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June 19, 2003 -- Bush Has Big Lead Over Dem Challengers In New Jersey, Quinnipiac University Poll Finds; Hillary Clinton Would Dominate Dem Pack President George W. Bush's approval rating has dropped to 58 -- 39 percent in New Jersey, but he still has a solid early lead over any of the possible Democratic challengers in the run for the White House, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released June 19. New Jersey voters gave President Bush a 67 -- 29 percent approval in an April 1 poll by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University. In a hypothetical look at the...

<p>"There is this stereotype" that Dean is stronger on positions regarding civil unions, gay adoption and AIDS funding, said Chrissy Gephardt in San Francisco on Wednesday, but their records are virtually identical on those issues.</p> <p>Chrissy Gephardt met in San Francisco on Wednesday with Democratic supporters and gay community leaders, pushing hard to boost the presidential bid of her father, the former House majority leader from Missouri. With gay rights issues taking a decidedly higher profile role in the 2004 Democratic presidential contest, all the leading party hopefuls have stepped up efforts to woo the influential gay voting bloc.</p>

ST. PAUL, Minn. - Democrats are starting to wrestle with a thorny problem: how to brush aside three fringe candidates for president who have no realistic chance of winning their party's nomination next year. Several state Democratic Party chairmen think the national party should find a way to limit debates to the top six candidates and exclude the three widely considered to make up the bottom tier: Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun of Illinois and the Rev. Al Sharpton of New York. In interviews before this week's annual meeting of the Association of State Democratic...

ST. LOUIS - The son of the late Missouri Gov. Mel Carnahan and former U.S. Sen. Jean Carnahan launched a bid Wednesday to fill the congressional seat being vacated by presidential hopeful Dick Gephardt. State Rep. Russ Carnahan, speaking before supporters in a St. Louis park, called the campaign "an opportunity whose time has come." His mother sat in the crowd, smiling. "I think he can make a great contribution," she said. "He hasn't asked me for advice yet." Gephardt, the former House minority leader, is not seeking re-election in 2004 as he bids for the White House. The 3rd...

GEPHARDT LOOKS GOOD IN IOWA Democratic insiders are coming to regard Rep. Richard Gephardt as the real front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination even though he does not lead in nationwide polls. That's because the Jan. 19 Iowa caucuses have changed for Gephardt, who represents a district in nearby St. Louis, Mo., from a trap to a springboard. While Iowa is a must win for Gephardt, polls show him moving into a comfortable lead there. A big Iowa win could propel him into a high finish in the New Hampshire primary eight days later. A footnote: Backers of Sen. John...

No surprise, Dick Gephardt is the overwhelming favorite among Missouri Democrats for their party's presidential nomination. But in a matchup with President Bush, Gephardt trails in his home state. The Missouri congressman had the backing of 45 percent of Missouri Democrats. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts was a distant second at 13 percent. Against Bush, however, Gephardt was down by double digits, 52 percent to 38 percent. The Research 2000 poll of 600 voters was conducted June 9-11 and had an error margin of plus or minus 4 percentage points, larger for subgroups such as Democratic voters.

He won't be 'Bush Lite' By Dick Gephardt DEMOCRAT U.S. REPRESENTATIVE OF THE HOUSE Thursday, June 12, 2003 U.S. Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president, campaigned Wednesday morning in Austin. He spoke at the headquarters of the Texas AFL-CIO. Here are excerpts: `Let me tell you something, folks. (Republicans) are bankrupting this country, they're stealing your future, they're mortgaging the future of the country for the special interests so they can get campaign contributions to win the next election. We need to kick them out of the Congress, kick them out of the...

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Calling President Bush's tax cuts the wrong way to stimulate the U.S. economy, Democratic presidential candidate Richard Gephardt says he would rescind all of them during his first week in the White House, if elected to the nation's highest office. Gephardt, in a campaign swing through Central Texas on Wednesday, called Bush's tax cut plans ineffective. Democrats have criticized the measures as benefiting only the most wealthy Americans while failing to stimulate spending and job creation in a "trickle-down" method.That money could be used instead to provide tax credits to businesses that fully insure their...

WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Chrissy Gephardt, daughter of Rep. Dick Gephardt (D-MO), revealed that she is gay on ABC's Good Morning America on Monday. Upon the request of her father, Chrissy Gephardt has decided to join his 2004 campaign for the Democrat nomination for president. She says that she is planning on making speeches on gay and lesbian rights on behalf of the campaign and expects voters to learn something from her about homosexuals. "I really want people to know that gay and lesbian Americans are no different than any other Americans," she remarked. "We pay taxes. We're part of...

Lieberman, Kerry and Gephardt Lead Dem Polls Posted Monday, June 9, 2003 | Email a Comment Democrat Three Stooges In Front of Pack Remainding Democrat Contenders Falling Further Behind As the summer heat picks up so have the tracking numbers for former Veep pick and Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT). In a CNN/USA Today/Gallup Poll conducted May 30-June 1, 2003, Lieberman leads fellow Senator John Kerry (D-MA) by 3 percentage points down one from April. In third place, with 14% is Congressman Dick Gephardt (D-MO) who briefly took the lead in March after his announcment. After leading the field in fundraising,...

