Bush unveils campaign finance proposal; Bradley camp steams at abortion rights groups's Gore endorsement

February 15, 2000
Web posted at: 6:31 p.m. EST (2331 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Texas Gov. George W. Bush went into turf formerly occupied by Arizona Sen. John McCain on Tuesday, announcing a comprehensive campaign finance overhaul proposal that would ban corporate and union soft money donations to political campaigns.

Speaking in the town of Irmo, South Carolina, Bush staked claim to the top of the campaign finance hill, if only for the day, saying his list of reforms would "make the system work better."

Bush's choice of days could not have been more shrewd. He will meet McCain and third-place GOP challenger Alan Keyes in a pivotal debate Tuesday night in Columbia, South Carolina. The Palmetto State holds its Republican presidential primary on Saturday. McCain and Bush are in a statistical dead heat leading into Saturday's vote, according to most polls.

McCain long has championed an overhaul of the campaign finance system and has made such reform the centerpiece of his presidential campaign. The Arizona senator has sponsored two campaign finance bills bearing his name in the Senate -- going against the grain and the wishes of the chamber's Republican majority. McCain's bills failed in the Senate in 1998 and 1999.

Aside from the bans on soft money -- the term accorded to large, unregulated donations made directly to national party organizations -- Bush's proposal would prohibit lobbyists from donating to legislators when Congress is in session; and would implement a "paycheck protection" clause that would bar labor unions from using member dues to finance political activities.

The latter provision is intended to level the playing field between Republican and Democratic fund-raising efforts, Bush said. Unions by and large tend to support Democratic candidates, who are often more sympathetic to labor concerns.

Unlike McCain, Bush would leave the practice of issue advocacy advertising in place.

"These are reforms that will make the system work better," Bush said Tuesday, adding that he believed the system would be vastly improved if candidates provided full disclosure of who their donors were and how much they had handed over.

"These are wholesale reforms ... that respect individuals," Bush said.

McCain, speaking to reporters after the Bush announcement, expressed genuine surprise at the content of the proposal. Saying the plan was a "breakthrough" and "a major change on (Bush's) part, McCain joked that Bush had "come a long way."

"The next thing you know, he's going to be moving to Arizona," McCain said.

But Bush shot back: "I just started officially putting out a plan now so that there should be no question in anybody's mind that I am now on record with a plan, a plan that's been on the record since last summer."

McCain, apparently undaunted by Bush's newly-honed hard edge, continues to focus on getting South Carolina Democrats and independents to vote in Saturday's primary. "I am fully prepared to be president of the United States and assume these responsibilities and need no on the job training," McCain told supporters at one of his town hall meetings.

The Arizona senator's move has Bush uneasy. "What I think about, I think about Democrats coming into our primary and not staying with the nominee," he said.

NARAL comes out for Gore

Elsewhere, the campaign of former New Jersey Democratic Sen. Bill Bradley was seething over reports that one of the nation's most high-profile abortion rights groups would endorse Vice President Al Gore for the Democratic nomination.

The National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL) endorsed Gore on Tuesday in hopes that pro-choice voters would unite behind one candidate.

Vice President Gore received the endorsement of NARAL on Tuesday.

"It is NARAL's number one priority to elect a pro-choice president, and we refuse to use this issue as a divisive weapon to divide pro-choice voters," said Kate Michelman, the group's executive director.

Bradley campaign officials were described as "furious" that the NARAL board decided to abandon its pledge of neutrality.

"I'm very surprised that NARAL would endorse someone who had an 84 percent Right to Life record, when i have a 99 percent NARAL record," Bradley said Tuesday.

The blessing of NARAL will make it difficult for Bradley to continue to use the abortion issue against Gore. But the former New Jersey senator said he would step up his attacks on the vice president's record.

"We're going to go out there and make clear to voters that there are clear issues between the two candidates," said Bradley campaign spokesman Eric Hauser.

Michelman has praised both Gore and Bradley in the past as supporters of abortion rights.

Bradley picked up a series of labor near-endorsements on Tuesday, despite the fact that the powerful AFL-CIO has already expressed its support for Gore.

"I think we need a ban on striker replacement," Bradley told union members during a speech on labor law reform in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The former New Jersey senator won the unofficial endorsement of Teamsters leaders from the eastern United States at a union meeting.

"My position on labor law reform, my position on health care, my position on the minimum wage, my position on all these issues is not related to whether I get an endorsement or not," he said.

Nonetheless, in a show of hands, union operatives representing more than 450,000 Teamsters from New England to the mid-Atlantic voted overwhelmingly for Bradley just scant minutes after he concluded his remarks.

"It was a clear statement of sentiment," Bradley exclaimed as he left the Tropicana Casino and Resort Hotel, where the regional union officials met.

National union officials discounted the significance of the nonbinding floor resolution from the Eastern Region of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, saying many delegates were New Jersey residents looking to embrace their home-state candidate and resident.

Still, union Vice President Tom O'Donnell assured delegates he would report the results of the vote to Teamsters President James Hoffa.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.