Democratic Influence in Primary Worries Bush

Gov. George W. Bush expressed concern Sunday that Democrats are mobilizing to support Sen. John McCain in South Carolina’s open Republican presidential primary this week.

But McCain said Bush’s allegation that some Democrats believe McCain would be the easier candidate to defeat in the general election in November “flies in the face of the facts.”

“The facts are that independents are also flocking in large numbers to my candidacy as well as Republicans,” McCain said on CBS-TV’s “Face the Nation.” “Everybody knows that if you’re going to win a general election, you have to have those independents and some Democrats.”

Still, Bush and his surrogates claimed--without offering proof--that Democrats were trying to skew the results of Saturday’s GOP primary, in which non-Republicans will be allowed to vote.

“The only thing I’m concerned about is that Democrats flock into the Republican primary to decide who the Republican nominee is, and then head back for the Democrats in the general election,” Bush said on NBC-TV’s “Meet the Press.”

The Republican skirmish in separate television talk shows Sunday morning launched a week that could prove decisive in the GOP contest. Both candidates intensified their efforts to win Saturday’s South Carolina primary even as a new Los Angeles Times Poll--and another from Newsweek on Saturday--suggest the contest is up for grabs.

In Michigan, where the Republicans will compete just three days later, a poll released Sunday by the Detroit News found McCain has pulled ahead of Bush, 43% to 34%, with 18% still undecided.

With the stakes so high, the Republican candidates kept up an acrimonious tone Sunday even as both candidates had a light day on the campaign trail.

McCain attended morning services at a Baptist church in Greenville--in the heavily religious northwest corner of South Carolina--and stopped by an unseasonably chilly outdoor barbecue in the piney woods outside Seneca. He later traveled to Atlanta, where hundreds of people showed up for a shopping mall book signing.

Along the way, McCain continued to deny Bush accusations that his campaign is conducting “push polls,” a telephone survey in which a campaign plants criticisms of its opponent. “Everybody knows we’ve never done that,” McCain said. “So let’s not indulge in that kind of fantasy.”

McCain also responded to another recent flap involving a scene caught on camera Saturday when Bush campaigned in Columbia. The Texas governor was shaking hands following a speech when a local GOP supporter complained that McCain was getting off easy. “You all haven’t even hit his soft spots,” the man said.

Bush responded: “I know. We’re going to. . . . I’m not going to do it on TV.”

McCain, who recently pulled his attack commercials off television in South Carolina, seized on the incident as evidence of the true nature of the Bush campaign.

“If someone walked up to me and said that he wanted to do that to the governor, I would say, ‘Look, pal, we’re running a positive campaign, we’re not interested in exposing anybody’s soft spots,’ ” McCain told reporters.

Bush’s concern about non-Republicans voting Saturday has been expressed about other states with open primaries. Voting is open to non-Republicans in several upcoming GOP contests, including South Carolina, Michigan, Virginia, North Dakota, Missouri and Georgia.

McCain defeated Bush by 18 percentage points in the New Hampshire primary by securing a majority of GOP voters and a virtual sweep of the state’s large independent bloc.

“We are very concerned about any attempts by liberal Democrats to come into our party for the purpose of creating mischief, as opposed to an enduring philosophy,” said Bush campaign spokesman Ari Fleischer. “We welcome all voters who will enter the Republican primary who intend to vote Republican now and in November.”

The contest between Democrats Al Gore and Bill Bradley is a bit lighter than the Republican campaign since the next Democratic voting is not until March 7 and Gore holds a commanding lead in national and most state polls.

Bradley was in California on Sunday but had no campaign events scheduled. Sunday evening he appeared at the National Basketball Assn. All-Star game in Oakland, where he was photographed with Michael Jordan, the former basketball star who is appearing in a Bradley television commercial now being broadcast in the state.

Gore was in New York City on Sunday working on what his aides called “solidifying the firewall,” referring to support from minority voters who have been a focus for Bradley.

“We are going to make the final part of the journey for justice together,” Gore said at Allen African Methodist Episcopal Church in Queens.

Gore also met privately for nearly an hour Sunday with the Rev. Al Sharpton, an African American activist who has been involved in racially polarizing incidents in the last decade. Gore spokesman Chris Lehane said the two men talked about economic opportunities for minority communities and a debate with Bradley at the Apollo Theater in Harlem on Feb. 21.

Gore staffers initially denied that the vice president was meeting with Bradley and later said they had been kept in the dark. “It was a private meeting,” Lehane said. “It wasn’t clear whether it was going to be scheduled.”

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Times staff writer Matea Gold and Associated Press contributed to this report.