Clinton Talks to Local Voters Via Satellite

Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton broadcast his campaign platform to a small fund-raising gathering of Ventura County Democrats on Wednesday night, via a live satellite link that was simultaneously fed to 99 other locations nationwide.

Organizers said they were pleased with the turnout at the hastily planned Link Up America, which drew about 70 people to the Ventura College theater only 10 days after it was announced.

The fund-raiser took in $25 donations from each of the attendees--about half of them Democratic Party regulars--and from another 30 who dropped by but did not stay for the show.

Some in the audience said Clinton’s campaign will have to fight hard to win in Republican-leaning Ventura County, where most of the likely defectors from the Republican majority seem to be backing unannounced presidential candidate Ross Perot.

“We’re up against a lot. There are a lot of Perot bumper stickers out there,” said actress Mary Steenburgen of Ojai, calling herself a personal friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton.

“It’s generally agreed that in the history of American politics, there has never been a candidate who’s more substantively talked about what he plans to do as President,” said Steenburgen, introducing Clinton’s address. “And there has never been someone who’s talked less substantively about what he’s going to do than Ross Perot.”

Then Clinton’s image appeared on the Ventura College theater screen a dozen feet high, transmitted live from an upscale house in Boston, where supporters lounged on sofas, looking up at the candidate.

Describing himself as poorer than Perot and President Bush but rich in experience from 11 years as Arkansas governor, Clinton outlined his plans for revitalizing recession-stricken America.

Clinton proposed investing $50 billion in incentive loans to private businesses to stimulate employment and economic growth, and in programs to improve public services such as transportation, housing, roads and education.

He also outlined a plan called the National Service Trust, which would give college loans to teen-agers in exchange for civilian national service. And he advocated retraining discharged soldiers as police officers to boost the nation’s police force by 100,000 officers and focus on community-based policing.

“I really believe that our problems are not insoluble,” Clinton said, ending his 10-minute speech. “I want you to help me restore that belief, that hope, that conviction.”

Clinton then expanded on his views, answering questions from fund-raising gatherings nationwide via a satellite link that occasionally warped the voices of the Democratic faithful with electronic feedback and outer-space sound effects.

Afterward, audience members said the telecast reaffirmed their faith in Clinton.

“Three weeks ago, Perot would have carried, I’d say, half the Democrats and half the Republicans in Ventura County,” Democratic Central Committee member Richard Scurlock of Oxnard said afterward. “I think I see that eroding now” as Perot’s views are becoming more widely known, he said.

Scurlock said Clinton stumbled early in the campaign by letting Republicans define him with Gennifer Flowers’ accusations of adultery, his draft record and an admission that he smoked marijuana without inhaling.

But low poll numbers for Clinton should begin to rise as people hear more of his concrete proposals for mending the country, Scurlock said.

“We need a change for the better, and Bill Clinton is the man to do it,” said Jamie Cox-Nowland, head of the Ventura-Oxnard chapter of the National Organization for Women.

She said county voters “are looking for a change. I think they’re tired of the last 12 years” under Republican Presidents. She added, “I don’t trust Ross Perot. I trust him less and less, the more I learn about him.”

Others also expressed dissatisfaction with Bush and distrust of Perot, conceding that they plan to vote against those two almost as much as they will vote in favor of Clinton.

“But I don’t think anyone’s voted for anyone since Nixon in 1972,” added Juliette Wrablik of Ventura. “I’m gonna vote for Clinton.”