Bush Brings Presidential Drive to State, Reaches Out to Latinos

Trying to banish the ghosts of failed campaigns, Texas Gov. George W. Bush opened his presidential effort in California on Tuesday with an explicit embrace of Latinos and an implicit criticism of the tactics employed by Republicans here in the past.

He basked before Mexican dancers at the Del Mar fairgrounds and drew cheers of “Viva Bush.” He reiterated--after reporters asked--his previous opposition to Proposition 187, the 1994 initiative that, until the courts intervened, would have cut services to illegal immigrants and forced their children from public schools.

In four public speeches, Bush never mentioned Propositions 187 or 209, the 1996 measure that would have outlawed affirmative action. And he never referred directly to the backlash against Republicans, by Latinos and women, which followed on the initiatives’ heels.

But he nevertheless drew a firm distinction between himself and other Republicans, like former Gov. Pete Wilson, who championed both measures.

“Everyone must have a first-rate education, because there are no second-rate children, no second-rate dreams,” Bush told audiences of campaign donors in La Jolla, Irvine and Los Angeles as he opened a three-day California tour.

Boasting of improved school scores among Latino and African American children in Texas, he added: “I believe in the best for every single child in my state.”

Although those lines are standard fare in Bush’s campaign speech, they took on added significance in California, where he is trying to single-handedly reinterpret Republicanism to a state that in the last decade has brushed aside nearly every top of the ticket GOP nominee for president, governor or senator.

In the impromptu session with reporters in Del Mar, Bush said he opposed “the spirit of 187” because of its impact on children--a hallmark argument of the losing campaign against the initiative.

“I felt like every child ought to be educated, regardless of the status of their parents,” Bush said.

He said he supported “the spirit” of the anti-affirmative action measure, adding that he favored a needs-based program, rather than what he termed quotas and preferences for women and minorities.

Like a suitor in the opening days of a courtship, Bush focused during his first campaign day on the flowers and candy, not on the nitty-gritty. Not that it seemed to matter before the hundreds gathered at each stop to hear him.

At his three fund-raising sessions, he skipped only sketchily through a host of popular GOP issues, such as tax cuts, tort reform and military readiness. He drew more applause when he laid out the parameters of compassionate conservatism, the self-defined turf on which he hopes to win the presidency.

Symbolically, however, Bush cut straight to the heart of the GOP’s troubles in California. His only non-fund-raising event of the day took place at the Del Mar fairgrounds, where his speech was delivered in the Plaza de Mexico, an area replete with Latino souvenirs and snacks.

As the Mexican dancers watched, Bush dropped a few lines of Spanish into an abridged version of his stump speech. Beforehand, he mingled with 4-H participants, posed for scores of photographs and signed autographs that he kidded were “not worth that much.”

The Texas governor was elected with widespread Latino support and his success among Latinos here has helped fuel his standing as the far and away Republican front-runner. In a Times poll released earlier this month, he carried 37% of Latinos in a hypothetical match-up with Democratic front-runner and Vice President Al Gore--a substantial improvement over the 21% showing by Republican presidential nominee Bob Dole in 1996.

Later in the day, Bush invaded another traditionally Democratic stronghold when he met with more than 100 movie industry officials at a Bel-Air reception organized by Warner Bros. Chairman and co-chief executive Terry Semel. Before guests that included actor Warren Beatty and the industry’s chief spokesman, Jack Valenti, Bush indirectly contrasted himself with President Clinton, who recently has taken the movie industry to task for its depictions of violence.

“My job is not to pit one group against another,” Bush told them. “My job is . . . to call on all of us to do our part to help usher in the responsibility era.”

Bush’s appeal to groups that typically have not sided with Republicans is central to his chances in California. On Tuesday, GOP leaders said his popularity--thus far largely untested--will help him over any hurdles formed by his positions on the issues. Unlike most Californians--indeed, most California Republicans--Bush opposes abortion rights and has opposed gun control.

Abortion and gun control were two major weapons used by Gov. Gray Davis last year when he rolled up a 20-point victory over Republican Dan Lungren. Lungren and Bush have similar stands on the issues. Wilson, the only California Republican to succeed in a Senate or gubernatorial race in the 1990s, favored abortion rights and backed measures to limit access to guns.

Bush did not mention either issue Tuesday.

State Sen. Jim Brulte of Rancho Cucamonga, who traveled with Bush on Tuesday, said the governor has to impress voters with his Texas record.

“The fact of the matter is, Californians view candidates on the totality of their views,” Brulte said.

Bush wasted no time in laying claim to California. At every stop, he announced his intentions as he opened his speech.

“I intend to be here a lot,” Bush said in Orange County. “I intend to not only win the primary in California; I intend to compete and win the general election in this state.”

Bush never mentioned his Republican rivals Tuesday, nor did he take on Gore, apart from a gibe about the vice president’s malaprop earlier this year when he said that he invented the Internet. But the governor’s biggest applause line came at the expense of President Clinton, with whom Gore is inextricably entwined.

“When I put my hand on the Bible, I will swear not only to uphold the laws of the land, I will swear to uphold the dignity and the honor of the office to which I have been elected,” Bush said in a clear reference to the impeachment imbroglio.

Bush will campaign in Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Francisco today and in the Silicon Valley and Fresno on Thursday, before returning to Texas.