Vice President Al Gore showed again Monday that if all politics are local, it’s the same with the media priorities of a candidate seeking news coverage in a close presidential race.
Eighty members of the national media are traveling with Gore, but they were clearly not uppermost in his mind as he campaigned vigorously in key television markets in Oregon and Washington. Both are traditionally Democratic states but his margin is razor thin, partly due to the Green Party candidacy of Ralph Nader, which Gore acknowledged Monday.
So he sought to lure sympathetic local media attention, granting access to local reporters and tailoring events in and around local broadcasts. As he flew around the Pacific Northwest before a late-night trek to Little Rock, Ark., Gore sought to rouse voters by accentuating differences with Republican candidate George W. Bush in more personal, if orchestrated, ways.
The media modus operandi played out first in Portland, Ore., late Sunday, where Gore quickly granted interviews to the three big local television stations prior to an outdoor address at Portland State University.
On Monday, Gore began what are expected to be daily encounters with preselected citizens on “kitchen table” issues in an attempt to personalize his proposals.
The first involved Heather Howitt, 32, founder of Oregon Chai Inc., a Portland specialty tea company started in 1994 that boasts 37 full-time employees and annual sales of $11 million. Gore dropped by her two-story headquarters, where the primacy of television was hinted when a newspaper reporter was brusquely told to move by a Gore aide. “You’re in the shot,” he said.
If the attempted link between Howitt’s success and Gore’s policy agenda wasn’t clear in the first encounter, it was when the vice presidential caravan trekked to a large bakery-coffee shop.
With 20 journalists hovering a few feet away, Gore sat down with Howitt and his daughter Kristin.
Obviously conversant with Howitt’s entreprenurial saga, Gore began by asking her to connect the nation’s prosperity and “what helped you succeed in this business.” She responded, “The economy has been awesome the last eight years.”
“You don’t want to let that go, right?” asked Gore. Her response was no surprise and quickly Gore was alluding to her receipt of a $50,000 Small Business Administration loan in 1995. Gore said he has worked to triple such loans for women.
The most vivid policy exchanges involved Gore leading her somewhat on health insurance, environmental and tax policies. He noted that she would benefit from Bush’s tax-cut proposal. But she said that such a cut would be a mistake and added that the projected federal surplus would be better spent on unspecified programs to help more people such as her workers.
Sitting several feet away, commercial real estate broker Mert Meeker, a Bush supporter, was unimpressed.
Meeker suspects Gore would win in Oregon if the election were held now but conceded ample apathy with the political system in general.
“Look at this event,” he said, pointing to the cadre of reporters, far outnumbering customers at Marsee Baking.
Yet such staging is critical to a modern campaign. As one Gore aide conceded Monday, in the final two weeks, the reality of major national media “driving” local media is subordinate to catering to local media, notably television.
That was underscored as Gore flew to Everett, Wash., arriving at an airstrip next to a Boeing plant where new 777s for a variety of foreign customers, including Air France, were visible.
Introduced by his 23-year-old daughter, Kristin, Gore gave a sharp, rousing address to a crowd packed in a hangar while he stood on a platform with many prominent Washington Democratic politicians, including U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and Reps. Norm Dicks and Jim McDermott.
Gore’s only interesting departure from his standard stump speech was his claim that Bush, with an apparent lead, is “hiding behind the polls.”
When the address was over, the hangar empty and the national press safely ensconced in a filing center, Gore then gave interviews to four local stations, three from Seattle, encompassing 70 percent of the state’s TV households.
Then it was on to Spokane and a rally at Gonzaga University whose 5:45 p.m. timing was meant partly to generate live coverage on late afternoon newscasts.
Gore did not avoid national media. He walked to the rear of Air Force Two during the Portland-to-Everett leg to initially point out that Mt. Rainier was off on the right side. Gore climbed the 14,411-foot mountain last year.
He recalled how, after reaching the top, he and his son had to hurry to get back to the base camp before the midday sun loosened snow and threatened an avalanche.
One wag wondered if that was a metaphor for the election. Gore said no, but added, “We are starting the final ascent.”
If Mt. Rainier was impressively visible, and the Olympic Mountains were a picture-perfect backdrop in Everett, an obvious political backdrop for Gore’s Northwest wanderings is the strength showed in opinion polls by the Green Party’s Nader.
It is assumed that votes for Nader would hurt Gore. Asked about the Nader phenomenon in general, he voiced the view that Nader partisans might have second thoughts if the Gore-Bush race stays close.
“I think that toward the end of the election, it is still likely that the vast majority of people will want to cast a vote that will decide the future of the country. My task is not to tell those people that a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush. That may be true.
“But my task is to convince them to vote enthusiastically for me,” Gore said.
