Bradley Says He’s ‘Real Democrat’

Racing against time as he tries to jump-start his flagging presidential bid, Bill Bradley has launched a new offensive against Al Gore, portraying the vice president as a flawed candidate who betrays the values of the Democratic Party.

Questioning Gore’s credentials on campaign finance reform, abortion rights and gun control, Bradley is painting himself as the “real Democrat,” better equipped to defeat a Republican in the fall, especially if that Republican is John McCain.

“I think I have a better chance of getting elected,” said Bradley during a recent appearance at El Sereno Middle School in Los Angeles. “There’s an incredible vulnerability there, whether it’s guns or the fund-raising scandals of 1996. The Republicans will clear our house if we don’t clear our own.”

But after losing both leadoff contests to Gore, it has become harder for Bradley to make that argument. Moreover, he can expect little support from Democratic constituencies eager to see a swift conclusion to the contest at a time when the GOP race has taken an unexpectedly competitive and nasty turn.

“I think real Democrats are proud of all the accomplishments Democrats have made during the last seven years and don’t run for president by knocking the party and minimizing our accomplishments,” said Doug Hattaway, a Gore spokesman, striking that party-loyalty chord.

Bradley’s strategy is a significant shift from earlier in the campaign, when the former senator of New Jersey positioned himself as a party outsider. Gore won over many key constituencies--such as labor, minorities and women--while Bradley went after independent voters. Now that Gore has won the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, Bradley is trying to chip away at Gore’s Democratic base.

Many question whether Bradley’s latest strategy will succeed.

“If anything, Bradley’s earlier point that [Gore] is too much of a politician has a better chance than saying he’s not enough of a Democrat,” said Susan Estrich, a USC law school professor who ran Michael S. Dukakis’ 1988 presidential campaign. “What else has [Gore] been doing for the last seven years but eating rubber chicken on the Democratic circuit? Bradley’s not going to win that fight.”

After months of ignoring Gore’s attacks on his health care plan and other proposals, Bradley started fighting back right before the New Hampshire primary, questioning the vice president’s veracity and character.

Now he is trying to drive home the message that Gore is a politician of convenience, someone who does not inherently embrace the values of the Democratic Party. At nearly every campaign stop, Bradley raises issues such as Gore’s votes against abortion funding or gun control while he was in Congress. He is even attacking Gore’s credentials as an environmentalist, saying the vice president has done little to use his office to enact real change.

Bradley’s campaign is counting on this new offensive to lift sagging poll numbers. Currently, Bradley is behind in every state scheduled to vote from March 7 to 14. However, the candidate’s performance has been uneven.

On some days Bradley seems to be pumping himself up for a big fight, telling hundreds of screaming Yale students packed in a New Haven, Conn., nightclub Thursday: “We will be able to win in three weeks and we can surprise a lot of people!”

On other days, when the crowds are smaller and less enthusiastic, Bradley appears weary, unable to rally his listeners. At a Buffalo, N.Y., community college earlier this week, he dutifully detailed his education and health care plans for several hundred people gathered in a school.

The tactical shift comes as Sen. McCain has gained momentum after his massive win in New Hampshire over George W. Bush. And while Bradley admits the Arizona Republican’s surge has diverted attention from his campaign, the Democrat is also trying to make McCain’s success an issue.

“I think in a very real sense that if people don’t pause and take a look at this [race] more closely, then the party could be at risk,” Bradley said this week as his motorcade wound through Connecticut.

Last week, at the California Democratic Party convention, Bradley said Democrats face “a special vulnerability” in Gore’s campaign finance excesses if the vice president is the nominee. In 1996, Gore appeared at a fund-raiser at a Buddhist temple outside Los Angeles, claiming later he didn’t realize the nature of the event.

“We’re supposed to be the party of reform, the party that helps the little guy,” he told the 3,000 delegates and California party leaders. “So when people get in bed with the special interests, we have a crisis of identity.”

During the last two weeks, Bradley has relentlessly hammered away at Gore’s Democratic credentials, trying to rip the party’s mantle from the vice president’s shoulders. Bradley insists he best embodies the values of the party.

But as Jim Margolis, a neutral Democratic consultant, sees it: “The problem is, Gore has done such a good job with the key Democratic constituencies. It’s a very difficult maneuver to go back and say, ‘I’m the real guy here.’ ”

But Bradley’s aides say that this theme will dominate before the blitz of March primaries.

“He has a consistent and strong voting record on core Democratic principles that Al Gore doesn’t have,” said Anita Dunn, Bradley’s communications director.