Gore’s VIP Backers Make Final Push for Iowa Votes

No introduction was needed, not among this partisan crowd of Democrats on Saturday.

And so, the man with the red, round face topped by unruly silver hair stepped to the microphone and in that penetrating, unmistakable Boston accent, roared:

“My name is Ted Kennedy. I’m a U.S. senator and I’m here in Waterloo because I want Al Gore to be the next president of the United States,” he called out, over welling applause and cheers.

No one conveys a stamp of approval among the Democratic faithful the way a Kennedy does--not a bad thing for a candidate trying to motivate voters to attend the kickoff Iowa presidential caucuses on Monday night. So Kennedy was sent by the Gore campaign to eastern Iowa, one of the state’s Democratic strongholds.

Kennedy was but the latest of the big guns Gore has brought into Iowa and New Hampshire lately as the institutional support he has acquired during a quarter-century of work in the Democratic Party begins to flex its muscle. In recent days, Gore has drawn from a broad spectrum of prominent Democratic leaders to press his case against rival Bill Bradley.

For those who turn to Iowa’s senior senator for advice, there was Tom Harkin, featured in a prominent television commercial and appearing recently at Gore’s side. If Kennedy wasn’t sufficient for the liberals, House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt, a Democrat from nearby Missouri who won the Iowa presidential caucus himself in 1988, was also here campaigning for Gore.

Environmentalists? Actor Ed Begley Jr. drove in from California in a natural gas-powered Chevy and appeared with Gore on Thursday and Friday.

Minority voters? Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater and Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman, who are black, spoke to African American audiences in Iowa recently. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, a Latino, also worked the crowds for Gore last week.

Bradley, trailing in the Iowa polls by more than 20 percentage points, revealed a bit of frustration recently about Gore’s access to such a star-studded lineup.

“We have to realize we’re up against entrenched power,” he said. “When somebody has the support of the president of the United States . . . , has most of the Democratic National Committee officialdom, has most of the Democratic Party fund-raisers, has the backing of the leadership of organized labor and rides on Air Force Two--that is entrenched power.”

Gore responded by scolding Bradley, telling him that Iowa voters listen to personal appeals, not entrenched power. “When people come out and look you in the eye and ask you what they want to ask you, you’ve got to campaign hard to earn their support and take positions on the issues they either agree with or they don’t,” Gore said in an interview with WOI radio.

To a large degree, Gore campaign aides believe that the unique nature of the Iowa caucuses demands aggressive use of surrogates and nearly one-on-one campaigning.

“Iowa is a state where it’s important that your organization touch individual voters,” said Chris Lehane, Gore’s spokesman. “This is a retail state; people want to have contact with the campaign.”

Kennedy, in addition to his name, brings to Iowa a history of success by his brothers John and Robert in their campaigns for the Democratic presidential nominations.

Hammering home the central message of the weekend, Kennedy reminded the crowd, in a voice that barely sank below the roar with which he opened: “January 24th is the date. Iowa is the state. AAAAl Goooore is the candidaaaate!”