Bradley Calls Gore’s Stances on Tobacco Inconsistent

Bill Bradley and Al Gore reached back across decades Tuesday to pick apart each others’ records, with Bradley charging Gore with inconsistent stances against the tobacco industry and Gore painting Bradley’s attack as the mark of a politician in desperate straits.

On a day of lowering clouds, dropping temperatures--and Iowa polls seemingly frozen at an approximate 20-point Gore lead--the two presidential candidates sniped at each other across the corn-stubble Iowa landscape.

During an appearance at a Des Moines elementary school, Bradley raised questions about Gore’s commitment to fighting smoking over the years, citing conflicting statements Gore made to voters about tobacco subsidies in 1988.

Bradley reiterated his call to increase by $1 billion a year the budget of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which would use the funds for public health outreach, including smoking prevention programs. Bradley also endorses creating a health research institute that, among other things, would study youth smoking.

In addition, Bradley criticized Gore for voting against a 1985 Bradley amendment in the U.S. Senate that would have kept the tobacco tax at a higher rate to help lower Medicare premiums. He also cited a 1988 letter to the editor Gore wrote to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette saying he did not support banning tobacco advertising.

“I’ve been consistent over time with regards to tobacco and I think this illustrates he hasn’t,” Bradley said during a midafternoon news conference at Wallace Elementary School. “It has to do with how you conduct a campaign and whether you are leveling with people. . . . My point was to emphasize my commitment to fight against big tobacco, to emphasize my record.”

Gore, whose sister died of lung cancer and who has been harshly critical of the tobacco industry, shot back quickly, calling Bradley’s statements “desperate, negative campaigning.”

“I’ve led the fight against smoking and against the efforts by the companies to lure children into smoking,” Gore said during a conference call with Iowa reporters. “I don’t know anybody in the anti-smoking groups or community that would back him up in questioning my commitment to that.”

Bradley acknowledged Gore’s current opposition to the tobacco industry but said he has been a stronger leader on fighting smoking.

“I think he’s in the right place now, and I think that’s important,” he said. “But I also think we can always do more. This is a matter of measuring intensity. There is no question for me that I see this as a primary health issue in this country.”

In response, the Gore campaign searched the former New Jersey senator’s record and said he had voted “various times” against higher cigarette taxes, citing a 1982 vote on excise taxes and a Bradley-sponsored bill that eliminated a plan to double a cigarette tax. The campaign also said that Gore actually did oppose taxpayer subsidies for tobacco.

With all the back-and-forth, the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination was edging ever closer to a schoolyard spat of “did so, did not,” the level of criticism intensifying as the Jan. 24 caucuses here approach.

Bradley’s reach back in time Tuesday to spotlight Gore’s record stood out in sharp contrast to his defensive response in a Des Moines debate Jan. 8 when Gore questioned a 1993 vote Bradley made against flood relief for Iowa farmers.

At the time, Bradley refused to answer the question, saying it was in the past, and that his campaign was about the future.

On Tuesday, when pressed by reporters, Bradley said he was not being inconsistent by bringing up Gore’s record.

“In terms of the past, well, the past leads to the future,” he said. “And if there’s been an evolution, well it’s good to hear what that evolution has been from someone who was with big tobacco and is not now. Part of a campaign is being able to express that.”

During his campaign appearances in Davenport and Muscatine on Tuesday, Gore maintained a steady focus on Bradley’s health care proposals, challenging him for failing to support rural health care while in the U.S. Senate and for advancing, as a candidate, Medicare programs that the vice president said were insufficient to protect the program’s trust fund.

Gore also said that, if he wins the Democratic presidential nomination, he would seek twice-weekly debates with his Republican opponent.