Trail Mix / Occasional morsels from Campaign 2000

Phone bill

When Bill Bradley talks, people stop to listen. At least they stop.

Bradley was headed to speak with editors at the New York Times on Tuesday afternoon, when he apparently needed to make a call--badly. His nine-car motorcade, Secret Service, campaign staffers, reporters, photographers and assorted others, ground to a halt on 49th Street while Bradley hopped out to make a call at a pay phone booth.

He was described as very animated during the phone call, which observers said lasted about 10 minutes. All the while, traffic backed up behind.

The Bradley staff would not say what all the fuss was about. “He had a personal call to make,” said spokesman Jim Farrell. “It was a call which he wanted to do on a land line.”

Secret’s out

The imposing dudes in the sunglasses and earpieces were primed to protect John McCain, but his campaign told the Secret Service on Monday that the candidate won’t be needing their services, thank you very much.

“We told them we’ll call you when we need you,” campaign manager Rick Davis said. “Our attitude is we’re going to move so fast now . . . that you can’t do that with Secret Service protection.”

Frank O’Donnell, head of the service’s Los Angeles field office, said agents were surprised to hear the news. “We were all geared up for it,” O’Donnell said. “We’d always heard his wife wanted it and the staff wanted it.”

Since Robert F. Kennedy’s assassination the night of the 1968 California primary, the Secret Service has protected presidential candidates at their request. For now, agents are trailing only Al Gore (code name: Shadow)--chiefly because he is the vice president--and Bill Bradley (code name: Panther). On Feb. 29, they plan to pick up Bush, who travels with Texas rangers (the lawmen, not the baseball players).

Announcing the first Trail Mix reader poll: What should McCain’s Secret Service code name be? E-mail suggestions to Massie.Ritsch@latimes.com.

Confetti ready

After noticing how often and well John McCain’s picture played in newspapers and magazines because of his frequent use of confetti, streamers and balloons, the George W. Bush camp has tried with mixed results to do the same thing.

At events over the last week, confetti blowers have dribbled out colored paper after Bush has finished his speech. After one in Charleston, S.C., Bush jumped as explosives detonated overhead to send confetti falling his way.

And on several occasions, netting on the ceiling that was supposed to let balloons cascade down has instead released all at once, dropping a clump of balloons that hid Bush from the television platform.

Gore wants a millionaire

With Michael Jordan now on TV for Bill Bradley’s team, Democratic rival Al Gore wants to trump that with, well, Trump.

The vice president and the Donald--New York developer Donald Trump--talked by phone last weekend, and Gore asked for his endorsement, two officials familiar with the conversation told the Associated Press.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump is considering the request.

Gore’s spokesman Chris Lehane confirmed that the pair talked, and said it was “a good conversation. We are not going to talk about the substance of what they discussed,” he said.

Trump decided recently not to run for president as a third-party candidate.

Gore is said to want Trump’s help in securing support from the Independence Party in New York.

By the numbers

0.42--Percent increase since Jan. 7 of California voters registered as Republicans, according to the secretary of state’s preliminary figure.

1.35--Percent decrease in voters registered as Democrats.

3.83--Increase in voters who decline to state their party preference.

Quote file

“People say they don’t like it, but it works. People don’t like wrestling, but they watch it.”

--Steve Comben, 40, of suburban Detroit, on negative campaigning. He voted for Bush in Tuesday’s Michigan primary.

Compiled by Massie Ritsch from Times staff and wire reports