Posted on 09/05/2002 5:58:21 AM PDT by GailA
Gore Plans Trips to Iowa, N.H.
By WILL LESTER Associated Press Writer AP/Jacques Boissinot [19K]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Al Gore is stepping up his political travels and fund raising after he had to delay paying staffers for his political action committee early this summer, associates said.
Gore associates announced Wednesday he will travel to Iowa and New Hampshire during the closing months of the 2002 congressional campaign.
His aides say the former vice president was busy with a variety of projects during the summer and then had to cancel several fund-raisers for personal reasons, including two funerals.
Gore, who was the Democratic presidential nominee in 2000, is traveling to Iowa for two days the week of Oct. 14 and will make separate trips to New Hampshire — once in early October and once in midmonth, said Jano Cabrera, a spokesman. Details are still being worked out for those trips to the early presidential caucus and primary states.
The Iowa trip will be part of a Midwest swing, Cabrera said, as Gore picks up the pace after trips to Colorado and Tennessee in July and August.
He will campaign Saturday for Rep. Bob Clement of Tennessee, a candidate for the U. S. Senate, and plans a swing to Florida on Sept. 17 and 18. He also plans to campaign this month for Bill Richardson, a Democratic candidate for governor in New Mexico, raise money for Democratic candidates in Minnesota and do some fund raising in Florida, California and New York. He will address the Congressional Black Caucus Sept. 14 in Washington.
Gore is considering another run for the presidency and has said he will make a decision by the end of the year. At the same time, he's been busy with other projects, from a book on his family to teaching to working at a financial firm.
His political action committee, Leadership '02, asked its employees to delay getting paychecks in June, and two members of the staff have left, reducing the total to seven. Cabrera said one staffer, Philip Dufour, is now working more directly for Gore's wife, Tipper, on her mental health campaign. Another had long-standing plans to go back to graduate school.
Gore allies said the payroll problems in June were not a sign of deeper financial trouble for the PAC.
``Al and Tipper's support in the grass roots is not just strong, it's gaining strength and the polls reflect that,'' said Robert Zimmerman, a marketing and public relations executive who was Gore's New York state chairman in the 2000 presidential race. ``The fund raising follows the kind of popular support that they have.''
``At the end of last quarter, we unexpectedly had to cancel a few fund-raisers,'' Cabrera said, but he added that Gore had increased the pace of his fund raising.
A Los Angeles Times poll out this week showed that almost six in 10 Democratic voters said they would probably or definitely vote for Gore for the party's nomination. Other polls have shown Gore with a big advantage over others who have expressed interest in the nomination — an early advantage that comes largely from higher name recognition.
On the Net:
Leadership '02: http://www.leadership02.com
Translation - we couldn't get any donors to show up.
I think Al's going to be the Harold Stassen of the new century. The guy's political goose is cooked.
In other words, Dufour is being paid to work for Gore by ripping off donations to Tipper's charity. Good old Al, always such a morally scrupulous fund raiser. Where are the Buddhist nuns when he needs them?
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