Gore, Kemp Tackle Urban Issues Before Minority Voters

Vice President Al Gore and Republican vice presidential candidate Jack Kemp each appealed to minority voters Friday--pushing conflicting views of how best to improve the economic condition of the nation’s cities.

Gore, touring a gritty neighborhood here that is the site of one of the Clinton administration’s “empowerment zones,” argued in favor of targeted government assistance to help bring economic development to poor neighborhoods, and warned that Republican policies would make matters worse.

“Some say, ‘Let’s go back to supply side.’ Do you want to do that?” Gore asked a mostly black audience. On cue, the crowd cried out: “No.”

“We came in and fought for a brand new economic policy,” Gore said. “Just giving more to the very top was not enough to help those who were suffering.”

Kemp, speaking before about 650 black activists and student leaders at the New Jersey Black Issues Convention in New Brunswick, preached the benefits of capitalism in urban areas and argued for individual initiative as the prime engine for economic growth.

Kemp argued that black Americans would be better off if their votes were less predictably Democratic.

“My goal for our America in the year 2000,” Kemp said, is “to have our democracy where half of the African American vote is voting Democrat and the other half is voting Republican.

“This country would be better off. Your vote would not be taken for granted and there would be competition for every single vote in America.”

As Kemp and Gore campaigned, their two running mates, President Clinton and Republican nominee Bob Dole, spent the day preparing for Sunday’s scheduled debate.

Each man tried to downplay expectations of how he would do.

Dole has been rehearsing in the ballroom of the Bal Harbour, Fla., condominium complex in which he has his vacation residence, with Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee playing the role of Clinton.

“The president always has somewhat of an upper hand. He is the president. He can do things. He can say things,” Dole said during a break.

As for Clinton, he told reporters that former Senate Democratic leader George J. Mitchell of Maine, who is playing Dole’s role in his rehearsals, had bested him so far.

“I’m badly out of shape on this, but I’m trying to get better,” Clinton said as he emerged from the lakeside hotel in Chautauqua, N.Y., where he is holding his practice sessions.

Asked about how he would respond if the question of pardoning defendants in the Whitewater scandal came up during the debate, Clinton said “I’m going to answer the same thing I have already: There aren’t any under consideration and I haven’t given any thought to giving any.”

But Clinton added that it would be improper to flatly rule out pardons. “Nobody should be singled out for special treatment one way or the other, including discrimination against them or discrimination in favor of them,” he said.

On the campaign trail, meantime, both Kemp and Gore drew some skepticism from their audiences.

Kemp has long campaigned within his party for greater efforts to reach out to minorities, but his words drew only scattered applause from an audience that even the ever-optimistic Kemp knew would not be inclined to support him.

The trip was the equivalent of “going into the lion’s den,” he said, a prediction that seemed to be borne out when the chairman of the group, Newark Councilman Donald K. Tucker, introduced him to the luncheon crowd as “the honorable Bob Kemp.”

After his speech, the response from the audience was mixed, with about 25 people standing and applauding vigorously while others clapped politely.

Some, like Kermit E. Bruner Jr., a 62-year-old administrator at Vineland High School in Vineland, N.J., dismissed Kemp as a political opportunist who “is just saying anything for our votes.”

“I think Jack Kemp is a joke. He is a turncoat. He is saying things he did not believe before he agreed to be Bob Dole’s vice president,” Bruner said. “A person who changes in midstream is not an honorable person.”

Others were willing to give him more support.

“I thought he got across his ideas well,” said Atta Mont Mohammad, a 33-year-old assistant to the mayor of Orange, N.J. “He said things many of us wanted to hear--such as that the black community needed to start doing more things for themselves.”

As for Gore, he toured a mini-mall created on a once-vacant lot and strolled past clothing stores, a 24-hour child-care center and a community bank while touting the administration’s achievements.

“Our urban agenda is not just about new businesses and better houses,” Gore said. “It’s not just about programs and policies. It’s about giving people new opportunities and reviving their long-lost hopes.”

Outside the enterprise center, one longtime resident was a bit more skeptical about the neighborhood’s progress.

“When I moved here in 1944 it was beautiful,” said Lelia S. King, 80, who was bundled up in a bulky coat and knit hat. “I used to get off the streetcar to go home and it was a pleasure to walk down the street. It’s not like that anymore, no matter what politicians say. You’re afraid to go out in the evening.”

Lacey reported from Cleveland and Randolph from New Brunswick.