Clinton at event for Kirk
Posted on 07/18/2002 3:03:51 AM PDT by MeekOneGOP
Clinton at event for Kirk
Democrat raising funds in NY; GOP's Cornyn on California swing
07/18/2002
NEW YORK - Texans and New Yorkers joined forces Wednesday night at a trendy Manhattan eatery where former President Bill Clinton was scheduled to help Ron Kirk draw more cash for his Senate campaign.
Seeking to fend off complaints from his GOP rival, Mr. Kirk defended having Mr. Clinton as the fund-raiser's headliner but said he doubted the former president would stump for him back home.
"The president's a big boy. Bill Clinton does not want to be the issue in this campaign," Mr. Kirk told reporters outside the event, closed to the news media.
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The campaign of Republican John Cornyn has criticized Mr. Kirk's out-of-town money-raising trips, portraying them as evidence that he is beholden to liberal, national Democratic interests.
Mr. Clinton agreed to appear on behalf of the former Dallas mayor despite the candidate's previous remarks that Texas was "probably not the best place for the president to begin his rehabilitation" after the sex scandal involving a White House intern.
One of the fund-raiser co-hosts, Houston trial lawyer David Berg, said he saw no fallout from having the former president help Mr. Kirk. "It's like sticking your finger in a Dixie cup filled with water. It will create a few ripples, and that's it," he said.
Another co-host, Earl Graves, a New Yorker who owns Black Enterprise magazine and formerly owned radio stations in Dallas and Fort Worth, said Mr. Kirk shouldn't worry about it.
"I happen to think if Clinton had run again, he would have won again. If [Al] Gore had used him to help him campaign, he would be president now. I realize a huge number of persons might not agree with that, but that's what makes this a wonderful country," Mr. Graves said.
Dr. Kenneth Sherrill, political science professor at Hunter College in New York, said it's common for out-of-state candidates to make appeals in New York because that's "where the money is."
"There is no ideological bias to this. It happens with both the liberals and the conservatives," he said.
Waco insurance executive Bernard Rapoport, another Kirk co-chair, said that more Democrats nationally were wanting to contribute to Mr. Kirk because they see him as able to take a Senate seat that has long been held by the Republicans.
Last month, Mr. Kirk attended a Washington fund-raiser hosted by such Democratic luminaries as the former president's wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and a New York party hosted by former Gov. Ann Richards and former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey.
Ms. Richards' name was on the invitation for Wednesday night's reception and dinner at Jimmy's Downtown, a Latin-cuisine restaurant in midtown. Also listed was longtime Clinton friend Vernon Jordan, among the three dozen New York and Texas co-chairs and hosts who pledged to contribute or help raise either $10,000 or $25,000 for Mr. Kirk's race against Mr. Cornyn, the Texas attorney general. Guests could attend for $1,000.
Big donors dined on fried artichoke salad, crispy red snapper and roasted chicken at the restaurant owned by Jimmy Rodriguez, a cafe impresario who attracts celebrities, athletes and politicians. Mr. Clinton, whose office is in Harlem, frequents Jimmy's Uptown soul food cafe.
Eighty people were expected at the New York party, about one quarter of them from Texas. Kirk spokesman Tim Warner said that many of the guests "currently reside in Texas, and many are transplanted Texans who are still wearing their boots."
Meanwhile, the bickering between the two Senate campaigns continued to escalate.
Cornyn spokesman Dave Beckwith said Mr. Kirk was ignoring Texas voters as he traveled across the country to fill his war chest. While there's nothing illegal about out-of-state fund-raising, he said, "The question is, Who are you listening to?"
Mr. Cornyn targeted tech industry donors at a fund-raiser Wednesday in the San Francisco area, then jetted to an evening event with party boosters in Los Angeles. The attorney general was scheduled to return from his one-day swing on Wednesday evening.
Mr. Beckwith said there was no contradiction in the campaign's criticism of Mr. Kirk's travels while Mr. Cornyn also seeks money out of Texas.
He said Mr. Kirk had spent far more time out of Texas than Mr. Cornyn had and had done far fewer public appearances in Texas to boot.
"People understand what's going on," he said. "They look at six or seven trips to Washington ... vs. three days for us in the same time frame, and they know what's going on."
Mr. Kirk said Wednesday that his fund-raising strategy was being driven by the need to try to compete financially against a Republican who has collected more money overall.
Reports made public this week show that 14 percent of the $5.8 million Mr. Cornyn has raised came from outside Texas. Twenty-one percent of the $4.8 million that Mr. Kirk has raised came from out of state, reports show.
E-mail cbarta@dallasnews.com
You can bet that Cornyn will be using that! Kirk said he didn't think it
would be a good idea for clintoon to come to Texas (hey! something I agree
with Kirk on, lol!). But he sure takes the $$$ in New York!
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