RNC Research GEPHARDT ABORTION STAND UNCLEARFormerly Pro-Life, Currently Pro-Choice, Two New Abortion Flip-Flops Are Pro-Pander ___________________________________________________________________________ 1988: “Gephardt’s problem is that he has a record of flip-flops on the issues.” (Peter Beinart, “No Vice,” The New Republic, 12/23/02) GEPHARDT MODIFIES POSITION ON PARTIAL-BIRTH BANGephardt Twice Voted To Override President Clinton’s Vetoes Of Partial-Birth Abortion Bills That Did Not Allow “Exceptions To Preserve The Health Of The Mother.” (CBS’ “Face The Nation,” 6/8/03) GEPHARDT NO LONGER CLEAR ON LITMUS TEST In 1986, Gephardt Said He “Would Not Make Abortion A Litmus Test” For Judicial Appointments. “My conviction is that abortion should...

<p>WASHINGTON - ON THE DEMOCRATIC left, the center is now being attacked as slavish to big business, Bush-lite in its approach to policy issues, and unwilling to vigorously take on the president`s abysmal stewardship of domestic affairs - a pale carbon copy of the Republicans.</p>

GEPHARDT TO BE SUED FOR ASSAULT, ABUSE OF PROCESS AND MALICIOUS PROSECUTION Campaign Staff Joined Conspiracy To Harm Congressional Campaign Opponent, Bill Federer Date: Monday, June 9, 2003 Time: 11:30 AM Place: Courthouse Steps Circuit Court of St. Louis County 7900 Carondelet Avenue Clayton, Missouri 63105 (Washington, DC) Judicial Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, will hold a press conference on Monday, June 9, 2003 at 11:30 AM on the steps of the Circuit Court of St. Louis County Courthouse to announce the filing of a lawsuit against Congressman Richard Gephardt alleging assault, abuse of...

<p>She was 28 and had been married four years. Now, she was informing her folks that not only was her marriage over, but she was in love with another woman.</p> <p>"I thought, 'It's going to ruin them, and every expectation they had of me is going to go out the window." "</p>

WASHINGTON - Dick Gephardt leads the other Democratic presidential candidates in a new poll of likely voters in the party's Iowa caucuses that will lead off the presidential competition in January. The Missouri representative was at 27 percent in the Research 2000 poll released Thursday. John Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts, was at 14 percent; Howard Dean, a former governor of Vermont, was at 11 percent; and Joe Lieberman, a senator from Connecticut was at 10 percent. Others were in single digits with John Edwards, a North Carolina senator, at 4 percent and Carol Moseley Braun, a former Illinois senator,...

Vermont Gov. Howard Dean has used his opposition to the Iraq war to paint himself as the most fiercely anti-Bush Democrat of them all. And there he was over the weekend accusing Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry of stealing his material. "I heard he did a great job giving my speech," Dean told reporters before he addressed a Democratic forum in upstate New York on Saturday. In his own address, as the Associated Press reported, Dean declared: "I appreciate Sen. Kerry saying we don't need Bush Lite, and we don't. But, Sen. Kerry, we don't want Dean Lite, either." The episode...

Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) is hardly a member of Congress anymore, at least if one judges him by the 85 percent of House votes he has missed this year. As House minority leader between 1995 and 2002, Gephardt spent most of his waking hours toiling in the Capitol or traveling on behalf of fellow Democrats, hoping to regain the congressional majority his party lost in 1994. He held news conferences, rounded up votes for major bills and helped craft Democratic policy on issues from technology to education. All that changed last fall, when Gephardt decided to seek his party's...

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) - Democratic presidential hopeful Howard Dean called for a repeal of the $350 billion tax cut that President Bush signed into law Wednesday, describing it as "part of a radical agenda to dismantle Social Security, Medicare and our public schools through financial starvation." Dean's rival, Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri, labeled the tax cuts - the third largest in the nation's history - "unfair, unaffordable and ineffective" as several of the Democratic candidates stepped up their criticism of the president's economic policies. Their complaints came as Bush signed the bill in an East Room ceremony surrounded by...

Drudge Reports that Gephardt skipped 85% of the house votes. And now we know why. We pay him to do this. Da, bill clinton told me ta see yaz"Ah.... ah, bill clinton sent me bro.Like I waana be da second black president.Ah...can ya dig it bro? No man don't ask me questions, I'm outa there 85% of the time, I don't know what's happenin"

Gephardt skips 85% of House votesBy Sam Dealey and Sarita ChoureyRep. Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) has missed 162 votes in the House this year 85 percent of the total prompting Republicans to charge that he has abandoned his congressional duties in his pursuit of the presidency.The Republican National Committee (RNC) has seized on the absenteeism to point out that several of Gephardts missed votes have been on legislative and policy matters that are centerpieces to his campaign.In his closing statement at the South Carolina debate earlier this month, for example, Gephardt listed the creation of an Apollo II program to make...