Gore, First Lady Campaign Together in New York

Al Gore and Hillary Rodham Clinton walked into the sanctuary of an Albany church Sunday and onto the stage of a new political adventure together.

Their appearance at the altar of the Wilborn Temple First Church of God in Christ was their first together as candidates--he for the Democratic presidential nomination, she for the U.S. Senate from New York.

“It is critically important we have a friend in the White House in 2001,” Mrs. Clinton said. “No one in America is more qualified to lead us than our vice president.”

They greeted each other with a hug on the sidewalk. In church, they whispered, smiled and bobbed to the right and left to the insistent beat of the gospel choir.

“She stands for the best values of New York state,” Gore said. “Her voice will be heard. Her vision will make a difference. And I know that she will stand up for all of you,” he said.

That such a union would take place was not in doubt--only the timing and place were in question. Each partner has something to offer the other.

Gore’s team hopes Mrs. Clinton will attract the most dedicated supporters of her husband, the president, in the New York primary March 7. That should help the vice president compete against rival Democrat Bill Bradley, the former New York Knicks basketball star.

In the general election, Gore aides say the vice president--if he is the party’s nominee--could play a role similar to that of President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964 when Johnson helped Robert F. Kennedy win a tight Senate contest in New York against the incumbent, Kenneth Keating.

“In terms of raw politics,” said one Gore advisor, “she helps us in the primary, we help her in the general” election.

Sunday was fraught with symbolism. Each candidate had to move out of Washington to escape the shadow of Bill Clinton’s presidency and try to establish an independent political standing even as they seek to take advantage of the president’s accomplishments. Gore moved his campaign headquarters to Nashville to shed its Washington cast; Hillary Clinton moved her residence to Chappaqua, N.Y.

Even the location was symbolic--in this case, of two important Democratic constituencies in New York. The Wilborn Temple, home to an African American congregation, was once a Jewish synagogue, and the Stars of David remain above the altar.

Stepping onto the podium, the first lady and then the vice president each sang praises of the other and saluted the achievements of an administration whose president, at home in Washington, they mentioned not once by name.

“I believe we can extend this economic prosperity to every corner of New York, from Buffalo to Brooklyn, from Jamestown to Great Neck, and everywhere in between,” she said.

The progress is everywhere, she suggested, save for New York City, where her only likely opponent, Rudolph W. Giuliani, is mayor. Mrs. Clinton said New York’s poverty rate is the second highest in the country and the gap between rich and poor the widest.

The vice president delivered the speech of a preacher, weaving biblical references--and the rhetoric of the civil rights movement--into his address. “We must continue the struggle,” he declared.

Gore and Bradley meet in New York tonight for a televised debate.

The former New Jersey senator, appearing Sunday on ABC-TV’s “This Week,” used his most vivid language to date to chastise Gore for the fund-raising excesses in 1996.

“It’s interesting to note that Al Gore has said in New Hampshire there were no legal violations in the 1996 fund-raising scandals,” he said. “If that’s so,” Bradley asked, “where are the hundreds of thousands of dollars” that the Democratic National Committee returned to contributors?

“What about the 12 people that were convicted? The 17 people that essentially took the 5th Amendment. And the 16 or 17 who actually fled the country? To me, that indicates a problem,” he said.

Bradley said he was confident his campaign was on an upswing. He said he would invest in the Feb. 29 primary in Washington state, which he hopes will give him a boost before the March 7 contests in California, New York, and more than a dozen other states.

Bradley taped the interview at a hotel in St. Louis, where his campaign was grounded Saturday night after a warning light on his chartered DC-9 indicated a landing gear problem. He skipped a visit to an African American church in Baltimore and flew on another plane to New York.

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Times staff writer Matea Gold contributed to this story.