Bush Steps Up Pace, Takes Attack to Opponent’s Turf

Vice President George Bush accelerated the pace of his campaign for the presidency Friday, searching out electoral “soft spots” in the Midwest and making a stand here in his opponent’s Northeast back yard.

He intensified and expanded his calls for a “mandate”--voicing the word a dozen times in one short speech, asking for a mandate on foreign affairs, arms control, taxes and crime as well as “mainstream values.”

And here, at a rally at Fairfield University, Bush gloated over news that the Massachusetts Administration of Gov. Michael S. Dukakis was in debt and contemplating drastic steps such as government layoffs to make ends meet.

“What a mess!” read the headline of the conservative Boston Herald newspaper. Bush held it aloft and posed for cameras, a satisfied smile on his face.

State treasury officials in Massachusetts said October tax collections fell short of projections, indicating the Dukakis Administration had substantially overestimated economic growth. In the aftermath, at least one state bank account was overdrawn by as much as $190 million, according to news accounts. Taxes have been increased in the past in a similar situation.

“You might say, how did it get into this mess? It does have relevance to the American people and for the federal government. He got into it by overspending. How did he get out of it--or try to? By raising taxes,” Bush told a small, made-for-TV rally of 1,000 select supporters.

Although he has tried to ease up on Dukakis now at the end of the campaign, Bush explained Friday: “I can’t let this go unchallenged.

“Let me tell you something,” Bush added, “this guy has been campaigning on the slogan he’s one of you, he’s on your side. Well maybe he wants to be on your side but I don’t think the American people want to be on his side.”

A full-blown public relations effort accompanied Bush’s visit to New England. GOP officials from Massachusetts swarmed over reporters to paint a gloomy picture of the Dukakis Administration’s fiscal headaches. And a million copies of an anti-Dukakis brochure were rushed into the mail, directed at swing voters in Massachusetts.

“We think Massachusetts is in financial trouble,” said David Locke, the state Senate assistant GOP leader. “We think it could translate into 2 or 3 points in the election, enough to be the margin of difference.”

At this stage in the long campaign, it is worth recalling an old maxim. Politicians really have only two choices as they compete for the attention of voters--they can go somewhere or they can say something.

Bush has chosen to concentrate single-mindedly on the matter of itinerary during these final days, piling extra miles and wearying hours onto his stump schedule.

“We are just scrambling . . . to figure out where we go the next three days,” said Chief of Staff Craig Fuller. “What we’re doing right now is looking for the areas that are soft, where another visit by the VP would be helpful.”

Why Connecticut?

So what is the point of going to Connecticut (8 electoral votes) to talk about budget problems in Massachusetts (13)?

One answer is New York (36 electoral votes).

Bush’s visit to this portion of Connecticut brought him well within range of the giant television market of New York City. Also within that range is New Jersey (16 votes), where Bush is to appear today before heading west to California (47 electoral votes).

Bush operatives believe that if a victory is brewing, the vice president clearly has a more realistic chance of carrying New York than Massachusetts.

Another explanation for the Connecticut visit and for Bush’s rapidly changing travel schedule is a new tactic to shadow Dukakis. Between Thursday and Saturday, the vice president will follow Dukakis into six separate locales--from Connecticut to Kentucky (9 electoral votes).

The idea is to try to drown out Dukakis in the local press.

Northeast political director Ron Kaufman explained why Bush followed Dukakis into Connecticut within 12 hours: “I didn’t want Dukakis to get a free ride all weekend. By coming in after him, we’ll get the last say. Dukakis’ story just ended.”

The third, and probably overriding, reason behind the Connecticut visit is to worry Dukakis about his base of support and distract him from the real make-it-or-break-it states.

“Any time in the last week when you can fight the battle on his turf, not yours, that’s good,” said Kaufman.

From Connecticut, Bush traveled to a large rally in Cincinnati, Ohio (23 electoral votes) and another in the Detroit suburb of Livonia, Mich. (20 electoral votes).

Fierce Competition

These states, along with Illinois (24 electoral votes), have been targets of fierce and unrelenting competition all along.

Chief of Staff Fuller said daily polls by the campaign still show the Midwest battleground “is a little bit soft.” There were indications as well that Bush’s once-commanding lead in other crucial states, in particular New Jersey, was shrinking.

Campaign aides disclosed Friday that Bush will cut short his wrap-up weekend campaign visit to California, believing his time could be spent more effectively elsewhere. Exactly where elsewhere was unclear as schedules were discussed, revamped, thrown away and re-done unendingly.

With the pressure of the accelerating schedule, the campaign started showing a slightly frayed edge. Bush himself noticed this when he jumped into his bulletproof limousine Friday morning and was cruising up Interstate 95. Suddenly he found that someone had locked the vice presidential briefcase in the trunk, forcing his entire 25-car motorcade to a stop on the shoulder of the road so the satchel could be retrieved.

“I do feel tired . . . you know we’ve been doing this a long time,” he told the Associated Press.