Bush Has Right Message in Silicon Valley

There were blue “W”2K buttons on the tables, polished cowboy boots on a smattering of feet and a whole lot of new money flowing from the technology-based New Economy into the bulging war chest of Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

Here in the cyber economy’s birthplace, once the province of Bill Clinton and Al Gore but now largely up for grabs, they want their political process to move as fast as their computers. And they just can’t understand why there are so many bills pending, pending, pending.

“We’re very busy,” said venture capitalist E. Floyd Kvamme, who brought about 500 Silicon Valley entrepreneurs to a crowded ballroom Thursday morning to hear Bush. “There are 67 bills before the House and Senate regulating the Internet. . . . Having to negotiate bill by bill by bill, why does it have to have so much discussion? Can’t we just do what we agree on and move forward?”

On this morning, Bush did not disappoint them. Tort reform to unshackle innovation? Sure. Free trade? Bring it on. Legislation to decrease the liability of the computer industry in the face of Year 2000 lawsuits? Heck, he’s already signed one like that back home.

“In Texas, we were one of the first states to protect the technology industry from Y2K litigation, the biggest potential ambulance chase in the millennium,” Bush told the receptive crowd after noting that this was not his first trip to the Silicon Valley but it was his first “as the president of the United States--well, soon-to-be president of the United States.”

Individuals in Silicon Valley poured $850,000 into Bush’s coffers out of $1.7 million raised between a Wednesday night dinner in San Francisco and the Thursday quiche-and-computer extravaganza. All told, the three-day California trip that ended Thursday afternoon in Fresno brought the campaign “$5 million and counting,” according to Bush’s staff.

“Silicon Valley has long been regarded as Democratic country,” says Holly Bailey, a spokeswoman for the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan campaign finance organization. “But we’ve been seeing Republicans really target high-tech in recent months, saying, ‘We’re the party that doesn’t want to regulate you.’ ”

To date, high-tech has donated nowhere near the amounts of such industries as banking and insurance, “but everyone wants to target Silicon Valley,” she says, “because it’s the industry of the future.”

What is happening is “the end of the first big phase of the battle for Silicon Valley,” said Wade Randlett, Democratic political director for the bipartisan organization TechNet. “This is the first time it’s all-out war. It’s a pretty good indication of what’s to come.”

The so-called Gore-Techs are not necessarily switching sides, say political and industry analysts, but new players are stepping up to the political plate. Of the host committee for the Thursday breakfast, 40% had never been involved in the political process before signing on to the Bush camp.

“Is this new political money? Very much so,” Kvamme said. “I’ve never done this. . . . The Valley is about 15% Democratic and 10% Republican and 75% wishing government would go away.”

Which might explain Bush’s allure.

“He’s very much focused on innovation,” said Bob Herbold, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Microsoft Corp., as Bush worked the crowd, “consequently, when you look at issues like the Internet, you should be very apprehensive about doing things to constrain it when in fact it’s powering an economy.”

President Clinton and Vice President Gore get high marks for their early notice of Silicon Valley--the home of amazing technological advances and even more amazing disposable income--lavishing the once politically naive region with large doses of time and attention.

That concerted wooing, argue Republican operatives, allowed the Democrats to paper over serious policy differences on issues from liability in Y2K lawsuits to visas for skilled technology workers from other countries. Bush said Thursday he supports making more such visas available.

“It’s only been relatively recently that Silicon Valley has realized that they don’t have to choose between personal access and policy agreement,” says Dan Schnur, a Republican consultant who has just signed on with the campaign of Sen. John McCain of Arizona. “What you’ve got now is a situation where Gore isn’t the only person spending a lot of time out here.”

In fact, virtually everyone who’s anyone in the 2000 presidential campaign has visited the birthplace of high-tech at least once in recent months. McCain, Gore, former Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey and Elizabeth Hanford Dole, the former president of the American Red Cross, have visited. So has conservative commentator Patrick J. Buchanan.

“Part of [Bush’s] appeal is that he’s inclusive, and a lot of the other Republican candidates are pushing divisive issues,” said Lezlee Westine, Republican political director for Palo Alto-based TechNet.

In fact, at breakfast Thursday, members of the audience went out of their way to stress to reporters that they’re young, they’re hip, they have little time for petty partisanship.

Bush’s message on unity and inclusion, his professed willingness to educate everyone’s kids and reach out to the poor are important to this largely male, largely white, entirely rich group.

“It’s not Republicans versus Democrats,” John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, said Thursday. “The Valley has respect for people who can make things happen.”

“We need someone who has consistent respect for human beings, the least, the poor,” said Gregory W. Slayton, president and chief executive of My Software Corp., who couldn’t decide Thursday which to tout first: his stock, his candidate or the tech pals he’d gotten together to form Silicon Valley Bush 2000.

“We’ve got 150 executives, men and women in their 20s and 30s,” Slayton enthused. “Half have never been involved in politics, about 25% are Democrats. Al Gore is probably an honorable man, but he’s been tainted by the Clinton garbage.”

And how does the candidate feel about them? The Silicon Valley, gushed Bush, is more than just a place; “it speaks to the spirit of America. It not only talks about new technology; it speaks about daring and enterprise and the American dream.”

And Slayton? Well, “he represents the young entrepreneur who’s realizing the American dream,” Bush told the crowd. “Thank you, buddy.”