GOP Seeks to Become Haven for Protest Vote

On the first full day of the new one-on-one presidential campaign, a Republican reelection drive that has been searching for a theme was given a new, sharp focus by Ross Perot’s departure from the race.

The theme remained unclear, but the focus Friday was obvious: Undercut the efforts of Bill Clinton and his running mate, Al Gore, to persuade Perot supporters that the Democratic presidential ticket is the logical beneficiary of a protest vote.

At a rally here in Jackson, President Bush made a direct pitch for those who had been attracted to Perot. He said, “I hear you. You’ve come through loud and clear.”

Returning to the campaign trail after spending two days fishing with his close friend and political confidant, Secretary of State James A. Baker III, Bush also said, “My message to the disillusioned and disaffected is simple. Don’t walk away from the system. Don’t assume (that) without a protest vote, there is no vote at all.”

Vice President Dan Quayle made much the same appeal during a day of politicking in Kentucky, Mississippi and Florida.

At a stop in Louisville, Ky., Quayle said, “We want to reach out. We want to focus on how we can change America.”

He added, “My answer is very direct. . . . Join us. Change the Democratic Congress.”

Bush emerged from the woods and sagebrush of western Wyoming Friday for an easy-paced round of political appearances in the wake of this week’s Democratic National Convention, which saw the Clinton/Gore team surge to a large lead in national polls. The President ended his day in Salt Lake City, where he visited the leaders of the Mormon Church.

Earlier this week, while the Democrats were meeting in New York, Bush generally kept a low profile. He spoke out only once, on Thursday, in the wake of Perot’s announcement that he would not be a candidate. At an outdoor press conference, Bush reflected on Perot’s decision not to follow through with a presidential campaign that had galvanized millions of volunteers across the country.

Friday, Bush launched a concerted effort to woo those discontented voters.

Addressing 1,500 people invited to a lunch of barbecue, corn and coleslaw on the Tarmac at the Jackson airport--a site that provided the photogenic background of the snow-capped Grand Tetons--Bush did not once mention Clinton’s name. Instead, he sought to present himself as one who has come to understand much of the discontent that fueled the Perot phenomenon.

He said that “as the incumbent President of the United States, it’s tempting to quietly applaud the fact that this strange political year has suddenly become ‘normal.’ ” But he insisted he knew that would be the wrong conclusion to draw.

“A vote was taken this spring and summer in America,” Bush said. “No ballots were cast but a vote was taken. No polls opened, but a referendum took place nonetheless. Nobody won this election but politics lost . . . because it’s become increasingly irrelevant to the American people.”

Bush, who four years ago built much of his campaign around the symbolism of the U.S. flag and fear of crime, added: “Politics for too many people has become synonymous with slogans, posturing, and it’s come to mean the opposite of progress.”

The President even incorporated a phrase that Perot routinely used at his rallies, telling supporters of the Texas businessman that “you have won” in an effort to shake up the political system.

Bush also echoed an appeal he made at the start of the 1992 campaign, when six months ago he told New Hampshire residents suffering through the recession that his message was “I care.”

He said Friday: “I hear the voices in so many accents say attention must be paid to our jobs, our schools and our families, attention must be paid to our future. I hear that call, and more than that, I share that frustration.”

Robert M. Teeter, Bush’s campaign chairman, sought to make a case that the Perot supporters, seen throughout the spring as the mobilizers of a protest vote, would return to the Bush camp.

“They voted in the last three elections for Bush and (former President Ronald) Reagan. They’re basically conservative. . . . In September and October they will agree with us,” Teeter said. “But they won’t go back into the fold unless we work for them.”

Bush looked tanned and rested after a week that took him from the Maine seacoast to Baker’s secluded ranch and included a quick stop in California. Despite trailing in the latest polls, Bush said he wasn’t quite ready to launch an all-out campaign against Clinton.

“We are not quite into the one-on-one competitive mode yet,” he said. “I’m going to hold back a little bit until after the Republican Convention and then we’re going after it.”

The President did not watch the Democratic proceedings, and Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.) told him he hadn’t missed a thing. “While you have been out in the crisp air of the high country,” Simpson said, “we have been having our heads muddled by the hot air and vaporous gases emanating from Madison Square Garden.”

The President was scheduled to return to Washington today, then has speaking engagements Tuesday and Friday in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Ohio.

As Quayle pursued Perot supporters during the day, he sought to brush aside his earlier criticism of the Texan as a “temperamental tycoon who has contempt for the Constitution.”

Asked if that remained his opinion of Perot, the vice president said, “I don’t believe it’s important for me to comment on someone who’s not in the campaign now.”

Quayle also said that the Bush reelection campaign was gearing up for “a concerted effort to identify with the volunteers” who had campaigned to place Perot’s name on presidential ballots across the nation.

“We will be reaching out and trying to convince them that our message, our vision, our policies, our leadership is the right way to go,” Quayle said.

Officials of the Bush-Quayle campaign telephoned each of Perot’s state chairmen to ask for their support, a Quayle aide said Friday.

Those efforts scored their first payoff Friday when the South Carolina Perot chairman, Jon Pruett, joined Republican National Committee Chairman Richard N. Bond at a news conference in the state to announce his support for the President.

Quayle also pushed that effort, spending about 10 minutes meeting in Louisville with two former leaders of Perot’s Kentucky campaign.

“We’ve got a group of people in Kentucky . . . who are looking for a place to go,” said Charlie Hellebusch, a hospital consultant who until Thursday served as Perot’s state chairman. “We’ve got issues that we would like to bring up to Mr. Bush and bring up to Mr. Clinton . . . (to) see how they respond to it and see if we fit in,” Hellebusch added. “We’re here to ask a few questions and maybe get some answers.”

Quayle said he told the Perot backers to keep their organization together, and to “look down the ballot. Don’t just focus on the President. Look at Congress.”

Hellebusch said his group would not commit to any other candidate until he and others have talked to officials of the Clinton campaign.

The meeting took place after the vice president addressed a convention of law enforcement and school officials involved in the D.A.R.E anti-drug program.

Quayle used the appearance to pitch his continued support for “family values,” and to reiterate his attack on rapper Ice-T, who performs a song that critics charge is an incitement to kill police officers.

During his other stops, Quayle tried out a theme likely to find a place in the GOP’s general election campaign.

Addressing supporters in Jackson, Miss., and Tampa, Fla., he said that the “revitalized” Democratic Party lauded Thursday by Perot has been renewed only because it finally embraced Republican orthodoxy.

Referring to the Thursday night nomination acceptance speeches by Clinton and Gore at the Democratic Convention, Quayle said, “Can you believe that . . . Clinton was talking about values? It sounded like a Republican speech. . . . I’m delighted to see that they recognize that we have been right and they have been wrong.”

Gerstenzang reported from Jackson and Stewart from the Quayle campaign. Times staff writer Robert Shogan, in Washington, contributed to this story.