous state," Reed told The Hotline. (9/29)

Michael Tackett of the Chicago Tribune agreed, noting that the advantage for candidates with "big money" makes California's new primary date "the Al Gore/George Bush Full Protection Act." (Hotline interview, 9/29)

According to Gov. Wilson, a potential 2000 candidate: "This means that California voters are finally going to have some clout in the decision [about] who ...the major parties nominate for president. And that's only fair." (The Fresno [Calif.] Bee, 9/29) New Hampshire's largest newspaper, The (Manchester) Union Leader, was quick to editorialize against California's new primary date: "A primary season that begins in New Hampshire the first Tuesday in February and ends by mid-March after two or three mega-primaries is not what is needed. This would cause prospective candidates to begin campaigning, and raising money, even earlier than they do at present. How this would be an improvement escapes notice." (9/29)

The impact of California's earlier primary on candidates begins with Gov. Wilson, who "boosted his own aspirations" by signing the schedule change, according to the Los Angeles Times. (9/29)

My Kind of Town, Philadelphia Is

As the states finalize their primary schedules, the national political parties are deciding where to hold their 2000 conventions. The Republican National Committee has begun a final round of visits to nominated cities: Indianapolis, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia and San Antonio. Richard Benedetto of USA Today notes that Democrats "appear to be narrowing their candidates to Los Angeles, Philadelphia and New Orleans." But "insiders say that while many Democratic leaders prefer Los Angeles because of the importance of California's 54 electoral votes, Vice President Gore ...is said to be leaning toward Philadelphia." (9/29)

The Los Angeles Times reports that Gore has never displayed "affection" for Los Angeles "and particularly the entertainment industry." Gore "seems far more comfortable in the East Coast's power establishment than in the less conventional political environment of the West." (9/29)

His Heart Throbs Over

The Greenville (S.C.) News reports that former South Carolina Republican Gov. Carroll A. Campbell Jr. "came close to an endorsement" of Dan Quayle "but insisted he hadn't made a decision." Campbell was with Quayle for a recent fund-raiser in South Carolina, where he placed Quayle "toward the top of the list when it comes to our candidates for 2000; there are probably only two or three other people that would even come close to the stature he has, but they would have trouble coming close to the experience he has. They're good people, but this race remains to be decided. I'll tell you that Dan Quayle is very strong....My heart kind of throbs over toward his wife and him because we've been friends for a long time." Campbell, on Texas Gov. George W. Bush: "If he runs, and I have doubts whether he may run, but if he does, he'll be formidable, but there's only one person [in the GOP field] who has experience in the White House, only one, and that's Dan." (9/28)

Flash: Bradley's Undecided

Former Sen. Bill Bradley, D-N.J., during a Bedford, N.H., Democratic dinner, on Clinton: "Any time the president lies, he undermines the authority of his office and squanders the public's trust, and that's what he did." Bradley, on running for the White House in 2000: "I think it's really too early to tell. It's so volatile, this thing changes every day if you're looking at the polls. So maybe the best thing is to not look at the polls, but to focus on who you are, what you want to do if you're elected." (Foster's Daily Democrat [Dover, N.H.], 9/26)

Lessons of a Boomer

Under the headline "A Bush With a Future--And Perhaps a Past," Kenneth T. Walsh of U.S. News & World Report writes that if Texas Gov. George W. Bush makes a bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, "what his father calls the 'character thing' may emerge as an overriding issue." The younger Bush is already "road-testing his version of a new politics of virtue." Bush: "It's hard to usher in the responsibility era if leaders are not responsible themselves." While Bush "acknowledges that his message may be dismissed as unrealistic or even hypocritical," his strategists "think it will appeal not only to" Republicans, "but to centrist suburbanites, married women, and culturally conservative Hispanics." Bush "vowed to maintain his cultural message," as "he now realizes that the values rejected by what he calls the 'if-it-feels-good-do-it' culture of the 1960s--family, fidelity, the perils of self-indulgence--are eternal." An adviser said Bush "committed a few youthful 'indiscretions,' " while "another friend says he was known for 'chasing women' " before his 1977 marriage. Bush: "Look, I'm not proud of what I did when I was 21. None of the baby boomers can be proud of what we did then. But I've learned my lessons." (10/5 issue)

More Elvis, Less Bill

Tennessee advisers to Vice President Al Gore, worried that the Vice President "could be smeared" by the Monica Lewinsky scandal, fret that Gore "needs a little more Elvis and Opry and a little less Bill and Hillary in his campaign repertoire." Tennessee Democratic consultants "are encouraging the veep to headquarter his presidential bid in Nashville or Memphis instead of Washington." But Gore still plans to run his operation from Washington, D.C. (Washington Whispers, U.S. News & World Report, 10/5 issue)

The Washington Post's Ceci Connolly: "I can tell you that Gore is now occupying this netherworld between distance and disloyalty. He doesn't want to get too close to Bill Clinton, which is why the vice president has essentially been anywhere that Bill Clinton is not." (Washington Week in Review, PBS, 9/26)

Jacksonian Diplomacy

Is Jesse Jackson broadening his appeal for a possible presidential bid? For a recent rally in Appalachia, he joined forces with conservative Jerry Falwell and actor Martin Sheen. Jackson and Falwell "set aside political and philosophical differences" for what Sheen labeled "a call to corporate America to take responsibility for its actions on the patriotic as well as moral level." (Columbus [Ohio] Dispatch, 9/28)

Jackson continued to hint at his interest in a campaign during his Sept. 26 appearance at a meeting of the Democratic National Committee, demanding that "candidates in 2000 focus on a liberal agenda of eliminating poverty and providing national health insurance for all." Jackson: "I've not decided to race in 2000, but I'm determined to set the pace in 2000." (The [Tucson] Arizona Daily Star, 9/27)