Bush Seeking Out Non-GOP Voters

Chugging out of the Republican convention with a unified party behind him, presidential candidate George W. Bush reached out Saturday to disaffected Democrats and independent voters in a whistle-stop tour across this key Midwestern state.

“This is a campaign that welcomes Democrats,” he told a cheering crowd at the Michigan Railway Museum here, a town of 4,200 outside Flint. “Our message isn’t just a Republican message. Our message speaks to working people from all walks of life.”

It’s a message he also will take to moderates and independents this week in California. But on Saturday, he combined an appeal to Democrats and independents with a slap at President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore.

Seizing on Clinton’s veto Saturday of legislation to repeal the so-called marriage penalty tax, Bush attacked Gore, his rival for the presidency, as ineffectual and anti-family.

“This morning, Al Gore had a chance to stand up and represent the families and tell Mr. President, ‘Don’t veto the bill.’ Yet he was silent,” Bush said. “Given the choice between families and bigger government, Al Gore chose bigger government. It’s time for a change.”

For his part, Gore defended the president’s action Saturday but also said he would be willing to consider a different proposal to eliminate the marriage tax.

“I do support the veto. I also support the right kind of repeal of the marriage tax,” Gore told reporters after arriving on Long Island, N.Y. He would favor a repeal, he said, but only if it helps working-class families instead of just offering “tax relief to people who are in the upper brackets.”

Bush’s itinerary Saturday, part of a three-day train trip across battleground states from Pennsylvania to Illinois, focused on areas that swing between Democrats and the GOP, a contrast to the mostly Republican areas he visited en route to the convention.

Republican strategists are confident that Bush consolidated the party’s core support at the convention in Philadelphia, freeing the Texas governor to reach out beyond his conservative base. He lost Michigan to Sen. John McCain of Arizona in the primaries, and the state is one of a handful in the Midwest that are expected to decide the race in November.

Michigan, which has 18 electoral votes, supported Clinton twice but is considered a tossup between Bush and Gore.

Bush faces a much steeper challenge in California. He plans to take his Victory 2000 Express this week along the Central Coast and up into Silicon Valley, places where voters tend to support candidates who are fiscally conservative but moderate on social issues such as abortion and gay rights--both of which the GOP platform strongly condemns.

Karl Rove, chief campaign strategist for Bush, suggested the Texas governor’s travels were an extension of the outreach effort embodied by the multihued, multicultural extravaganza the party put on in Philadelphia.

“We wanted, particularly right after the Republican convention, to be going out to areas where we have a chance to add to our strength,” Rove said. “People are paying attention, and Gore’s weaknesses are in those areas.”

As if to underscore that effort, Bush and running mate Dick Cheney were introduced at Saturday’s rally outside Flint by a member of the United Auto Workers and a teacher who belongs to the Michigan Education Assn.

Gary Higgins, the UAW member who introduced Cheney, said he comes from “a proud Democrat family,” and his father, head of the union local, even introduced Democrat John F. Kennedy at a rally 40 years ago. “To take a quote from a very great United States president, Ronald Reagan, I did not leave the Democratic Party. It left me,” Higgins said.

Bush then urged other union members to follow Higgins. “All the union members out there, come on to this campaign,” Bush said.

Borrowing some of Gore’s populist rhetoric, the GOP nominee cast the debate about how to use the nation’s budget surplus as a choice between Washington’s insatiable appetite for spending and the needs of working people.

“We’ve got plenty of money to meet our priorities. And the fundamental question is: What do you do with the leftover money?” Bush said. “Our campaign says listen to those workers who are UAW workers. Listen to the teachers. Listen to the Americans who are working their hearts out to feed their families. There’s a clear difference. We believe that people ought to be trusted with their own money.”